Term 1 Lecture 5- Crime, Media and Representation Flashcards
What are the readings?
Case et al, Katz, Moore, Croall
What are the key concepts from Case et al
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
What are the key concepts from Katz?
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
What are the key concepts from Croall?
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
What are the key concepts from Moore?
Police as a single resource on crime
12% of stories found that material was generated by the reporters themselves
What is media and crime?
Reference to the news and coverage of crime
How does media evolved over time?
From print media in 1830s to new media in 1980
What does Surette refer to the relationship between crime and the media?
A forced marriage
What does media influence?
Perceptions of crime and criminal justice system policy (such as Megan’s law)
What is the social construction view?
Social knowledge is from personal experience, significant others and social groups and the media.
How does media representation link to social construction?
Media representation influence impression of certain groups and individuals such as through race and gender
What do news stories do to social construction?
Exaggeration of reality so there is unrealistic levels of fear of crime and a need for greater intervention
What has occurred to newspapers in modernity?
In decline due to the rise of the internet so there is a neeed for stories with hook
What is the main soruce of crime news stories?
Criminal Justice agencies/press agencies
What is Jewkes’ news values of newsworthiness?
Threshold, predictability, simplification, individualism, risk, sex, celebrity, proximity, violence, visual spectacle, childrem conservative ideology
What is newsworthiness and ideal victims explain?
Ideal stories from child victim, violence and terrorism for a reaction
What does Katz say about newsworthiness?
We rehearse moral values, collective identity and social values
What are the 4 concepts of media coverage of crime?
Moral panics, cautionary tales, crime legends, cultural trauma
What are moral panics?
The condemning of wrongful behaviour, marginalising behaviour of perpetuator, need for state intervention
What are the stages of moral panics?
- Exaggeration and distortion of an event
- Prediction to incite fear that further conflict may occur
- Symbolisation- symbols of certain groups that are associated with deviance
What are cautionary tales?
Tales to prescribe rightful behaviour and attributing responsibility to a female victim, marginalising behaviour of potential victim
What is emphasised in cautionary tales?
The need for self-regulation
What is crime legends?
Similar to urban legends and spread informally by the community
What are the core features of crime legends?
Common victims+perpetuators and settings. Crimes of violent nature
What is cultural trauma?
A significant event that changes group identity and ruptures social occur in a domestic response
What can cultural trauma cause?
An us vs them mentality
What are the crime news effects?
Government policy, public attitudes and diffuse.
What is government policy?
Changes in law due to media coverage
What is public attitudes?
Crime news as a negative but has a heavy consumption linking to attitudes
How do public attitudes change due to the media?
The public believes the police need to be more effect and increases public fear
What is diffuse?
That the media is not the only reason for impressions but crime news enforced long held beliefs
