Crime and the Media

Question 1

Williams and Dickinson

Answer 1

30% of newspaper space is devoted to crime

Question 2

The Media overrepresents violent and sexual crime

Answer 2

Marsh - violent crime is 36 times more likely to be reported than violent crime

Question 3

The Media portrays victims as older and more middle class

Answer 3

Felson - ‘age fallacy’

Question 4

the media overplay extraordinary crimes

Answer 4

this is called ‘dramatic fallacy’, distorts image of crime (Felson).

Question 5

Schlesinger and Tumber

Answer 5

medias representation of crime changes over time. 60s - murder this becomes normalised to the media moves onto a new thing 90s drugs.

Question 6

Soothill and Walby

Answer 6

sex crimes are distorted, examining the ones that have a psychopathic stranger which is the minority

Question 7

Cohen and Young

Answer 7

news is a social construction that is ‘manufactured’

Question 8

Mandel

Answer 8

20% of films are crime based

Question 9

Surrette

Answer 9

‘the law of opposites’ - sex crime overrepresented, homicides are a product of calculation and intelligence, fictional cops are always successful

Question 10

media news values

Answer 10

1. immediacy
2. dramatisation
3. personalisation

Question 11

Gerbner

Answer 11

people who watch more TV, are more scared of crime

Question 12

Lea and Young

Answer 12

media increases relative dep which is a cause of crime

Question 13

Hayward and Young

Answer 13

crime is now the commodity that people want

Question 14

Fenwick and Hayward

Answer 14

crime is sold as being cool and exctiting