Media and crime

What does Mandel suggest about the fictional representations of crime

he recorded over 10 billion crime thrillers sold worldwide.

What do Fenwick and Hayward suggest about the commodification of crime?

they suggest that the media uses crime as a way of selling goods to young people.

What do Hayward and Young suggest about the commodification of crime?

they see the commodification of crime as romanticising crime and making it culturally acceptable - through association with products.

What does Reiner suggest about the fictional representations of crime?

argues that fictional views of crime over-represent murder and violent crime

What does Surette argue about the law of opposites?

crime is often misrepresented through the media

Law of opposites:

‘psychopathic strangers’ are rare in murder and sexual assault cases. Criminal conviction are far lower than what is seen on screen.

Impacts of media representations

there’s a correlation between media usage and the fear of crime, high users are more likely to be afraid of being a victim of crime. Media is a form of ideological state apparatus according to Althusser, this sets agendas for criminalising behaviours of the working class. It promotes the ideology of the media owners, predominantly right wing which centres on crimes of the working class and non-white ethnic groups. Invisibility of state crime, corporate crimes and green crimes in traditional media reporting.

Felson argument on the impacts of media representations:

the media portrays victims of crime as older and more middle class, the age and class fallacy.

What does Greer and Reiner suggest about the interpretations of media?

they suggest that not all individuals interpret media in the same way

What does Jewkes suggest about the interpretations of media?

there’s a large number of factors influencing peoples perceptions of crime, including personal experience

Interpretations of media:

Changing attitudes within fictional media, more realistic interpretations of crime, corrupt police and criminals getting away with crime.

Media reporting on crime:

media reporting of crime focuses on the role of the media news agencies. Agenda setting in the media leads individuals to discuss what is presented to them. Based upon the decisions of editorial teams in the media selecting what they think is newsworthy.

Galtung and Rune on news values

they developed a series of news values that influenced editor’s decisions on content. These included dramatization, immediacy, personalisation, simplification and status. News is therefore selected in order to obtain viewers, rather than inform the population. Crimes such as terrorism and murder are more likely to be selected for the graphic imagery. Greater emphasis on the Western world due to being culturally more similar. Celebrity or higher status offences are more likely to be reported.

Cumberbatch et al on the misrepresentation of crime reporting

found that crime reporting made up between 38%-53% of all news coverage across major media platforms.

Williams and Dickinson on the misrepresentation of crime

they found that tabloid coverage of crime was greater than that of broadsheet newspapers

Soothill and Walby on the misrepresentation of crime reporting

argued that sexual crimes were overrepresented in the media coverage.

Reiner on the misrepresentation of crime

argued that despite majority of crime being property related, this occupies little coverage

Marhia on the misrepresentation of crime

Over representation of success in sexual assault and attacks by strangers compared to reality

Media and moral panics:

stigmatisation of minority groups through media discussion of moral panics. Disproportionate time given to knife crime in London compared to other cities in the UK. Focusing on crimes by those on benefits reinforces the public perception of ‘benefit scroungers’.

Impacts of media reporting

Reinforces stereotypical views of minority groups which leads to further marginalisation. Increases fear of crime - Gerbner and Gros found increased consumption led to increased fear of crime. Reinforcing ideas of who is the victim of crime and reasserting control through positivist victimology.

Media as a form of crime:

nature of capitalism, relative deprivation, feminist approaches, promoting moral panics, imitation and desensitisation, cyber crime

Nature of Capitalism:

promotes false needs through utilising traditional advertising. Targeted advertising towards individuals on low incomes promoting means to achieve these goods through credit, cycle of poverty. Leads to development of counterfeit goods. Smaller financial crimes (TV license evasion) impacts on low income families.

Relative deprivation:

Focus of media on middle-class consumption and lifestyles leads to relative deprivation. Access to media is largely universal and therefore those on lower incomes will have access to messages promoting consumption of goods. Inability to afford goods and services that others have can lead to strain to anomie.

Feminist approaches:

Over-sexualisation of women in media makes them targets or sexual harassment. Representations of women as being submissive to males challenge issues of content. Reporting of the behaviour of female victims in the media questions women’s behaviours rather than most males.

Promoting moral panics:

Role of moral entrepreneurs in creating moral panics leads to deviancy amplification. Broadcast of counter-cultural activities increases membership of counter cultures. Critics suggest that these eventually become part of mainstream culture.

Imitation and desensitisation

imitation of crimes, particularly those that are glamourised by the media. Transmission of criminal techniques through mainstream media and online. desensitisation to effects of violence through the media. Often based upon small studies or are inconclusive in their findings. Growth of online criminal activity related to expansion of online media, particularly social media. Depersonalisation of cyber space leads to increased trolling and cyber harassment. Cyber-enabled crimes such as identity fraud, has grown with the expansion of the internet. Cyber dependant crimes would not exist without the media.

Postmodernist perspective

We live our lives in a media generated hyper-reality. There are 100s of crime programs on Netflix alone. Our experience of crime and criminals comes from a source that claims to be objective and giving us a true representation but it is in fact created on similar lines to historical fiction. Because it is shot in a documentary style we believe we are getting the truth, not a socially constructed narrative, edited together on the basis of human interaction.

Agenda setting

agenda setting is the power of the media to determine what is and isn’t important and the issues that are presented for public debate. The media can’t report on all crime, so media is very selective in the incidents they choose to inform the public about. Media representations and reporting of crime therefore influence what people believe about crime through what is and isn’t reported

Nicola Hawkes

first person ever to be convicted of cyberflashing

Media causes crime:

The media could be guilty of causing crime due to the following being triggered: imitation, glamourising criminals, arousal, de-sensitisation, transmitting criminal knowledge, commodity fetishism, target for crime

Hayward and Young on crime as a consumer spectacle

Advertisers use crime to sell products e.g. gangster rap, hip-hop, video games combine images of crime being cool and exciting.

The mass media causes crime:

Mass media influences the younger generation as they use it more and therefore are more likely to be influenced from the things they see. Media promotes idealistic lifestyles so people might commit crime. Commodity fetishism

The mass media doesn’t cause crime:

cultural factors effect it like class, family, attitudes, deprivation. The media may amplify crime and encourage it, but it doesn’t necessarily cause it.