Media representations of crime

studies show that the newspapers devote up to a third of their space to the reporting of crime particulary violent and sexual crime

this is because the public are facinated by crime  even though they might fear it

people like to read stories that have;

1. immediacy; 'breaking news'

2. dramatisation; action and exictement

3. personlisation; human interest stories abou induviduals

4. about celebrities and higher status people

5. violence

1. Amplifications of deviance 

2. Moral panic 

3. Folk Devil 

• The idea that the media contribute to the escalation of activities of which the majority of the population disapproves 

How does the process of deviancy amplification begin? 

1. an event or a phenomena which the media report or headline 

2. the report arouses concern in the population 

3. the public demand that somthing needs to be done about it  

4. the police respond by placing more resources in the area of concern

5. this catches more induviduals doing illegal activity 

6. the media then gives the impression that the intial activity  is on the increase . THIS IS CALLED DEVIENCY AMPLIFICATION

A moral panic is; 

1. a situation in which the media reporting create a 'folk devil' of a particular social group 

2. the public demand to the authorities that something is done 

THIS IS DESCRIBED AS A MORAL PANIC 

1. where a particular group become stigmatized by society 

2. eg New Age travellers became folk devils in the 1990's 

3. the police ended up preventing their gatherings, they also recieved bad press