the media and crime Flashcards
hypodermic syringe model
believes that the media can have a direct and immediate effect on the audience. the model sees the audience as a ‘homogenous mass; as passive and believing what they see in the media without questioning the context
how might hypodermic syringe model cause crime
- new media means that violent imagery is found everywhere, and people can access it whenever they want- impossible to control
- digital tech means its interactive
- imitation; by providing deviant role models, resulting in ‘copycat behaviour’
- arousal; e.g through viewing violent or sexual imagery
- desensitisation; e.g through repeated viewing of violence
evidence of hypodermic syringe model
- newson: references to james bulger murder. asserted that violent videos could lead to violent action
- anderson: media violence increased the likelihood of aggressive and violent behaviour, both immediately and in the long term
- bobo doll experiment
- himmelweit et al: desensitisation, repeated exposure has gradual drip drip effects
eval of hypodermic syringe model
- cumberbatch: review of previous studies does not show the media causes violence
- almost impossible to avoid the hawthorne effect
- problem with how ‘media violence’ is defined
- small samples
relative deprivation
- the media has increased our sense of relative deprivation
- cultural inclusion promoted by the media - exposure to consumer goods and luxury lifestyles raises expectations. the economically excluded cannot afford this lifestyle which creates status frustration so they turn to crime e.g lewis’ example of looting in the london riots
young; bulimic society - relative dep
late modern societies are media saturated and everyone is included in consumer culture through constant exposure of advertising - intensifies sense of frustratration
evaluation of relative dep
- assumes the media has the same effect on everyone i.e that they will commit crime… fails to explain why some people who are relatively deprived don’t go on to commit crime. assumes the audience is passive and accepts the media messages about the importance of having consumer goods
- assumes all media is the same and contains the same messages about consumerism, but media does not do this
- doesn’t explain crimes such as sexual assault or rape
commodification of crime
crimes and its thrills being commodified. corporations and advertisers use media images of crime to sell products, especially in the youth market
fenwick and hayward - commodification of crime
‘crime is packaged and marketed to young people as a romantic, exciting, cool and fashionable cultural symbol
evidence of commodification of crime
- hayward and young; example of car ads featuring street riots, joy riding, graffiti and pyromania
- fashion industry and its advertisers trade on images of the forbidden ‘heroin chic’, violence against women
- graffiti being used in a ‘guerilla marketing technique called ‘brandalism’
evaluation of commodification of crime
- deterministic; assumes that the promotion of crime related merchandise makes people more criminal
- explanation ignores the way in which police is commodified both in reality (e.g nypd street wear) and fictional programmes (e.g buying brooklyn99 merch that promotes the role of police)
- hard to isolate commodification of crime from all other influences on behaviour and show it causes an increase in crime
reduction of social controls
greer and reiner suggest that, even if people are motivated to commit crime they may not do so if there is effective internal and external controls
how might reduction of social controls
media may undermine these controls by mocking the police and cjs. glamourising crime, creating sympathy for criminals, desensitizing people
evaluation of reduction of social controls
- media doesn’t change the fact you can face punishments for committing crimes
- can only explain certain crimes
cyber crime
the internet provides us with new types of crime e.g upskirting and new ways of committing crime e.g committing fraud over the internet
how can cyber crime cause crime - jewkes
the internet creates opportunity to commit both ‘conventional crimes’ such as fraud, and ‘new crimes’ using tools’ such as software piracy
how can cyber crime cause crime - wall
wall identifies categories;
1. cyber-trespass - includes hacking and sabotages such as spreading viruses
2. cyber deception and theft - including identity theft, ‘phishing’, and violation of intellectual property rights
3. cyber pornography - including porn involving minors, and opportunities for children to acess porn
4. cycberviolence - ie. cyber stalking
5. global cyber crime - poses problems of jurisdiction
evidence of cyber crime
- detica: estimates financial cybercrime such as identity theft, online scams etc cost the uk £27 billion each year.
- internet based fraud e.g ‘nigerian letters’
- cyber attacks e.g talktalk in 2015 where cyber criminals targeted its website in an attempt to steal details of customer identities and financial information
evaluation of cyber crime
- positivist victimology: we need to examine the role of victims and look at how people can try and avoid becoming a victim e.g secure passwords instead of focusing on the internet causing more crime
- cyber crime does not always lead to new types of crime being committed - it’s a new way of committing old crimes. they would still exist even if the technology didn’t e.g fraud
increases fear of crime
the media is exaggerating the extent of crime and the likelihood of becoming a victim - so people become more fearful of crime
- changes attitudes
evidence of increased fear of crime- gerbner et al
heavy users of tv (over 4 hours a day) had higher levels of fear of crime
evidence of increased fear of crime - schlesinger and tumber
correlation between media consumption and fear of crime, with tabloid readers and heavy users of tv expressing greater fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attacks and muggings
evaluation of increased fear of crime
audience is capable of understanding the difference between reality and media reps - so its not the media itself that causes a fear of crime but rather its peoples interpretations of what they see that is the issue
moral panics
cohen- folk devils
- relatively minor disturbances between mods and rockers
media overreacted
- exaggeration and distortion
- prediction of further disorder
- symbolisation - group labeled negatively e.g biker jackets seen as sign of rebellion
evaluation of moral panics - mcrobbie and thornton
concept no longer useful because of the impact of new media and 24hr rolling news cycle. they must post to new stories to keep their audience which makes it difficult to sustain a moral panic
evaluation of moral panics - pluralists, postmodernists
argues theres a huge diversity of reports and interpretations of events, citizen journalism - people more sceptical, moral entrepreneurs can be challenges
evaluation of moral panics - hunt
boundaries between moral and immoral behaviour increasingly blurred - the public do not equally regard the same behaviour as wrong e,g some see drug taking as wrong but others don’t
evaluation of moral panics - beck
we live in a risk society and we perceive lots of threats e.g pollution, global warming, knife crime, illegal immigration. so the idea that we are under threat is normalised and being at risk from a folk devil is just one amongst many
surette - the backwards law
the way in which the media portrays crime is the opposite of reality
- fictional programmes:
property crime is underrepresented
violence, drugs and sex are overrepresented
murder shown to be product of greed and calculation
sex crimes shown to be carried out by psychopathic strangers
- factual programmes:
narration controlled by producers and editors. chase scenes edited to make them look exciting
violent crimes and clear up rates overrepresented
events are simplified, and decontextualised
felson - fallacies of crime
- felson argues general public has fallacies or mistaken beliefs about crime which are perpetuated by the media
- examples of some fallacies
– ‘not me fallacy’ illusion that we could never commit a crime and ignoring all illegal behaviour we may have committed
– ‘dramatic fallacy’ dramatisation and romanticisation of crimes. clever muderers, media makes the battle between the criminal and police see, exciting, publicised offenses are far more dramatic than real lift theft and fraud
cohen and young
argues news is not discovers, it’s ‘manufactured’ making it a social construction
- media sets the agenda by directing our attention to some acts of crime - we talk about these and are unaware of others simply because the news didn’t report it
- media can’t report every single criminal or deviant act that occurs. media personnel are selective about what they report on or ignore. people are only able to discuss and form opinions about the crime and deviance they have been informed about
news values - galtung and rouge
- journalists beliefs about what kind of stories attract a bigger audience
e.g personalisation, extraordinaires, elite persons, negativity - crimes that are not extraodinary e.g burglary less likely to be reported than murder
- crimes that are easy to understand (unambiguous) more likely to be reported e.g complex corporate crime cases less likely to be reported
