Over representation of crime in media: Distortion of crime + deviance in the news

Question 1

1. The media creates the wrong impression about the extent of violent and sexual crime which occurs

Answer 1

46% of news stories were focused on these issues, get only 3% of crimes reported were of this nature

Question 2

2. The media creates the wrong impression about the characteristics of a typical victim

Answer 2

Middle class and older victims get more attention, the age fallacy; in reality, young + middle aged adults are more likely to be victims but elderly are considered more news worthy

Question 3

3. The media exaggerates the successes of the police by focusing on successfully cases

Answer 3

because they focus on violent crime, which is more likely to be pursued vs burglary which has a less serious ra

Question 4

4. The media exaggerates the risk of being a victim of crime

Answer 4

making people feel that they are going to be targeted - women as an example with stories of sexual violence

Question 5

5. The media reports crime as a series of separate and unrelated events

Answer 5

Failing to recognise that the patriarchy or wealth inequalities may cause crime

Question 6

6. The media overdramatises crime

Answer 6

by paying more attention to extraordinary crimes and downplaying the extent of mundane, everyday crimes. Dramatic fallacy + ingenuity fallacy - which is where the media implies that criminals are calculated, which isnt often