Media In Crime

Question 1

What do Cohen and Young argue about the news

Answer 1

it’s not discovered but manufactured or socially constructed;
it’s the outcome of a social process where some potential stories are selected and some are rejected, based on ‘news values’

Question 2

What are news values that determine if a story is selected or rejected

Answer 2

1. novelty
2. violence
3. graphic imagery
4. human interest
5. celebrity
6. dramatic
7. simplistic
8. sensational

Question 3

Why do news values make some stories more interesting

Answer 3

violent and sexual crimes are easily personalised and dramatic;
kidnap, murder, rape are newsworthy because they’re relatively rare;
crime is often reported as a human interest story, it could happen to anyone.

Question 4

What did a study of news stories discover

Answer 4

65% if crime reports in the media were about violent crime but victims surveys only 6% of crimes are violent.

Question 5

How do fictional representations of crime distort crime statistics

Answer 5

Surette suggests a ‘law of opposites’; they’re the opposite of OCS.
Fiction over-represents murder, sexual, drug-related and violent crimes. ‘Psychological strangers’ are rare in actual murder and sexual cases but in media representations they’re common.

Question 6

What are media fallacies

Answer 6

Felson argues media reporting reinforce certain fallacies (falsehoods about crime).

Question 7

What are examples of media fallacies

Answer 7

1. age fallacy (all age groups involved in crime)
2. class fallacy (m/c are most likely to be victims)
3. ingenuity fallacy (portraying criminals as clever/manipulative)
4. police fallacy (the police are more efficient)
5. dramatic fallacy (focus on violent crimes against women and elderly)

Question 8

What’s the impact of inaccurate representations of crime in the media

Answer 8

Studies have shown a correlation between media use and the fear of crime - higher users of media are more likely to be afraid of being a victim of crime. Especially females and the elderly.

Question 9

What’s the ideology of media representation

Answer 9

Media is a form of the ideological state apparatus (Althusser), its role is to criminalise the behaviours of the w/c.
It promotes ideology of the media owners (r/c) who focus on the crimes of w/c and non white ethnic groups, therefore, distorting the image of crime.

Question 10

What are arguments for if media can cause people to commit crime

Answer 10

1. media is a powerful form of secondary socialisation
2. media encourages/glamorises C&D and expose children to it
3. frequent violence teaches children how to deal with their problems in a bad way
4. young people are desensitised to crime from harsh exposure to it
5. media teaches people how to commit crimes like drug taking

Question 11

What’s the hypodermic syringe model of media influence

Answer 11

the HSM of media influence suggests that the audience receives media message and is directly and passively influenced by them.
E.g. Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment in which Bandura claimed shows that violence is a learned behaviour

Question 12

What are criticisms of media and its impact on crime

Answer 12

1. while it might influence people’s behaviour, it cannot be the sole cause of the crimes
2. not everyone reacts the same way to media content
3. this type of argument fails to understand the complex causes of violent behaviour

Question 13

What sociology perspectives argue criminal behaviour can be learnt through the media, but not learn criminal behaviours

Answer 13

Marxism, Left Realists, Strain theory, feminists

Question 14

What do Marxists argue cause crime to increase because of the media

Answer 14

• argue capitalism is criminogenic
• promotes idea to be happy, you have to consume capitalist goods
• targets low income people who have to use pay day loans or credit
• extortionate interest rates keep them in debt, leading to more poverty
• crime can be a result of trying to escape cycle of poverty

Question 15

What do Left Realists argue cause crime to increase because of media

Answer 15

• Lea/Young argue media increases relative deprivation among marginalised groups
• in today’s society, the poorest still have media access, media presents everyone with a materialistic ‘good life’ that they should strive for
• this stimulates sense of relative deprivation and social exclusion felt by marginalised groups who cannot afford material goods and so turn to crime

Question 16

What do critical criminologists argue in media

Answer 16

Hayward and Young argue that late modern society is a media-saturated society that emphasises consumption and excitement.
The media turn crime itself into a commodity or style to be consumed, and corporations use images of crime to sell products, especially the young.

Question 17

What do feminists argue causes media to increase because of media

Answer 17

• many argue over sexualisation of women in the media makes them targets for sexual harassment and assault in society
• representation of women as being submissive to males challenges issues of consent (classic Bond films).
• we already know that the reporting of the behaviour of female victims in the media is different to reporting of the male offender, i.e. idea that some women ‘ask for it’