Term 1 Lecture 5- Crime, Media and Representation

Question 1

What are the readings?

Answer 1

Case et al, Katz, Moore, Croall

Question 2

What are the key concepts from Case et al

Answer 2

Media makes crime appear more glamorous and exciting
Focus on victims and the suffering
Young people as folk devils
The media exaggerates violent crimes
Exaggeration of exisiting fears
CJS and police are painted in a positive light to change public opinions

Question 3

What are the key concepts from Katz?

Answer 3

Crime are newsworthy when the elite is victimised
Organised crime as an infectious disease
Sherizen- The more prevalent a crime the less it is reported
Celebration of a triumph of collective will over deviants
Some crime challenges stereotypes

Question 4

What are the key concepts from Croall?

Answer 4

Glamourisation of crime
Demonisation of some groups
Disproportionality of women, children and older people as victims
Sex, violence and murder is 40% of the crime related stories on BBC radio
Folk devils being from a lower class
Women seen as bad mothers and monsters
Women sexualised and children as innocent or evil

Question 5

What are the key concepts from Moore?

Answer 5

Police as a single resource on crime
12% of stories found that material was generated by the reporters themselves

Question 6

What is media and crime?

Answer 6

Reference to the news and coverage of crime

Question 7

How does media evolved over time?

Answer 7

From print media in 1830s to new media in 1980

Question 8

What does Surette refer to the relationship between crime and the media?

Answer 8

A forced marriage

Question 9

What does media influence?

Answer 9

Perceptions of crime and criminal justice system policy (such as Megan’s law)

Question 10

What is the social construction view?

Answer 10

Social knowledge is from personal experience, significant others and social groups and the media.

Question 11

How does media representation link to social construction?

Answer 11

Media representation influence impression of certain groups and individuals such as through race and gender

Question 12

What do news stories do to social construction?

Answer 12

Exaggeration of reality so there is unrealistic levels of fear of crime and a need for greater intervention

Question 13

What has occurred to newspapers in modernity?

Answer 13

In decline due to the rise of the internet so there is a neeed for stories with hook

Question 14

What is the main soruce of crime news stories?

Answer 14

Criminal Justice agencies/press agencies

Question 15

What is Jewkes’ news values of newsworthiness?

Answer 15

Threshold, predictability, simplification, individualism, risk, sex, celebrity, proximity, violence, visual spectacle, childrem conservative ideology

Question 16

What is newsworthiness and ideal victims explain?

Answer 16

Ideal stories from child victim, violence and terrorism for a reaction

Question 17

What does Katz say about newsworthiness?

Answer 17

We rehearse moral values, collective identity and social values

Question 18

What are the 4 concepts of media coverage of crime?

Answer 18

Moral panics, cautionary tales, crime legends, cultural trauma

Question 19

What are moral panics?

Answer 19

The condemning of wrongful behaviour, marginalising behaviour of perpetuator, need for state intervention

Question 20

What are the stages of moral panics?

Answer 20

1. Exaggeration and distortion of an event
2. Prediction to incite fear that further conflict may occur
3. Symbolisation- symbols of certain groups that are associated with deviance

Question 21

What are cautionary tales?

Answer 21

Tales to prescribe rightful behaviour and attributing responsibility to a female victim, marginalising behaviour of potential victim

Question 22

What is emphasised in cautionary tales?

Answer 22

The need for self-regulation

Question 23

What is crime legends?

Answer 23

Similar to urban legends and spread informally by the community

Question 24

What are the core features of crime legends?

Answer 24

Common victims+perpetuators and settings. Crimes of violent nature

Question 25

What is cultural trauma?

Answer 25

A significant event that changes group identity and ruptures social occur in a domestic response

Question 26

What can cultural trauma cause?

Answer 26

An us vs them mentality

Question 27

What are the crime news effects?

Answer 27

Government policy, public attitudes and diffuse.

Question 28

What is government policy?

Answer 28

Changes in law due to media coverage

Question 29

What is public attitudes?

Answer 29

Crime news as a negative but has a heavy consumption linking to attitudes

Question 30

How do public attitudes change due to the media?

Answer 30

The public believes the police need to be more effect and increases public fear

Question 31

What is diffuse?

Answer 31

That the media is not the only reason for impressions but crime news enforced long held beliefs