deviance + media Flashcards
what is the media?
any form of communication that target a mass audience in print of electronic format
how has the reach of the media / internet changed from 2000 to 2019?
dramatic increase
internet: 52 - 98%
what happened to the other forms of media?
decrease!
TV: 98 - 93%
radio: 95 - 88%
magazine: 75- <50%
newspaper: 80 - <50%
what did charles wright think the function of the media in society is?
structural functionalist
the media keeps us in order:
- CBC connects all of us to maintain social cohesion
- brings in people and provinces from all over
- brings us all together so we know what happens all over canada
charles wright stated media contributes to social order by 4 functions, what are they?
- surveillance of environment: ways that information is collected and disseminated in society
ex. journalists and editors pick out relevant information and deliver it to us - correlation of society: ways that information about our world is interpreted and prescriptions for behavior in response to events
ex. fort mac fire; relied very heavily on the radio to find out what highways to take, where to go - transmission of social heritage: communication of information, norms, values from generation to generation
- entertainment: communication intended to amuse / relax
we believed that media is responsible for discrepancy between?
dropping rates of crime and the perception that youth crime is out of control
many canadians report being fearful of taking LRT past 9pm, but it doesn’t match up with our reality, what is our reality?
canadians feels canada is unsafe, but in reality we are very safe
crime rate is very low
what are the differences between street crime and corporate crime?
street crime -> seen / not reported a lot
ex. people breaking into homes to go steal, people using drugs
VS.
corporate crime -> not seen / reported a lot
ex. big pharmaceutical companies lied about addictiveness of many drugs (oxycontin helped with pain, but did not tell doctors that it was addictive, but none of these companies were sued / are in jail)
what is the difference between property crime and violent crime?
violent crime -> seen / reported a lot
ex. we watch movies and tv shows about violent crimes, we like to read books about true crime related events. by putting violent crime in newspapers, we are interested, we buy, gets other companies interested in putting their stuff in the newspaper, make profit
VS
property crime -> not reported a lot
ex. stealing from homes, vandalism of properties
what’s the difference between crime committed by stranger and crime committed by people you know?
violent crime committed by strangers -> less often
ex. person at the LRT station is pushed onto the tracks by a stranger
VS
crimes committed by those known to victim -> more often
ex. sexual assault from a family member
what four things can we say are partly owing to the impact of crime?
- dramatization of crime
- language: psycho, drug addicts, murderer
- focus on atypical cases
- brief and horrific headlines: ontario teen convicted of animal cruelty after barbecuing dog - incompleteness of reporting (does not provide us with the whole picture)
- media often fails to highlight that indigenous and racialized canadians are at a much higher risk
- public is made unaware of how courts work, and reasons for sentences (may become less sympathetic to offender, believe system unjust, sentencing is too lenient) - the echo-chamber effect (social media)
- if we consume a lot of social media, they repeat the same story over and over again with the same view
- if every time we look at social media, they continue talking about it, it makes it seem bigger then it is - canadians preference for drama
- buy crime books, consume crime movies
what has the media done to violence?
desensitize it!
studies that look into the impact of violent video games on people found?
people who play violent video games for a long period of time over years is more likely to be desensitized to violence
what is the physiological sensations of crime desensitization?
lower heart rates and blood pressure when watching a violent film
what did monynihan find out about “the normalization of deviance”
- an american politician
- why is there so much violence in the inner cities?
- violence that occurs in inner city is increasing because in the inner city, violence has become normalized / expected (still not a social norm!)
what was monynihan’s solution to the normalization of deviance / broken windows theory
- make sure all areas are populated, well lit, etc to ensure that crime is minimized
- if it looks like nobody is watching, deviance is ‘encouraged’
- do not expect people in that area to have security cameras
- no people living there
what is an edmonton example of the normalization of deviance?
“edmonton’s first murder of the year”
- example of normalized deviance
- “first” implies that there are going to be more
the media creates moral panic, what is that?
an exaggerated and sensationalized concern over a particular phenomenon
what were the salem witch trials (salem massachusetts’s)
- came to create a community of puritans (exclude others)
- accusations that there were some women who were witches practicing witchcraft
- many of these women were imprisoned, tortured, given the death trial by the community
- similar behavior to epilepsy
what are some characterizations of moral panic? (examples in relation to witch trials)
- heighten concern: possible epilepsy
- hostility towards the offending group: distrust of women in general
- certain level of consensus that there is a real threat: consensus women were bad
- disproportionality: women and their potential to become vessels of the devil; low level anxiety rising as more women become witches
- volatility: instability; witchcraft and devilish behavior could destabilize the entire community
who in the community controls the media?
leaders!
who created about folk devil and moral panic?
folk devil (scape goateed): those who possess characteristics that make them a suitable screen upon which society can project sentiments of guilt and ambivalence
- few men in the community who wanted to be in power
- anxiety in the community
- women became scape goats; had anxiety over if god was real, etc
what was watney in 1987 claim was a “folk devil”
- gay / homosexual men became the scape goats for the moral panic of both HIV and AIDS
- made to think they must be a ‘bad person’ if they were homosexual
- ambiguity: i am a good person, but according to societies standards, i am bad
- gay men had the ‘badness’ projected onto them
what was cohen’s mods and rockers?
- was in britian / england looking at mods and rockers
- mods: moderate, mopeds, casual (preppy) attire,
- rockers: think rock and roll; tough, loud, biker
- both mods and rockers come from working class
- huge moral panic around these two groups of young men
- the media was entirely responsible for the moral panic developed around the mods and rockers
- despite these two groups were different, they were not violent
- cohen did his study on easter weekend, and believed that since these groups were bored, there might have been some vandalism, push and shove among the groups, but no major violence
- media showed up on easter weekend and started to take pictures that framed them / suggested that these groups were ‘out of control’
- suggested that the media created these people as threats when they were not
