Media And Mainstream Media

The media plays a huge role in forming people's perceptions of crime. Without the media we would remain ignorant to occurrences outside our direct social groups. The media and especially news coverage therefore provides us with an important point of contact with the rest of society. In evaluating its effect on popular perceptions of crime it becomes important to consider where most of the information comes from and how representative it is on actual criminality. If it takes "facts" (the truth, the actual event, a real thing) or if it is heightened to a crime myth. With a myth being based upon "exaggeration" or heightening of "ordinary" events in life. Crime myths become a convenient

Criminology is continuously changing and developing. Advances of technology have made media our primary news source for crime. We believe the stories told by our local news media, not doubting a word because these sources are supposedly reliable. Nevertheless, they sometimes do spread false information. It may be intentional or unintentional. According to Cohen, media presence amplifies a problem which did not previously exist (Steeves and Milford, 2015) thus creating a moral panic. As media influence increases, it is necessary for criminologists to study moral panics, such as the Columbine School shootings or the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

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).

My research topic is misrepresentation of crime and the criminal justice system in the media. My thesis is that there is a misrepresentation of crime in the media due to a fear of crime, perceived police effectiveness, and distortion of coverage of crime in the media. Studies on crime and the criminal justice system in the media show that the media misrepresents crime and criminals. They also show that the effect the media has on people is based on how people interpret the information. The media influences public opinion about crime and the criminal justice system due to the disproportionate coverage of crimes, criminals, and victims.

It is commonly known that crime in Canada has gone down over the last few years, and that this is or has been advertised in just about every online news outlet in Canada. Overall, this is great! However, we still see and hear about many stories based around crime daily in the news, and this is not surprising. What is though, is that the crime reported in the news is typically violent crime, regardless of the fact that crime statistics typically indicate that only about 10 percent of crimes committed in Canada are actually violent. Stats Canada (2014) indicates that there are approximately 340,000 violent crime violations (e.g. homicide, sexual assault, robbery) per year. This may sound like a lot, and it is! But not when you consider that there is approximately 1,00,000 property crime violations (e.g. break and enter; theft over 5,000) and 582,000 other crime violations (e.g. administration of justice violations, impaired driving, drug violations) per year. It is argued that the media disproportionately reports violent crime because is more serious and creates a better news story, which in turn gains more views for the media. Not many people would be intrigued hearing about how many parking violations occurred that day or how many petty thefts occurred. Non-violent crime is unintentionally, and sometimes

In the United States, violent crime has been steadily declining since its peak in the early 1990s (Lott, 2013). Violent crime, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, includes four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault (FBI, 2012). These crimes are measured by the Justice Department in terms of number reported by victims as well as those tried and convicted in a court of law (FBI, 2012). Despite the steady decrease, the vast majority of Americans admit to possessing a very genuine fear of violent crime both in their local neighborhoods and in the nation at large (Lott, 2013). When surveyed over the last several years, nearly half of the American population consistently believed violent crime had increased from the year prior (Cohn, 2013). In reality, the instances of violent crime had been and continue to be deteriorating at a rapid pace (Cohn, 2013).

Though it is refreshing that news coverage is no longer solely focused on offenders, the increased coverage of crime victims can have unintended consequences (notes). The media tends to increase coverage levels for crimes (or perpetrators or victims) that are “unusual, unexpected, strange, or perverse” (Karmen, 2015, p. 47); in turn, increased media coverage levels can lead to additional pain and suffering for crime victims and their

The fear of crime and media bias are one of the many issues faced associated with crime the way society views the correlation of news and frequencies of crime is far off from reality. Another reason why fear of crime is most important is due to the reinforcement provided to the public of which precautions is needed to be taken for their safety. Many of the crime that is shown is by what is most significant and inhumane to the morality of society. Violent crimes re not as frequently done statistically as seen on any source, rather is the incidents of non-violent crimes. This could also be viewed as a dark figure by media.

Lastly, the dramatization by news programs today produces a glamorization of crime. News stories on crimes are extremely popular due to the fact audiences’ remembers bad news much easier than good news. Take history for example, much of history is filled with recounts of gruesome murders, wars, and scandals. An estimated 71 million viewers across the country tune in to their local news station’s broadcast (Yanich, 2004, p. 537). It can easily be

A large number of articles nowadays consistently debates about the way crime is shown throughout the media is in fact incredibly different from what official research and other records tell us, this is showing how the media misrepresents the nature of crime. Below will provide an overview of how the media misrepresent evidence for real-life crime and how they do this. It is seen that the media is the public’s primary source about crime and this has helped to the exploitation of the inaccuracy with presenting the nature of crime.

The news media as most other print, radio, and television media are in a constant competition for ratings. A direct result of this rating competition is the sensationalizing of the media reports received by the general public. One of the most significant problems resulting from the news media’s misrepresentation of crime is the mistrust it creates between the general public and the criminal justice system. If the public were only to believe what is reported by the various news media, then the assumption would have to be that all the crime in this country is at the felonious level in which someone is usually killed with a gun. According to Bohm and Haley (2011), the distribution of police calls indicates that the majority of crime is anything

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.

Different forms of media, such as television, films, books, and newspapers, have similar ways of portraying the criminal justice system. The media constructs representations of crime and justice and in doing this, it presents an often dramatized representation of the criminal justice system; and this does not just influence on the public’s lay view of crime but also for criminal justice experts (Marsh, 2014). In the media it is commonly known that they are a business, and businesses need to make a profit. Because of this, the media’s portrayal of the criminal justice system has been very negative. With the news, their main purpose is to produce what sells. So many of them would edit the information they have gathered and make a story that will sell. Also the media does not show the full process of the criminal justice as a quick process, while in fact it is not. For example, last year, Netflix released a short series called “Making A Murderer”. Most people claimed that they feel like they can solve a crime when they finished watching a series. While that series is very factual, it does not hit every single step of the criminal justice process.

The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness is discussed in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. The article states the public knowledge of crime and justice is largely derived from the media. This statement could not be more true (Dowler, 2003). Society only knows what it is told and very few people actually do their own research other than watching the nightly local news. People watch movies and TV shows and assume what police do which can cause some major issues. The relationship between coverage of violent crime and a general fear amongst the population is studied as well. The study showed that the crime and violence portrayed on TV is actually much higher than the actual statistical data of crimes committed (Dowler, 2003). The researchers determined that the viewer internalizes the information seen on TV and truly believe that the crime portrayed is real. The effect of local news is shown to be higher for residents in high crime areas and those who have actually experienced victimization. The local news tells the viewers daily what is going on and the majority of the episode is violence because that is what brings viewers. If the viewers are watching the news

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.