Crime and the Media (Societal Reaction to crime)

?
  • Created by: Heather
  • Created on: 01-02-16 18:13
What are the 4 topic areas for a crime and the media essay?
-Media representations of crime, -The media as a cause of crime, -Deviancy amplification and moral panics, -Global cybercrime
1 of 101
For key points about the media representation of crime, what percent of news coverage is about crime?
Up to 30%
2 of 101
In the 1960s, what was media coverage often focused on?
Murders and petty crimes
3 of 101
Today, what has media coverage widened to?
Sex crimes, drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism and mugging,
4 of 101
For key points about media representation, the media are a powerful agency of what and how do they shape criime?
-Powerful agencies of social control that shape out perceptions of crime, -They present a distorted picture compared to OCS,
5 of 101
For distortions created by media, what type of crime do they over-represent?
Violent and sexual crime,
6 of 101
What percent of media crimes are about violent or sexual crimes, yet what percent do they make up on OCS?
-46% of media reports are about violent and sexual crimes, -Make up 3% of OCS,
7 of 101
How does the media frequently present rapists? In contrast, who are they usually?
-They are frequently presented as 'psychopathic strangers', -Most rapists are known to the victim,
8 of 101
How does the media portray the police?
They exaggerate police success in clearing up cases,
9 of 101
What do the media also over exaggerate and examples?
The risks of victimisation- Especiallly to women, white and middle class people,
10 of 101
What crimes do the media overplay and underplay?
The media overplay extraordinary and dramatic crimes, -They underplay ordinary crimes,
11 of 101
How does the media portray criminals and victims?
As older and more middle-class than appear in the criminal justice system,
12 of 101
For news values and crime coverage, what does distorted crime news coverage reflect?
It reflects the fact that news is a social construction,
13 of 101
Why can media be a social construction?
AS it is the outcome of a social process by which some stories are selected and others are rejected,
14 of 101
What are the purpose of news values?
To determine whether a story is newsworthy and 'manufactured',
15 of 101
What types of crimes are most likely to meet news values?
Crime and deviance that is unusual and extraordinary,
16 of 101
What do the news values allow for the media to recieve?
To recieve a lot of news coverage,
17 of 101
How many news values are there?
8
18 of 101
Give the 8 news values?
-Immeditate, -Dramatic, -Personal, -High status persons and celebrities, -Simplifications, -Novelty, -Risk, -Violence,
19 of 101
What fictional representations distort crime?
-Tv, -Cinema, -Novels,
20 of 101
Give a statistics for the success of crime novels?
Millions of crime novels are shown each year,
21 of 101
What percent of prime time TV and films are about crime?
25% of prime time Tv, -20% of films are crime shows,
22 of 101
What sociologist claims what about fictional representations?
-Surette, -Claims fictional representations follow a law of opposites, opposite of OCS, but similar to news coverage,
23 of 101
What type of crime is under-represented?
Property crimes,
24 of 101
What type of crimes are over-represented?
Violent, drugs and sex crimes,
25 of 101
What do fictional representations of crime show murder to be like? In contrast, what are they in real life a result of?
-Fictional Representations-Follows greed and calculaton, -In real life- From brawls and domestic disputes,
26 of 101
How do fictional representations of crime present sex crime? In contrast, what are they like in reality?
-Fictional representation- Psychopathic strangers, -Real life- Acquaitances,
27 of 101
However, what types of offencers do more recent 'reality' TV shows focus on?
-non-white 'underclass' offenders,
28 of 101
How to more recent 'reality' TV shows present the police?
As being less successful,
29 of 101
What kind of focus do more recent 'reality' TV shows have?
Victim focus,
30 of 101
For the media as a cause of crime, what three things have been linked to violent behaviour in society?
1) Violent films 2) Computer games, 3) Rap lyrcis
31 of 101
What are the four ways in which media can cause crime?
1)Imitation 2)Desensitisation 3)Arousal, 4)Teaching,
32 of 101
What is imitation as a way media can cause crime?
The media can provide deviant role models, resulting in 'copycat' behaviour,
33 of 101
What is desensitisation as a way media can cause crime?
Through repeated viewing of crim,e
34 of 101
What is arousal as a way media can cause crime?
Through viewing violent or sexual imagery,
35 of 101
What is teaching as a way media can cause crime?
Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques,
36 of 101
What sociologist found what gender who has witnessed alot of TV violence commited around what percent more violent acts than control groups?
-Belson, -Boys, -49% more violent acts
37 of 101
What sociologist conducted what kind of experiment to investigate what?
-Bandura et al, -Lab experiment, -To see if watching filmed images of aggression made children more violent,
38 of 101
What did the experimental group who saw the aggression display?
They displayed more violent behaviour than the control group,
39 of 101
However, what is the problem with this evidence?
There is no conclusive evidence that media violence directly causes violent behaviour.
40 of 101
Instead, what does most research show about media?
It is said to have limited negative impact on audiences,
41 of 101
For example, what did what sociologists find about correlations between offenders and non-offenders?
-Hagell and Newburn, -Found young offenders were no more likely to watch violent programmes than non-offenders,
42 of 101
For the media and relative deprivation, what theorists argue media increase the sense of relative deprivation amongst who?
-Left Realists, -Amongst marginalised or socially excluded groups,
43 of 101
How do the media increase the sense of relative deprivation?
By instilling expectations of consumptions/ cultural inclusions (e.g. latest phone)
44 of 101
For the media causing fear of crime, what groups does the media exaggerate risks of crime to?
-Young women and the elderly,
45 of 101
What does this create among these groups?
A distorted fear of crime,
46 of 101
Research shows a correlation between who to show media causes fear of crime?
-A correlation between tabloid readers/high users of TV and fear of becoming a victim, expecially physical attacks,
47 of 101
For deviancy amplification and moral panics, what theorists argue media amplify crime through the process of moral panics?
Interactionists,
48 of 101
What effect is caused by this and why?
-A deviancy spiral effect, -As the media manipulates audiences through the process of social control,
49 of 101
Media can further cause crime and deviance through what?
Labelling,
50 of 101
For the deviancy spiral effect, firstly, what do the media identify a group as and an example?
They identify a group as a 'folk devil' -E.g. single parents,
51 of 101
What do the group become and what are they seen as a threat to?
-They become demonised, -Seen as a threat to social order/ societal's values,
52 of 101
The media present the group in what kind of way?
In a negative and stereotyped way,
53 of 101
How do the media portray their deviance?
It is sensationalised and exaggerate (an over-reaction)
54 of 101
Who then condemn the group's behaviour?
-Moral entrepeneurs, -Politicans, -The police, -News editors,
55 of 101
What control does this lead to and an example?
-Formal social control increases, -For example more police officers are deployed to deal with the problems and new laws can be created,
56 of 101
Therefore, what does deviance become and why?
-Deviance becomes amplified, -Because deviants live up to the labelling by the media and the increase social control,
57 of 101
Therefore, what takes place due to media amplification?
A self-fulfilling prophecy,
58 of 101
Give an example of media amplification and who studied them?
The mods and the rockers, -Cohen,
59 of 101
What did Cohen find about the mods and rockers and the media?
-Found that minor fights between mods and rockers in seaside resorts between 1964-1966 were very much sensationalised by the media,
60 of 101
What three things did the media do when presenting the mods and rockers?
-Exaggeration/distortion, -Prediciton, -Symbolism,
61 of 101
For exaggeration/distortion, what did the media dramatically distort and example of their headlines and statistics?
The numbers involved and the extent of violence and damage was dramatically distorted through sensationalised headlines E.g. "Wild ones invade seaside town-97 arrests"- In fact only 24 arrests were made,
62 of 101
For prediction which took place, what did the media predict?
They assumed and predicted more violence would take place,
63 of 101
For symbolism which took place, what characterisitics were negatively labelled and associated with deviance?
-The clothing, hairstyles, music etc were negativelly labelled and associated with deviance,
64 of 101
What did media reporting lead to in terms of control?
Increase in social control took place and increase policing,
65 of 101
Therefore, what key term describes what took place by the media?
Deviancy amplification,
66 of 101
Why did the media cause deviancy amplification?
AS more youths were drawn to the subcultural groups which created more participants for 'future' clashes,
67 of 101
What did Cohen argue was the reason for why moral panics occur?
Due to social change,
68 of 101
What did Cohen argue the mods and rockers moral panic was a result of?
A result of a boundary crisis, where there was uncertainty about the boundary of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour during the 1960s,
69 of 101
What do Functionalists see moral panics as a reponse to and what does this mean?
-Anomie (normlessness),
70 of 101
What does the dramatising of events serves to do?
It serves to unite society into existing (if threatened) values,
71 of 101
Neo Marxists such as who studied the media's sensationalised coverage of what crime in the 1970s?
-Hall et al, -Black mugging,
72 of 101
What did Hall et al argue was the reason for the media's moral panic about black mugging for and examples?
To draw attention away from the crisis of capitialism E.g. High unemployment and inflation,
73 of 101
What did black mugging create in the working class and justified what?
It created a divide in the working class on racial grounds, -It justified increased policing to suppress opposition,
74 of 101
For evaluation, what theorist attacks interactionist explanations about deviancy amplifcation and moral panics?
Postmodernists,
75 of 101
Give an example postmodern sociologist and what does she argue about the publics reactions to moral panics?
-Thornton, -She argues that audience reaction to moral panics is not uniform- Now, they have less impact,
76 of 101
Why does she argue moral panics have less impact on people?
-Peopl are less concerned so not easily panicked, -There is little consensus about what is deviant (e.g. single parenthood),
77 of 101
What does Thornton also argue about manipulation/ influence?
She argues in a postmodern society, deviant groups influence (even manipulate) media coverage
78 of 101
Therefore, deviants are not just what?
They aren't just victims,
79 of 101
Give an example of a subcultural group and how and why they might encourage moral panics?
-Environmentalists, -May encourage negative labelling and moral panics as it gurantees coverage, -Therefore it helps growth and support for their subculture,
80 of 101
What are there new moral panics about?
Cybercrimes,
81 of 101
What sociologist argues what about opportunities?
-Walls, -Argues the internet (media type) has created new opportunities for crime,
82 of 101
What are four different types of cyber-crime?
-Cyber-trespassm -Cyber deception and theft, -Cyber-***********, -Cyber-violence,
83 of 101
Give some general examples of cyber-trespass?
Hacking and sabotage such as spreading viruses,
84 of 101
Give some general examples of cyber deception and theft?
Identify theft, fraud, software piracy, illegal downloading and file sharing,
85 of 101
Give some general examples of cyber ***********?
Involving minors and opportunities for children to access **** on the net,
86 of 101
Give some general examples of cyber-violence?
Doing psycholgical harm or inciting physical harm E.g. Cyber-stalking (sending unwanted offensive emails or texts,
87 of 101
Give one reason why it is difficult to police cyber crimes due to the internet?
It is complex and on a huge scale,
88 of 101
What is another reason based on the resources?
The police have limited resources,
89 of 101
What is another reason based on prosecution?
It is global so creates a rpbolem of jurisdiction (where to prosecute)
90 of 101
Give another example of why it is difficult to police cyber crimes due to police culture?
Cyber-crime is given a low priority-lacks excitement of more conventional policing,
91 of 101
Although, what helps the police fight crime and some examples?
New ICT/ technology, E.g.-CCTV, -Databses, -Digital fingerprints, -Identity cards, -Listening devices to monitor email traffic,
92 of 101
What theorists are critical of such survelliance and why?
-Postmodernists, -They argue such technologies are invasive and infringe people's human rights.
93 of 101
What do postmodernists argue about new forms of surveillance tehcnologies?
They represent dangerous and excessive social control,
94 of 101
To conclude, how do the media present crime?
They give it a distorted crime,
95 of 101
What types of crimes are over represented and why?
-Violent crime, -AS it meets many news values and helps sell newspapers/ attract audiences,
96 of 101
WHile some see the media as causing crime, why is there lack of evidnece?
Evidence shows the media has limited effects,
97 of 101
What area is the media more powerful in causing crime?
More powerful by creating feelings of relative deprivatiom among the poor,
98 of 101
What does the media create which amplifies deviance?
-Moral panics,
99 of 101
However, does this have the same effect now?
The effects are less strong in a postmodern world as audiences are less easily manipulated by the media.
100 of 101
New forms of media such as internet have created opportunities for what two things?
-Cyber-crime, -'Policing' criminal and non-criminal populations
101 of 101

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

For key points about the media representation of crime, what percent of news coverage is about crime?

Back

Up to 30%

Card 3

Front

In the 1960s, what was media coverage often focused on?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Today, what has media coverage widened to?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

For key points about media representation, the media are a powerful agency of what and how do they shape criime?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Sociology resources:

See all Sociology resources »See all Crime and deviance resources »