Mass Media And The Media

Pop culture media, like Law and Order, has a way of showing people how crime is portrayed. Case (2013), mentions that past studies about the representation of crime in the media has increasingly shown fear to the public and portraying unrealistic standards of how crime is in the real world. Media likes to exaggerate how things truly are in the real world, which is why people believe what the media portrays. People will believe that everything they see in a television show can truly happen in the real world, which certain things can happen but not everything. If people end up believing in how the media portrays crime then people will be living in fear of their society being more violent than it actually is (Case, 2013).

Assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance:

1.     Is the nature of crime in our society accurately presented by the media?  Discuss.

There is a plethora of crime related movies, TV shows, video games, etc. Violent portrayals of crime are everywhere. As most Americans do not have any personal experience with the criminal justice system, public knowledge of how it operates comes mostly from the media. Dowler (2003) did a study on the relationship between consumption of such media and fear of being victimized by crime. He found that there is, in fact, a relationship and people who consume more of this media are more afraid of crime. “Regular viewers of crime shows are more likely to fear or worry about crime. Similarly, regular crime drama viewers are more likely to hold negative attitudes toward police effectiveness.” (Dowler,

Most people use second hand information as their core source of information about crime, this source of information usually being the media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith (1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of criminal activity causing a moral panic. ‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group,

This essay will offer different definitions of crime, suggesting that it is a social construction as it varies across culture, time and belief. It will examine the role of social construction, through interpretation and meaning, in the identification, reporting and legal consequences of criminal acts. After illustrating how fear, escalated by the media, can directly affect crime, it will conclude that crime and its consequences are socially constructed.

Already existing data and research proves that experience higher levels of fear of crime than. The article provides evidence for this and evidence of research that states that there is a correlation between gender and the consumption of crime related media. Combining these two angles of research not only creates a platform for the author's’ argument it creates an undeniable wall of evidence for their claim. The two authors of this article provide the research, the evidence, and then combine the two to provide

According to Aaron's journal, concerns about the media have also taken other public forms including entering to political debates about law and order. This has featured arguments about whether media cause unreasonable fear of crime in the context these concerns. This point of view can be

For hundreds of years communities around the world have struggled with the criminal justice system and how it operates. Although many of the rules have changed, there are still groups of people who disagree with the existing guidelines. At a large, many of these people do not fully understand what they are opposing. These people have been manipulated and forced to believe in the ideas that they mindlessly back. Be it right or wrong, many of these ideas were created not for the gain of the masses, but for the gain of the persuasive few. In the past, these views would be established through different forms of printed materials and through word-of-mouth. Now these views are forced upon any person consuming any form of mass media. Some of the outlets include newspapers, tv, and sites used for communication. Even Though time has passed, the issues behind the criminal justice system are still being manipulated. One of the biggest issues being faced, concerns the desensitization of the community towards violent crimes such as serial killings. With this issue in mind, one question rises: how will media affect the the process of catching violent criminals in the future? Instead of media focusing on ways to get more potential views it should focus on ways to better the community in the future, such as better promoting the processes of the criminal justice system.

Chiricos and his colleagues (1995) found that television news associated with crime was significantly related to higher fear of crime for white women between the ages 30-54 in particular. Other findings of their research, was that the only significant relationship between fear of crime and listening to Radio News is reported for both, white and black women. The TV news effects are found primarily for female, white, and the middle-age audience and those with recent victim experiences, low income, and living in disproportionately black neighborhoods. Regardless of being recent victims of crime or not and living in high income or low income neighborhoods, women showed the most significant television news effect, which concluded that other factors other than resonance was at play. Therefore, their data clearly indicate the relationship between television news and fear of crime is entirely exclusive to white women, despite the fact that they are at low victim risk, according to Chiricos (1995) and his colleagues’

In what ways does the media misrepresent the nature of crime? Media happens to provide important sources of information for people that go beyond their personal experiences and has a huge impact on public debate and decision making. However, it has a very distorting and limited representation of the subject of crime and can very often misrepresent its nature. Media and “television [news] is often the primary source of values, agendas and perspectives and helps to shape the meaning of crime and criminality for the public” (Australian Psychological Society Ltd, 2000, p. 1) and the crimes the media decides to report on and how they present the news on these crimes can influence the public’s perception of crime around them.

It is unforunate that we live in a world where the media and government can influence personal opinions on acts of crimes and deviance. This essay will discuss the idea of a ‘moral panic’ and how it can influence the publics perception of crime. The paper will begin with a discussion on what a moral panic is, and then discuss Goode and Ben Yehuda’s four main types of a moral panic. Following this will be a summary on why the perceptions of crime have changed and the positive and negative effects of this change has on the public.

A total of 28,765,000 newspapers were sold Australia wide between Dec ’16 to Dec’17.” (Roy Morgan Survey, Australian newspaper readership December 2016-December 2017. http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/newspaper-readership) The way crime is reported in the media influences the way people think about crime. The media tends to focus on violent crime rather than other crimes such as property crime, because it influences the audience into thinking they and their community are at risk.

Prior to this semester, I had never given much thought to crime. It was always in the back of my mind because of the seemingly increasing chances of becoming a victim of crime. Over the semester I have explored a range of topics relating to crime. The purpose of this essay is to reflect upon certain topics explored over the semester. I have chosen to focus on topics that had the profound effect on my learning. I have since been able to form an opinion that is back by theory on these topics. The topics chosen are: crime and the media, women and crime, and theories of crime, specifically realism.

The importance given to certain crimes in the daily newspapers and other media sources shows us proof to the fact that crime is a topic that has the public’s interest and is a focus of their worries (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). It goes on to discuss the fact that crime as reported on by the media increases the public’s levels of fears and that there is little or no correlation to actual levels of violent crime in our society today.