...The way the media portrays crime and violence has a huge influence on how society reacts. When the news is being reported a lot of people cringe at the gory stories that are brought to their attention, the media in our society is everywhere. When I watch the news and see how people are being killed, robbed, raped, beaten, and kidnapped, I fear for my life, it’s like at any instance everything can just be taken away from you. Regardless of how old you are, what you do etc. crime is so prevalent in our society today due to our economy’s constant decline. The media has influenced my fear of crime to the extent where I fear being kidnapped (a lot of this keeps happening in Jamaica). In the society, justice is based on what race, class and where you live, play’s a role in whether or not you will receive justice. The media portrayed the case involving Trayvon Martin for months with the perpetrator George Zimmerman getting off. To me this is a case of injustice based on what the news media portrayed, because trayvon martin was black and wearing a hoody, he was stereotyped as a burglary. I expected that the accused would get off as he is a white man and trayvon is black, and he feared for his life (sarcasm). I perceive that the all the races besides white people are considered dangerous, much has been made of the racial issues of the Zimmerman murder trial. And while many Zimmerman supporters claim that race has nothing to do with it; many of them spew hatred and bigotry in their tirades...
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...Title: Media and Crime. Author: Yvonne Jewkes. Publisher: Sage Publications. General subject matter: Emerging technology and media with crime. Theme: The effects of media in society. The relationship between Media and Crime is a topic highly researched and debated. The author’s knowledge in media and criminology introduces important themes, which she puts together to produce a definite topic. The book explores different aspects on crime and media, it also overviews the theoretical concerns that have shaped the study of crime and media and still explores production and consumption of crime related media in the shape of news, documentary and current affairs. It explores more on motions of newsworthiness and considers the news valves that under pin media representation of crime. The book discusses the innovative media and surveillance (CCTV) technologies, which has been developed for changing lives. The book is organized into seven chapters. The first two chapters provide the foundation that follows, and many of the themes and debates introduced are then picked up and developed in relation to specific subjects. The remaining chapters of the book illustrate the extent to which the crime and justice are constructed according to prevailing cultural assumptions and ideologies by examining a number of different issues that have gained significant media attention. The clarity and originality of the book is brilliant, the words are clear and concise...
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...Assess the view that the media as a cause of crime. (21) There is concern that the media have a negative effect on attitudes, values and behaviour - especially of those susceptible to influence, such as the young, the lower class and the educated. Recently rap lyrics and computer games such as Grand Theft Auto have been criticised for encouraging violence whereas before horror comics and films were held responsible for criminality. According to social learning theory, the media provides deviant role models - resulting in ‘copycat’ behaviour. Ericson et al found that 45-71% of quality press and radio news was about various forms of deviance, whilst Williams and Dickinson found British newspapers devoted 30% of their news space to crime. As crime makes up such a large proportion of the news, it is easy for individuals to imitate the crime or behaviour. Though horror and crime films have age restrictions, the internet makes such films easily accessible to anyone and therefore those at an impressionable age (usually adolescents), are exposed to the violence portrayed in which they then imitate. Sue Palmer argues childhood is becoming toxic and children are committing more ‘adult’ crimes from their exposure to violence on the internet and through films. The murder of Jamie Bulger committed by John Venables and Robert Thompson, has been linked to the boys re-enacting scenes from the film ‘Child’s Play 3’. Similarly, the perpetrators of the Columbine massacre in April 1999 allegedly...
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...Media coverage of crime is always accurate. The view of Media representing crime as an accurate one is not entirely true, since the dawn of time people have wanted to learn about what’s going on around them, within their streets and communities as well as further afield nationally and internationally, crime in particular in all its guises is probably the most fascinating and main topic for discussion and exploration by the general public, the Media institutions are only too happy to help out in this reporting , of course with a financial cost to the public, but not necessarily with reporting truths or with integrity, within this essay I will demonstrate instances of inaccuracy through the research. There are many on-going debates into Mass Medias influences on crime and violent crime in particular, but is this a true reflection of the current culture crisis or a fabrication to sell copy, taking for instance the Murder case of James Bulger in 1993, after the then 10year old boys Robert Thompson and Jon Venable led 2year old James away from a shopping centre in Liverpool to a brutal /senseless and pointless murder the Media was instantly ‘all over’ the case , even though a murder of children by children was extremely rare the reporting of and style of reporting throughout the case was reflecting to the public all that was now wrong in Britain, The Sun instantly called for ‘a crusade to rescue a sick society’, a ‘breed’ of violent children , single mother parenting , and...
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...Media Representation of crime William and Dickinson (1971) found British newspapers devote 30% of their space to crime Media gives a distorted image of crime, criminals and policing compared to official statistics. The media: Over representation of violent and sexual crime Ditton and Duffy (1983) found 46% of media reports were about sexual or violent crime, compared to the actual 3% of crime records for this kind of crime. Marsh found violent crimes were 36 times more likely to be recorded in newspapers than property crime- America Media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class Felson (1998) calls this the ‘age fallacy’ Media exaggerate police success Partly due to media covering violent crime a lot, which has a higher clean up rate than property crime Media exaggerate risk of vctimisation Especially to women, white people and higher status people Crime is reported as a series of separate events Without examining underlying causes or structure The media overplay extraordinary crime Felson- ‘dramatic fallacy’ and ‘ingenuity fallacy’; media portray crime as hard to commit and you need intelligence to commit crime There is evidence to show that media coverage of crime in the media is changing. Schlesinger and Tumber (1994) found that in the 1960s the focus had been on murders and petty crime, but by 1990 murder and petty crime were of less crime to the media. Change had occurred due to the abolition of the death penalty, and rising crime rates...
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...The accuracy of crime represented in todays media isn’t always as truthful as it may appear on TV, in new papers, or online. The media and how they portray the news is immensely affects crime and criminals and how society sees them. The media’s main subjective is to make money. Media ownership plays a major part on how media is portrayed as they have the decision on what they want to put on the news or not. In Australia the media is owned by various sources all impacting what we hear about. First association is the government; this ownership connects to what is put in the media and what the public see. In Australia the government owned station are ABC and SBS (H. Hayes 1013CCJ lecture notes, March 12, 2015). The government and media authorities...
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...Social media might entertain you, help you stay connected or even advertise for you but has it ever made you commit homicide? This seemed to be the case when a twelve-year-old girl crawled out of the woods after being stabbed nineteen times by her best friends. When confronted with these allegations the two girls claimed the internet made them do it. Insisting they were just trying to impress a slender man meme that had been floating around social media. (“The Internet Made”). With such a wide age range of people using social media, I think the biggest threat posed by social media is the role it plays in crimes happening around the world. Most people connect social media only with the younger generation but a study conducted by Pew Research...
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...Assessment Item 2: Critical Analysis Title Romer D, Jamieson K & Aday S 2003, Television News and the Cultivation of Fear of Crime, Journal of Communication Vol 53 no 1, pp 88-104. Topic The theme of this intriguing and thoroughly researched report examines the influence of media consumption on fear of crime, punitive attitudes and perceived police effectiveness. It widely observes the effect that wide reporting and viewing of violent crime has on public knowledge and questions whether the polling data is a reflection of violent crime in America or the television media accounts of it. Context Context refers to the set of surrounding circumstances for any text, piece of research, publication, event etc. Almost every piece of research will have multiple contexts (Study Guide Glossary COM15, 2013, p 94). This journal article portrays the growing insecurities and encroachment that mass media has on our everyday lives, especially its account of violent crime, and how such mediums can impact on the viewer’s account of such events. This journal article has been used and published in a variety of professional and scholarly journals dealing in a range of fields including media and communication, legal and justice studies and behavioural psychology. Structure The paper is in the format of a formal research paper. It is a format that is more objective and non-personal; it’s the methodical process that involves the collection and analysis of information. The paper endeavours to...
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...Examine how the media causes crime -21 Marks. We live today in a media- saturated society. The media are all around us and crime is the central theme of their output, both fiction and non-fiction. Crime and deviance make up a large percentage of news coverage. For example, Richard Ericson et al’s study of Toronto found that 45-71% of quality press and radio news was about various forms of deviance and its control, while Williams and Dickinson found British newspapers allocate up to 30% of their news space to crime. However, many question whether media causes criminality. There are frequent ways in which the media might possibly cause crime and deviance and this includes the glamorisation of offending. As we have seen, the media overstates the amount of violent and unusual crime, and they exaggerate the threats of certain groups of people becoming its victims, such as young women and the elderly. Hence, there is a concern that the media may be misleading the public’s impression of crime and causing an impractical fear of it. Research evidence to some degree supports the view that there is a link between media use and fear of crime. For example, in the USA, Gerbner et al found that heavy users of television (over four hours a day) had greater levels of fear of crime. However, the existence of such correlations doesn’t verify that media viewing causes fear. For example, it may be that those who are already afraid of going out at night watch more TV just because they stay in more...
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...1. Is the nature of crime in our society accurately presented by the media? Discuss. Like every society, Australia has always had its share of criminal activity, from the founding of our country as a penal colony in the 18th century, bushrangers in the 19th century, underworld violence in the 20th century to recent youth violence on our city streets in the 21st century. In this essay, I will be discussing how the media presents crime in Australian society and how this does not necessarily reflect crime statistics. The media presents us with the idea that the majority of crime in Australia is violent, and it is only getting worse. In contrast, statistics show that Australia’s crime rate has remained relatively steady. In fact, most reported crimes are actually non violent, with the majority of crimes actually being property related. It should also be noted that we are exposed to high levels of media coverage on specific types of crime, for example the “Missing White Woman Syndrome” whilst under reporting on similar occurrences that involve males, and females of different culture and social standings. Lastly, I would like to discuss recent television programs such as Underbelly and true crime films that glamorise the criminal sub-culture which in itself causes the media to report even more on Australia’s underworld, violent crimes and infamous criminal cases. The media portrays our crime rate as rapidly escalating, however statistics collected by the Australian Institute...
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...“The media are more of a hindrance than a help to the police in combating crime”. Discuss. The relationship between the police and the mass media have long been the subject of intense debate. The mass media and the police have different roles in the public eye causing the media to be of concern to the police. Historically and in the contemporary era the police have had to meet high expectations of being the public’s crime-fighter. It is the police’s role to prevent crime, maintain order and protect the public (Carrabine, 2009) whilst, the media fulfil a role that is supposed to challenge the state institutions on behalf of the public. Media handling in serious crime investigations is a complex issue. On the one hand, they provide the public with access to information and help generate important information for an enquiry. For example, since its first broadcast in 1984, Crimewatch UK has sought help and information from the public in order to solve crime (Carter and Branston et al., 2002). On the other hand, the media can mislead the public and interfere with the investigative legal processes. As a whole the media plays a critical role in shaping the public’s views by exposing corruption and the activities of the powerful and of agencies of control such as the police (Croall, 2005). More to the point the media are there to maximise audience revenue to get money and to entertain via means of print, audio, visual and social media. Whereas, the police are the primary protection...
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...Assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance: A moral panic is the process of arousing social concern over an issue, this is often an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem, which is usually driven or inspired by the media. In this situation the reaction ends up amplifying the problem out of proportion to its real seriousness. This creates anxiety amongst the general population, and this therefore puts pressure on the agents of social control to deal with the problem, who then act accordingly to the group responsible for the panic. There is a strong relationship between mass media and crime. On average, around 30% of newspaper content is dedicated to crime, however it can be debated whether this news is true because the media exaggerate the truth in order to publish a newsworthy story. The mass media are heavily involved in creating moral panics about crime and deviance in society. According to Cohen, the mass media play a vital role in the societal reaction to crime and deviance. He suggests that moral panics have a number of stages, in which the media label certain groups, in order to maximise profit. Firstly, the media use exaggerated language and headlines when reporting on a particular event that has occurred and use follow-up articles, in which they identify this event as a social problem. Whereby ‘folk devils’ are created (Goode and Ben-Yehuda: 1994). Folk devils are over simplified...
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...Item A In late modern society, the mass media are at the centre of culture, and the media are obsessed with crime. As a result, they are our main source of knowledge about crime. However, the media present us with a distorted picture. For example, crime fiction, whether TV 'cop shows' or the individual genius of a Sherlock Holmes, offers a false image of policing. Similarly, many sociologists accuse the news media of creating folk devils and of promoting unrealistic fears of crime. Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the relationship between crime and the mass media. Item A refers to a late modern society of which we are surrounded by the mass media, the media consists of any way in which a message can be delivered to a large population for example TV, Newspapers, Magazines etc. Crime and deviance take up a large percentage of news coverage as found in Williams and Dickinson's study which highlighted how British newspapers devoted 30% of news space to crime. This coverage may then give members of society a distorted image of the amount of crime, the types of crime and how crime is overcome within a society. This then creates a dramatic fallacy of crimes such as violent crime such as rape and drug crime within gang culture. Stanley Cohen developed the idea that the media creates moral panics, whereby a story is exaggerated and a targeted group is labelled as a folk devil. The exaggerated story-often shown in a negative light- then...
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...elsewhere, assess the view that the mass media are a major cause of crime and deviance in today’s society. (21 marks) It could be argued that with some issues, the media plays a heavy role in influencing people to commit crime. Interactionist sociologists could argue that the media provide a form of database for imitation/copy cat crimes and from seeing these crimes the public are more likely to do them. In the media people are exposed to various types of crime, mainly violent and sexual and so might feel the want to copy these. For example, the copies of Jack the Ripper, the serial killer named the Zodiac or other serious crimes such as school shootings inspired by coverage of the Columbine shooting in America. Therefore it could be argued that the mass media which exposes these crimes to the population could cause these crimes, as they directly relate the crimes reported on. However it could be argued that these crimes which are reported as copy cat actually occur at a much lesser scale than we think. For instance these school shooings and serial killings do not happen as occasionally as might be thought. Although sociologists might argue that the main source of influence even for the small amount of crimes is the mainstream media which reported on them and exaggerated them in the first place. Meaning that media could be seen as a major cause of some crime in this aspect. Left realists argue that media is a major cause of crime also for the fact that it promotes these...
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...and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance. [21 marks] (35 minutes) The media is often held accountable for the exaggeration of crime and deviance, in order to create a ‘newsworthy’ story. According to Durkheim, the media plays a vital role to maintain society in what is considering socially acceptable thus reinforcing the norms and values that must remain. Similarly, he states all change is instigated by deviance therefore through the media addressing such issues on a national scale aims to increase the rate of social change. An example of this, is homosexuality in countries where such actions are illegal or heavily frowned upon. Therefore, such deviance according to Functionalists, when projected on a world scale, is seen as fundamental for social change and creating equality. However other perspectives would perceive this as the victimisation of people. Cohen’s work on Folk Devils and Moral panics directly highlights such issues. His study addresses the harsh challenges met by those with different norms, values and morals have to be accepted. The result was that this new group is outcasted in society and victimised for their different values. Similarly, Jock Young’s study of the Drug Takers was met with similar results. The ‘hippies’ used in a participant observation whilst using the drugs, was picked up by the media as criminal and deviant activity. Agents of social control such as the...
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