Media and crime

News is social construct

News isn’t out there waiting to be discovered but is produced during social processes

Give distorted view of crime want to make profit by presenting dramatic, shocking, attention seeking so more people click on articles or buy papers

Media over represent sexual crimes make up 3% of crime but 46% of news

Exaggerate victimisation: men more likely to be victims but many women are afraid to go out and be victims, women more likely to be victim to partner, men to strangers, media portray rapists as strangers on the street

News values - Cohen & Young

Criteria used to decide if story is news worthy

news want to sell stories to get profit, more values story meet more likely to be reported

• High status - celebrities in public eye, can draw in lots of fans and attention

• Immediacy - is it relevant, fresh, new happening now, not old or boring

• Dramatisation - sense of action, excitement, story to lure followers in and revisit them as a source for info

• Risk - to prevent more victims, safe to publicise, fear of victimisation

• Violence - shocking more interesting, exciting

• Personification - create story for people to get emotionally invested in and want updates

• Simplication - news often break down or simplify complicated cases to make more consumerable to large groups, involve, engage, not alienate

• Novelty - unexpected, provide a different angle make unique

Fictional representation of crime

Represent crime opposite to stats and similar to news

• Police tend to get the man

• Most crime are property related e.g burglary but not represented

• Sex crime perpetrator portrayed as psychotic stranger but more likely to know them

• Sexual and violent crimes over represented

Media cause of crime

Imitation: copy-cats that copy criminals for status, provide criminal role model

Transmit knowledge: provide info on how to commit crime, technique to use etc

Target for crime: TV, video games, computers are all targets and good that can be stolen, TV license fraud

Arousal: porn and violent stimulate arousal, commit crime to satisfy self, normalises behaviour to women increase sexual crime

Desensitise: Become accustomed to violent behaviour, normalise action so more likely to commit

Stimulating desire: advertising create false need and desire to consume goods

Glamourise crime

Police presented as incompetent

Evaluation:

Functionalists: Arousal e.g porn acts as safety valve to prevent major crime

Study 3500 studies found no conclusive evidence that TV, video games leads to violent crime by desensitising

Left realist: stimulating desire isn’t enough need individualism in society to create crime

Capitalism

Feminist explanation

Selective filter model - for message of media to be received needs to pass 3 filters - Klapper

Selective exposure: people choose media they consume, depend on interests and characteristics, certificates and genres give idea what media is about

Selective perception: if message is something they don’t agree with they will ignore, disengage or reject

most engage with media that confirm existing values

Selective retention: audience needs to remember the message after watching, live in culture with shot attention spans, study of grammar school boys, after viewing test 3 mins later only retain 60% info

Moral panic - Cohen (mods and rockers)

Left realist

Advertising create relative deprivation

Targeted towards low income people

Doesn’t on own create crime, need individualism as well from society

Cyber crime

Cyber dependent: requires use of computer system to take place

Cyber enabled: traditional crimes made easier with ICT

Cyber crimes:

Cyber trespassing: crossing into others property, hacking, spreading viruses

Cyber pornography: pornography of minors, access of it to minors

Cyber theft and deception: identity theft, phishing scams, piracy/ illegal downloading, cat fishing involving fraud, non-consensual sexual contact

Cyber violence: inciting violence e.g bullying, causing mental or physical harm