Media and crime Flashcards
What does the media have to do with crime?
- the media play an important role in shaping ideas, fears and fascinations about crime in society
- many peoples perceptions of crime can come from newspapers, tv news , films, books and social media
left realists emphasis there is a real fear of crime which is shaped by media coverage
Representation of crime in the media (against official statistics
- the media over represent violent and sexual crime - 46% of media reports were about violence or sexual violence when these only make up 3% of all crime reported
- media overplay extraordinary crimes
- media exaggerates police success - property crime is most successfully dealt with and not many others
Schlesinger snd tumbler - before 1960 the media focus was on murder and in 1965 the death penalty was abolished so the media coverage on murder cases reduced
Fictional representations of crime (surrette)
- came up with the law of opposites and how the most common crime is property crime but the fictional crime is mainly about violence, drugs and sex crimes - shows sex crimes being committed by a stranger but in real life it is often someone the person knows
- fictional crime shows murder being linked to greed and being calculated and planned however in real life it is more messy and can be more to do with self defence
News values (cohen and young)
- believe crime is misrepresented in the media and this is because of ‘news values’ - this is the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough
- news values include : immediacy
drama
personalisation e.g Menendez brothers, Madeline Mccane
- news values include : immediacy
- high status etc. p-diddy, Michael Jackson
simplification, the unexpected- Madeline Mccan, risk and vulnerability, violence e.g chris watts murdering wife and children
representation of crime - examples
- believe crime is misrepresented in the media and this is because of ‘news values’ - this is the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough
- news values include : immediacy
-drama
-personalisation e.g Menendez brothers, Madeline Mccane- high status etc. p-diddy, Michael Jackson
- simplification
- the unexpected- new leads and evidence -Madeline Mccan
- violence e.g chris watts murdering wife and children
- news values include : immediacy
The media and the fear of crime
- the media exaggerate the amount of violent and unusual crime and they exaggerate the risks of certain people becoming victims like old women and young people - there is the concern the media is distorting the publics impression of crime and causing unrealistic fears
Schlesinger and Tumber - argue there is a positive correlation between the media consumption and fear of becoming a victim of crime
Evaluation - does not look at the meanings people attach to what they see in the media, peoples interpretations of what they view are different
Sociological perspectives on the fear of crime
Functionalism - say we need crime in the media so we know what is going on in the real world
- fearing crime creates a value consensus and deters people from
Marxism - media controlled by the r/c, this means it shows crime in a way that reflects the w/c as being the ones that commit crime
- media is viewed as a form of control
Neo-marxism - crime related to fighting the system or showing resistance will be over represented in the media which creates a us and them feeling people fear what they see
Media as a cause of crime (socialisation)
- idea that the media have a negative effect on the attitudes, values, behaviour of those groups thought to be the most susceptible to influence e.g the w/c, young people, underachievers
- the focus is that things such as videos, music and computer games have influenced these groups
media has been held responsible for socialising criminal behaviour in the following ways:
- imitation (clockwork orange - copycat crimes because people have imitated what they have seen
- arousal
- desensitisation e.g video games
- heightened desires
- glamorises crime (menendez brothers)
Evaluation for media as a cause of crime : socialisation
- Schramm et al
- Tv is not harmful for most people- the personality, background and experience of the person can make them more vulnerable when they are exposed to violence
Livingstone
- Tv is often as a scapegoat for wider social issues - children have become exposed themes
Media as a cause of crime : Advertising and relative deprivation
- advertising in the media makes us conscious of relative deprivation and there are some theories that can be applied to explain how the media and advertising may be a cause of criminal behaviour
- mertons strain theory - American dream, materialism, innovators
- left realism - lea and young theory - inequality in society and the media portrays a certain lifestyle which some people cannot achieve.
Criticisms
- crime is not committed by everyone who feels strain
- deprivation is subjective and even the rich will commit crime
Media as a cause of crime - moral panics
moral panic - an exaggerated reaction by society to a perceived problem, driven by the media and it enlarges the problem compared to its real seriousness
Examples of moral panic being created :
Cohen - did a study of what society labelled as the ‘folk devils’ - moral panic of this group led to an increase in crime and the media used a ‘symbolic shorthand’ such as hairstyles, clothing etc as icons of troublemakers
- they exaggerated the groups behaviour and made them seem deviant and a menace to society
Becker
- the media played a part in constructing a moral panic, may embark on a moral crusade against the ‘folk devils’
- desired outcome is to sway the public opinion and for authorities to embark upon a moral clampdown
evaluation - labelling theory has been criticised for not explaining why the media causes moral panics
- stuart hall did a study of the representation of muggings in the media
- argued that moral panics focus on groups viewed as deviant or threatening to the rich and powerful (selective law enforcement) and the media portrays criminals as w/c, ignoring the white collar or corporate crime
Media as a cause of crime : moral panics (functionalism)
Durkheim - adaptation and change
- argue the media is simply a ‘window of the wound’ reflecting life as it is
- therefore the media simply reflects a true or real pictures of crime - shows what needs to change in society in terms of law, moral, values etc and allows the public to be aware of what is going on
evaluation - moral panics do not always create solidarity and it may have the opposite effect which can lead to fear, withdrawal and isolation
Criticisms of the idea of moral panics
disproportionate
-assumes how society will react but how will that be measured - means that it is subjective
desensitised
- have become used to horror/shock stories so the media do not have the same impact they used to
- moral panics are less effective than the theory suggests
Who turns the ‘Amplifier’ on/off
- media is controlled and censored so they can turn ‘moral panics’ on and off as they choose
- owners of the media and the control agencies influence the panics we see
Media as a cause of crime - provides opportunities to commit crime
- arrival of new types of media is often met with a moral panic - cinema, videos and computer games have all been accused of corrupting the young and causing crime
-Yvonne jewels - notes that the internet creates opportunities to commit both ‘conventional crime’ such as fraud and new crimes using tool such as software privacy
Wall (2001) identifies four categories of cyber crime:
- Trepass
- Deception and theft
- Pornography
- Violence
Evaluation - has caused crime but helps things to become more secure as there is extra security- provides the police and the state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population
