Media representations of crime

Question 1

Hayward and Young

Answer 1

They argue that advertisers have turned crime into a consumer spectacle and is a tool for selling products in a consumer market.

Question 2

Public perceptions and distortion of crime

Answer 2

Williams and Dickinson found that 65% of newspaper crime reporting involved violent crime, despite these, crime was making up only 6% of recorded crime.

Question 3

‘age fallacy’ Felson

Answer 3

Media coverage exaggerates the police success rate in clearing up cases. Police want themselves presented in a good light and the media over-represents violent crime.

Question 4

Agenda setting and news values

Answer 4

News is a social construction. Jewkes - News is not discovered but manufactured - instead stories are assessed in terms of ‘news values’.

Question 5

Backwards law - Greer and Reiner

Answer 5

Over representing violent crimes, portraying property crimes as far more violent and serious, risk levels of victimisation.

Question 6

News value examples

Answer 6

Violence, risk, children, dramatisation, personalisation, graphic images.

Question 7

Greer and Reiner - ways media might cause crime

Answer 7

Imitation, knowledge of criminal techniques, glamourised, media stimulates desire for unaffordable goods, media hardware is a target for criminals.

Question 8

Categories of cyber-crime - Wall

Answer 8

Cyber-violence, cyber-deception and theft, cyber-pornography, cyber-trespass.