Crime and the Media

Question 1

Content analysis

Answer 1

A systematic way of cooking and measuring the type of frequency of material as presented through the media.

Question 2

News

Answer 2

Social construction - ‘news is not discovered but manufactured’.

Question 3

Tabloid and Broadsheets newspapers

Answer 3

Broadsheets devote around 5% of their content to crime-news.
Tabloids devote around 30% coverage of crime-news.

Question 4

Homicide offences

Answer 4

Count for 1/3 of all crime-news yet homicide comprises 3% of all crimes across society.

Question 5

Violent and sexual offences

Answer 5

Over represented in crime-news. Headlines like ‘balaclava rapist’ catch attention but risk disorting the truth about rape.

Question 6

Risks to victims

Answer 6

Men’s victimisation is higher than women’s and yet the risk is often down-played.

Question 7

Stranger violence

Answer 7

The prevelance of stranger-violence (especially towards women) is exaggerated.

Question 8

Representation of crimes

Answer 8

White collar crime is underrepresented. Programme makers focus on street crime the most.

Question 9

The hypodermic syringe model of media affects

Answer 9

Media representation of crime have an instant, immediate impact in shaping public perceptions of crime.
People who watch TV for over 4 hours a day are said to express greater fear of crime. Moral panic can lead from labelling theory and from media manipulation.

Question 10

The hypodermic syringe model of media affects - criticisms

Answer 10

Does this approach patronise us in assuming we aren’t as capable of distinguishing facts from fiction?

Question 11

The hypodermic syringe model of media affects - criticisms - Users and Gratification theory

Answer 11

Audiences aren’t ‘injected’ with media content at all. Instead, the media provides crime content in such a way as to gratify audiences, who essentially control what they are provided with.
Notice how crime drama always brings about a sucessful outcome, unlike in reality where most crimes go undetected, unprosecuted and unsolved.

Question 12

Pluralist Theory

Answer 12

Argues that media owners are objective, responsible and impartial in the way they facilitate news to audiences. Journalists are people of integrity who would never willingly or knowingly jeapordise their own reputation or the organisation they work for. Audiences are firmly in charge of dictating what media they want to be provided with. Despite wanting to be objective, broad and balanced, the demands of the audience prevents this. To survive in a competitive market, it ends up focusing on some crimes and criminals more than others. As long as a story has news value, it will likely feature in the media:
- novelty (highly unsual)
- violence
- drama (excitement)
- ‘innocent’ and vulnerable victims

Question 13

Pluralist Theory - example

Answer 13

The history of television broadcasts in the UK help us understand to an extent why crime is represented this way. The BBC was once the only means of accessing TV crime-related news, and state owned, requiring programmes to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ audiences. It makes sense why crime related news and drama productions glorified crime in such ways. Since the 1950s, a de-regulation of the media had taken place, resulting in a growing diversity of channels as well as growing competition between terrestial, cabel and satellite companies.

Question 14

Pluralist Theory - criticisms - Ben Bagdikian

Answer 14

Increasing media concentration has undermined media pluralism. Giant corporations have consumed and silenced smaller, more local media networks. Despite more TV news channels existing now, they largely broadcast more of the same thing. This undermines attempts to provide audiences with diversity of coverage.

Question 15

Pluralist Theory - criticisms - Profit and the Infotainment industry

Answer 15

Competition among news providers commerical organisers to prioritise maximising profit rather than communicating news facts. Selection and choice of crime - stories form parts of the need to provide infotainment, but this risks misrepresenting crime.

Question 16

Pluralist Theory - case application

Answer 16

The murder of Joanna Yeates 2010. Her landlord was suspected of the crime, Christopher Jeffries, despite being released by police was completely villified by the media because of his appearance. ‘The unspoken assumption that no one could look that odd and be innocent’ - The Guardian. Jeffries launched legal action against 6 newspapers.

Question 17

Marxism, Crime and the Media

Answer 17

‘The ruling ideas are the ideas ofthe ruling class’. The media is owned by the powerful people who run powerful organisations. They have a vested interest in Capitalism and the messages it transmitts is in it’s interests, making them the primary definer of news. This comes at the determint of those who lack power and can only consume the news. Marxists believe the news is transmitting Capitalist ideology because it is a threat to Captalism. They demoise the poor as criminals, and create a cultural hegemony to prevent challenges to the system. White collar criminals go unnoticed, the sharp intuition of audiences is dulled. Media acts as the ‘new opium of the people’.

Question 18

Jean Baudrillard - The media, crime and hyper-reality

Answer 18

Takes a postmodernist position in arguing that society has become increasingly media saturated. The rise of ‘new media’ is linked to ways in which it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Fake news is referring to how easy it can be to create ‘news’ and ‘news stories’ despite lacking tangible evidence to support it. The difficulty in distinguishing truth from fiction leads to a hyper reality. Media representations of crime can be interpreted in this context.

Question 19

Jean Baudrillard - The media, crime and hyper-reality - case

Answer 19

BBC news article: Line of duty: ‘My favourite thing is reading the wild fan theories’
Line of duty: police drama, crime show thing

Question 20

The commodification of crime

Answer 20

Whereas relative deprivation is a concept used to explain what might motivate crime to acquire what they desire, others argue crime is a desirable lifestyle. A commodity to embrace and consume, the desire to commit crime can become a part of someone’s identity.

Question 21

The commodification of crime - Happy Slapping

Answer 21

Craze that swept the country in 2005 - film whilst slapping a stranger over the head without warning. It was relatively harmless, but some decided to take it further and further to achieve maximum social status. In March 2008, this trend got taken too far and someone died a result of being beaten to death. The bystander effect was shown firsthand as the girl filming got convicted for aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Question 22

Fenwick and Hayward - the media encouraging crime

Answer 22

Their research highlights how crime is ‘packaged and marketised’ to younger people through crime, especially as something cool and fashionable. Gangster rap and hip hop combines images of street hustler criminality with images of consumerist success. As such, the criminal lifestyle can be associated as a means to achieve luxury items and material. Fashion industries can use advertising to trade on images of the forbidden. Designer clothing section 60 is named after the act giving police powers to stop and search.

Question 23

Jock Young - Can the media feul crime?

Answer 23

The media exposes people to the lives of others. People get to see what they are missing out on. This can feul relative deprivation and become a motivator for criminal behaviour.

Question 24

Jock Young - criticisms

Answer 24

Relative deprivation is something anybody and arguably everyone can experience. Why do some people respond in criminal ways whilst the large majority doesn’t?
Relative deprivation may explain financial crimes, but does not explain violent and crimes without financial gain.

Question 25

Albert Bandura - imitative agression

Answer 25

Conducted a laboratory experiment in seeking to discover the effects of violent media to children. The children were shown a video of an adult behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll. One group of children saw another adult enter the room and criticise the behaviour of the adult in the video. Another saw an adult praising the other’s behaviour. The third group had no other adult pass judgement. All the children were placed individually in a room with a bobo doll and other toys. Children who watched the adult be criticised for his behaviour were least likely to be aggressive to the doll.

Question 26

Albert Bandura - case

Answer 26

September 2013: GTA in real life. Destroyed several cars, stole a car and kidnapped a person in a parking lot before running away.

Question 27

Anna Gekoski - Headline Homicides

Answer 27

Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. The UK coverage of homicide increases if the victims are: - children - elderly - white - of high social status or class - there are multiple victims - ‘stranger’ killings - female victims A journalist’s decision to define a homicide story as newsworthy is determined if: - a firearm was involved - the victim was perfect and deserving of the victim status - there was a statistical deviance or rarity - the killer is at large - it was a serial killer - there are unpredictable factors - there are sensational elements to the story The perfect victim is deemed to be innocent, vulnerable, respectable, blameless and of high social status. The underserving victim is one who is ‘underclass’, who ‘had it coming’ and ‘deserving of the murder’. Many describe it as ‘scum killing scum’. A newsworthy ‘killer on the run’ is defined by 4 factors: - a dramatic, ongoing story - round the clock live news coverage - elements of public danger and fear - public interest

Question 28

The New media and Cybercrime - the National Crime Agency

Answer 28

There’s a significant growth in cybercrime in the form of high-profile ransom wear campaigns in recent years. Breaches leaked personal data on a massive scale. Lives were put at risk by the WannaCry ransom wear campaign that affected the NHS and other organisations worldwide. Tactics are shifting as businesses are targeted over individuals. Phishing attacks on individuals are increasing, fewer are falling victim as people as become more alert. The distinction between nation states and criminal group is blurred, making identifying the perpetrators difficult. Many Russian speaking cyber groups are threatening UK interests, but home grown cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and become threatening. Young criminals are often driven by peer status/kudos, but UK cybercrime groups are motivated by profit. The most common cyber threats are: - hacking - phishing - malicious software - distributed denial of service (DDOS), attacks against websites Cybercrime is all increasing and financially devastating, making it severe and complex. The reporting of these crimes is low, making the scale of them unsure.

Question 29

The New media and Cybercrime - case

Answer 29

BBC News, Janurary 2024: Police investigating virtual sexual assault on girl's avatar.