Media and Crime Flashcards
How can the media view the police?
The police can be dramatized, portrayed as angel guardians or presented as wrong doers through the media. When the police are highly dramatized, the media provides stereotypical tropes about what they do, especially in dramas. The police use promotional media e.g. social media profiles to attempt to increase community engagement and present the image that they are no different to anyone else in the public. They aim to create an image that presents them in a positive light.
No matter whether or not you like the police, it is impossible to believe in a world without the police but there are different narratives of how they are portrayed.
The media and the police can have a positive and collaborative relationship or there can be an antagonistic relationship between the two where the media is responsible for the negative views on the police (campaigns e.g. the guardian, citizen journalism e.g. George Floyd, to spread problematic issues surrounding the police).
There is not a singular relationship between the media e.g. dramatization, promotional approaches, citizen journalism/activist approaches.
The way the media deals and views crime, is influenced by wider societal context. We have moved away from the ideal police representation due to societal changes and the media. We are no longer in society where there is high public support for the police. E.g. post war Britain had higher confidence levels and the media informs this.
Manning 1978 - Police have an impossible task to keep society safe and they are also under huge suspicion from certain groups but then, there is the other side who have huge support from them. The police have to change how they are viewed for different groups. Traditional representations of police has evolved and changed over time which is reflected in media.
What is the relationship between moral panics and the media?
How is the media ‘created’?
News is manufactured, it is a social construction.
The media isn’t something objective and universal, it is created with a particular agenda in mind. For example, those who produce the media have motivations for presenting it in a certain way. Those who receive the media, translate it and apply it to their own position in society which can result in different opinions regarding what is being told.
The relationship between crime and media is not a mirror because the media portray a ‘different world’ to reality.
When analysing different types of media, consider whose voice is being spoken, whose reputation is portrayed, power relations influencing it, what impacts does this portrayal have?
What is seen as ‘newsworthy’ crime?
Sensational, violent, high risk things are newsworthy. Novelty value and seriousness of crime. Shocking things. Is the accused someone who doesn’t fit the normal demographic? Is it an institutional issue that has had a great impact? What is newsworthy depends on the agenda e.g. competition and social change.
How is information portrayed differently across different types of media?
Today, there is a need to consider the various media impacts and how information is portrayed differently in different sources. Who controls what is uploaded and released? Who are the directors of a TV drama? Is it impossible to talk about the crime and media relationship in a straightforward sense? Anyone can upload their own media and spread it. Do I exist in an echo chamber? Am I overwhelmingly saturated with positive or negative images? Who determines what media I’m engaging with?
What are Jewkes’ (2015) news values?
Threshold
Predictable – unlikely reported
Simple
Individualising – victim or offender
Risk – man against risk, raising awareness
Sex – very popular and interested
Celebrity – celeb cultures? Johnny Depp vs Amber Herd
Proximity
Violence
Spectacle – appears more attractive
Children – greatest fears of the vulnerable being targeted
Ideology and diversion
