The media as a cause for fear and victimisation

Question 1

General idea?

Answer 1

Media may be distorting the public impression of crime and causing an unrealistic fear of crime

Question 2

What did Gerbner et all find?

Answer 2

Heavy users of TV (4+ hours) had a higher level of fear of crime

Question 3

Schlesinger and Tumber findings

Answer 3

Found a correlation between media consumption and fear of crime with tabloid readers and heavy TV users expressing greater fear of becoming a victim e.g. physical attack

Question 4

Evaluation of media as a cause of fear and victimisation

Answer 4

Correlations don’t show us cause and effect - although they correlate it doesn’t prove that media viewing causes crime. For example, it may be that those who are already afraid of going out at night watch more TV because they stay in more