media representation of crime Flashcards
(8 cards)
media over-represent violent and sexual crime
Ditton and Duffy found that 46% of all media reports were about violent or sexual crimes, yet these made up only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police. A review by Marsh of studies of news reporting in America found that that a violent crime was 36 times more likely to be reported than a property crime
Media coverage exaggerates police success
One reason is the police are a major source of crime stories and want to be presented in a good light. Another reason is because the media over-represent violent crime, which has a higher clear-up rate than property crime so it looks like the police are doing a better job
Media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle class
Felson calls this the ‘age fallacy’. Those who are criminals and victims are actually younger and more working class
Preoccupation with sex crimes
Soothill and Walby found that newspapers reporting on rape cases increased from under a quarter of all cases in 1951 to over a third in 1985. The coverage consistently focused on identifying a ‘sex fiend’ often by use of labels such as the ‘balaclava rapist’. The resulting distorted picture of rape is one of serial attacks carried out be psychotic strangers. In reality, in most cases the perpetrator is known by the victim
New values and crime coverage
News is a social construct. A central part of the manufacture of news is the notion of ‘news values’. These are the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the newspapers or news bulletin. If a crime story can be told in terms of some of these criteria, then it has a better chance of making the news
fictional representations of crime
Fictional representations of crime, criminals and victims follow what Surette calls ‘the law of opposites’- they are opposite of the official statistics and therefore similar to news coverage. Property crime is under represented while violence, drugs and sex crimes are over represented
recent trends in representation of crime
New genre of ‘reality’ infotainment shows tend to feature young, non-white, underclass offenders
Increasing tendency to show police as corrupt and brutal
victims have become more central
Media as moral entrepreneurs
Media establishes themselves as the self-appointed guardians of national morality by labelling and stereotyping certain groups and activities as deviant. Even if what is reported is exaggerated media stories can demonise people as folk devils.
