Media & Crime Flashcards
Crime as a ‘consumer spectacle’
- Media companies know that crime sells - it’s become infotainment
- Scary, shocking, or unusual crimes are reported to grab consumer attention and sell papers
Crime in ‘Agenda Setting’ by Media & Gov
- Most know about events in the world through media and don’t do their own research afterwards
- Media can set political agenda by making the public worried about anything they choose
Greer & Reiner (2012): News Values
- News companies have capitalist values - want to make money
- Events filtered by expected sales value before publishing
- We only see stories that are considered newsworthy (likely to be popular) by editors - news isn’t ever impartial
Surette (2010): The ‘Backwards Law’
- Exciting/shocking crimes (eg. serial killings) are usually very rare - always published due to news values when they happen
- ‘Boring’ common crimes (eg. burglary) barely reported
- People think rare crimes are common, and common crimes are rare
Hall et al (1978): ‘Deviancy Amplification’
- Highlight increase in C&D that happens when it’s exaggerated in media
- See shocking crime stories daily & assume crime is everywhere and become worried - become suspicious of all
- Sense of paranoia and panic created - increases likelihood of C&D
Moral Panic
Paranoid outrage we feel when crime is always on our minds - worried our moral boundaries are constantly transgressed & we have no control
Folk Devils
Those scapegoated by media when there’s moral panic (eg. migrants in 2020s, Black muggers in 1980s, Mods & Rockers in 1960s)
Baudrillard (2001): Hyperreality of Crime
- Media’s influence is so powerful that they socially construct crime, rather than reporting selectively
- Sensational crimes reported daily, mundane crimes rarely reported - people may become desensitised to sensational crime and commit it more often
- Stories aren’t just real, they can create/change reality
Green & Reiner (2012): Does the Media cause Crime?
- Labelling & Deviancy Amplification
- Increasing motive by glamorising criminals
- Increasing knowledge and skills of criminals
- Providing new/easier means to commit crime
- Reducing informal and formal social control
- Mock police - loss of confidence
- Providing targets for criminals
- Moral entrepeneurs use moral panic for profit
Left Realists
Media reporting of crime disguises the reality that both offenders and victims are mainly poor & WC
Marxists
Point to concealment of significance of white collar/corporate crime (eg. tax fraud, pollution), which are rarely reported
Bandura (1982): Social Learning Theory
- Media provide role models
- We want to be like them - imitate their actions in our lives
- Imitate more readily if RM receives praise/is portrayed more positively
- Crime is glorified on screen/hero figures commit crime - society may become violent
- Often applied to understand the effect of modern terrorist propaganda
