Media and Crime Flashcards
Distorted image of crime:
The media decides what is reported on, sets the agenda for what is considered important.
Both fictional and real crime. Due to this distortion, people may believe that there is more or less crime than there actually is.
- Over-represent violent and sexual crime (46% of media reports, but only 3% of reported crime).
- Exaggerate the risk of victimisation.
News Values:
News is a social construction - make decisions on what to report, how to report it and what not to report. The process of deciding this is known as ‘news values’.
- Immediacy - urgency?
- Dramatisation - exciting?
- Personalisation - human interest?
- Higher-status person/celebrities.
- Novelty - is it quirky/unexpected?
Media as a cause of crime:
Researchers are interested in the extent to which the media can be said to cause violent, deviant or criminal behaviour.
Also emphasises relative deprivation (left realism)
Schramm et al = media exposure of violence and crime has a small and limited effect on the audience, particularly children, who seemed unaffected.
Evaluation:
Strengths = media attention on a particular crime does lead to people copying, James Bulger case where more music videos have been linked to the rise of gun culture.
Weaknesses = some studies suggest that watching crime can be cathartic and therefore good for you. Also, studies of crime rates in countries before and after mass media shows inconclusive results.
Moral Panics:
Moral entrepreneurs may use the media to put pressure on authorities to solve an alleged problem if they disapprove of some particular behaviour.
Identifies a folk devil > The media present them negatively > Moral entrepreneurs condemn this behaviour > Crackdown on this behaviour, leads to self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Jack Young, Stuart Hall.
Evaluation of moral panics:
McRobbie and Thornton suggest that the concept of moral panic is no longer useful for understanding crime, and is outdated in the age of new media.
It assumes the reaction is over-the-top, and audiences are used to ‘shock, horror’ stories.
Cyber-crimes:
The internet has led to fears of cyber-crime. Jewkes argues that the internet creates opportunities to commit both conventional and ‘new’ crimes, such as software piracy.
Cyber trespass - Crossing boundaries into others’ cyber property, includes hacking and sabotage such as spreading viruses.
Cyber pornography - Includes porn involving minors and opportunities for children to access porn.
Cyber violence - Doing psychological harm or inciting physical harm. Includes cyber stalking, hate crimes, etc.
Policing cyber-crimes:
Challenging due to the vastness of the internet, limited police sources and the nature of these crimes, which complicates jurisdiction. Often receives low priority as it lacks the excitement of traditional policing.
However, surveillance and control such as CCTV gives the police more opportunities.
Media representations:
Social Class = moral panics about ‘scroungers’, media assumes that the working-class are potential trouble.
Ethnicity = black and asian minority groups often represented in the context of violence and criminality, as scapegoats on which to blame a range of social problems.
Gender = represents women as victims, male crimes presented as part of ‘natural’ male hegemonic identity. Crime also presented as a role model of masculinity which may influence young men.
Pluralist view of Crime and Media:
Believes that the audience use the media for their own purpose and pleasure, people only watch violent films if they are interested in violence, so the media has little effect at all.
Marxist view of Crime and Media:
The reporting of crime reflects RC ideology:
- Crimes of RC are under-reported, emphasis on sexual/violent crime is attached to some large white-collar crimes.
- A way to maintain control over powerless groups, distracts from the problems of capitalism.
Post-Modernist view of Crime and Media:
Baudrillard = media creates a blurred reality, therefore people have no understanding of real crime. Majority of people believe murder rate to be higher than it really is.
Statistically, a person is more likely to be murdered by a family member than a stranger, yet the latter is constantly feared.
McRobbie and Thornton on moral panics.
Functionalist view of Crime and Media:
Publicising crime brings society together.
Folk devils and moral panics destabilise society by breaking agreed rules, and the treatment of folk devils can be used as an example - showing what happens to people if they refuse to live by the rules of society. A moral panic is just a way for society to regulate itself.
Feminist view of Crime and Media:
- Crime reporting reinforces the stereotyping of women, as women are portrayed as victims. Under-reporting of violence against women.
- Female fear of violent assault is used as the basis of many films.
- Highly critical of reporting sex crimes against women as a way to provide entertainment: rape victims are stereotyped as either ‘good women’/Madonnas or ‘bad women’ who had led men on.
