Crime and the media

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  • Created by: evekav
  • Created on: 10-04-22 12:46
How does the media distort the image of crime?
*Overrepresents violent and sexual crime
*Portrays criminals and victims as older and more MC
*Exaggerates police successes
*Exaggerates risk of victimisation
*Reported as a series of separate events
*Overplays extraordinary crimes - dramatic fallacy
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Evidence in the changes in the type of coverage of crime by news media.
Schlesinger and Tumber - 1960s focus was murders and petty crimes but by 1990s they were of less interest in the media so reporting had widened to include drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism and mugging.
2 of 30
What is it argued that news is?
A social construct - it reflects public mood and interests
Cohen and Young - the news is not discovered but manufactured
3 of 30
What are news values?
The criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough.
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What are the key news values which influence the selection of crime stories?
*Immediacy - breaking news
*Dramatisation
*Personalisation
*Higher status persons
*Simplification
*Novelty/unexpectedness
*Risk - victim centred stories
*Violence
5 of 30
What does Surette say fictional representations of crime follow and what are they similar to?
'The law of opposite' - they are the opposite of official statistics
Strikingly similar to news coverage
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How might the media cause crime and deviance?
*Imitation - copycat behaviour
*Arousal
*Desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence
*Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
*A target for crime - eg thefts of tvs
*Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods
*Portraying police as incompetent
7 of 30
What evidence is there that points to the media causing a fear of crime?
Gerbner et al - heavy users of television had higher levels of fear of crime.
8 of 30
How do Greer and Reiner criticise the research on fear created by the media?
It ignores the meanings viewers give to media violence- interpretivists
9 of 30
What do left realists see the media as increasing?
The sense of relative deprivation among poor and marginalised groups.
10 of 30
How does the media create a sense of relative deprivation?
Shows people lifestyles they desire but cannot afford which causes people to resort to crime to get what they can't obtain legitimately.
11 of 30
What does cultural criminology argue about the media as a cause of crime?
Media turns crime itself into the commodity that people desire and encourage them to consume crime.
12 of 30
What does Hayward and Young argue we are immersed in?
The mediascape - an ever-expanding tangle of fluid digital images, creating a blur between images and the reality of crime.
13 of 30
What do Fenwick and Young see crime has become?
A style - packaged, marketed to young people as a romantic, exciting, cool and fashionable cultural symbol.
Corporations use media images of crime to sell products.
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What is a moral panic?
Exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem.
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What happens in a moral panic?
*Media identifies a group as a folk devil or threat to societal values
*Media presents this group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the problem
*'Respectable' people condemn the group and its behaviour
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How can moral panics lead to a self fulfilling prophecy?
Crackdown on the groups activity->finds more illegal activity/deviance->label assumed->tougher action=SFC
17 of 30
How did the media contribute to the mods and rockers?
Minor dispute turned into an over-reaction in the media:
*Exaggeration and distortion
*Prediction
*Symbolisation
18 of 30
How did the media exaggerate and distort the mods and rockers?
Exaggerated numbers involved, the extent of the violence and distorted the picture through dramatic reporting.
19 of 30
How did the media use prediction between the mods and rockers?
They predicted conflict and violence would result
20 of 30
How did the media use symbolisation between the mods and rockers?
The symbols of the mods and rockers were all negatively labelled and associated with deviance.
21 of 30
What did Cohen argue the media created?
Deviance amplification spiral
22 of 30
What did the deviance amplification spiral lead to?
*More youths adopting the groups' styles
*Polarisation
*Self fulfilling prophecy
23 of 30
What does Cohen argue the mods and rockers moral panic was a result of?
A boundary crisis - where there was uncertainty about where the boundary lay between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
24 of 30
Who believe moral panics are a way of responding to anomie?
Functionalists
25 of 30
What does Hall et al see as the role of moral panics?
Serve capitlaism - mugging in the media in the 1970s served to distract attention from the crisis of capitalism + divide the WC
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What are the criticisms of the idea of moral panics?
*Who decides whether a reaction is proportionate or not?
*Amplification spirals - uncertain how the media can create some but not others, on or off?
*Less impact as society is used to news stories
27 of 30
How do Thomas and Loader define cyber crime?
Computer-mediated activities that are either illegal or considered illicit by some, and are conducted through global electronic networks.
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What crimes does Jewkes say the internet has created?
*Conventional crimes - opportunities for fraud
*New crimes using new tools - like software piracy
29 of 30
What 4 categories of cybercrime does Wall identify?
*Cyber-trespass - eg hacking
*Cyber-deception/theft
*Cyber-***********
*Cyber-violence
*Global cyber-crime
30 of 30

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Evidence in the changes in the type of coverage of crime by news media.

Back

Schlesinger and Tumber - 1960s focus was murders and petty crimes but by 1990s they were of less interest in the media so reporting had widened to include drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism and mugging.

Card 3

Front

What is it argued that news is?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What are news values?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What are the key news values which influence the selection of crime stories?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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