Media's Influence On The Criminal Justice System

Policing the Media: A literature review of the Role the Media Plays in the Public’s Perception of Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System.

The media plays the role as entertaining and a source of information to its viewers, however, with the current crime trends, most viewers have the perceptions that our criminal justice system is lacking in areas of proper sentencing and protecting the viewers. All this is based upon what we see in the media is the information reliable or not? I say this because of hearing about news personality lying about their experience only to booster the networks rating. When the criminal justice system has contact with the media, most will withhold information or give misleading information to justify the capture or conviction of a criminal. So not only are we questioning the efficacy of the criminal justice system but the media as well.

The news media has a habit of showing only the sensational crime stories, to draw the public to view, listen, or read their articles (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The unbalanced media coverage causes the criminal justice system a rough time while investigating, prosecuting, and convicting the subjects/defendants of their crimes, by only talking to victims or lay people willing to tell their story whether right or wrong.

Starting with Ken Dowler, Thomas Fleming, and Stephen Muzzatti, the authors of “Constructing Crime: Media, Crime and Popular Culture” (837-839) one can see how they believe the media impacts the view of crime from a public perspective. In Canada, crime is a main segment of the news and while that source would be considered informational, the subject of crime itself can also be for entertainment. Likely, North America favors the subject of crime and this can be prove true based on television content today through shows such as Chicago P.D., Law and Order: SVU, Killer Couples or Rosewood. While these shows and many others manage to hook an audience through intriguing storytelling of crime the lines between the true crime information and creative

I believe the media plays an important role of shape understanding of crime and the criminal justice system when we were young. When we were just children, everything new could affect and change us easily, just like writing on a blank paper. I saw some cruel crime cases on news and sometimes it really made me afraid. For example, when I was only 10, there was a news bout trafficking children and their tragic stories, I was nervous every time when I was alone outside. However, when I grew up and learned more about crime from education, the media is hard to affect me anymore. The media we saw must be filtered and add lots of literary elements

This can cause serious problems within the criminal justice system. Social media plays a massive role in the way that news is allocated within society. However, because of this large role it plays, it also interferes with the investigation and results of a particular criminal action. One can imagine how swiftly he or she learned about the horrific shooting incident that happened in Sandy Hook Elementary School or the unfortunate killing of Trayvon Martin and how George Zimmerman was prosecuted based on the public’s online response.

Media has a very strong influence when it comes to the public’s perception of the Criminal Justice System. With very high profile cases that we have seen in the past few years like Trayvon Martin case, Jodi Arias, Casey Anthony, and Michael Brown, the media has painted this bias image to protect societal views. News Papers have editors that know how to sell, their business, is a business and it revolves around selling papers; when papers were printed for the Trayvon Martin case most of the papers headlines were “White Males, Shoots Unarmed Black Teen.” Off the back the case was portrayed to the public as a racial issue, there for, those who were ill-informed (Most Americans) saw it as a racial issue and when the justice system favored Zimmerman, the view from the public on the justice system was it was not fair and uneven towards the black community. The system is not broken, but it needs time to work it’s a slow process it still has been only 40 plus years since the civil rights movements. With the media, we tend to drift towards what we relate to more when we watch the news we relate to more of what interest us, what goes with our political views, and moral codes. Media shapes our daily lives, and with the justice system, it becomes ever more persuading in altering or views on our Criminal Justice System. The Media wants to put out what is going

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.

In society today, many people struggle with racism, classism, sexism and discrimination. In the film, Out in the Night, these struggles are portrayed through four low class African American lesbians. They were convicted for assaulting a homophobic man, whom was clearly the one at fault. These women were never given a fair chance to be proven innocent. From the very beginning, injustices were seen from all angles including the police, media and the criminal justice system. These groups incorporated essentialism to emphasize their intersectional identities to create a fearful and hostile environment, which lead to a biased trial.

A considerable amount of research has been done to explore the link between the media and crime. Although the literature available covers a wide variety of theories associated with this topic, this review will primarily concentrate on common themes which are evident throughout the research. Firstly, it is important to understand how the media reports on crime. The media employs techniques such as ‘selective reporting’ to produce newsworthy crime stories resulting in a disproportionate relationship between actual crime and perceived notions of crime amongst the public. Secondly, the consumption of crime-related media undoubtedly has an impact on the publics’ fear of crime. Although research suggests that fear of crime is not simply linked to

Media plays a crucial role in bringing the depiction to the public about the knowledge about crimes. The public’s opinion is greatly influenced by the way the media presents the crimes committed as well as the awareness of the police. This means, therefore, if the media is accountable for the reports presented on televisions, and social media platforms, the conclusions were drawn by the public about crime incidences depends on the information presented by the media (Barak, 2013). Print media industry extensively produces copies that cover crime stories to boost their industry by selling large. Stories are crafted, sensationalized with the prospects to grab the attention of the public with stories that are not always true. For instance, watching

The effects that media has on crime is very significant because they report what they feel is newsworthy. Not to say they do not believe that all crimes are not, it is because violent crimes will catch our attention faster than a person getting scammed, a company going bankrupt, just to name a few not so violent crimes. When the media reports violent crimes, it seems as if they play on our fears that that crime will come to where we live. A person does rely on the media to get information about crimes, but we should form our own opinions about what is being said to us. What I mean by that is that we should research the information about the possible rise in crimes in our areas and not let the media make decisions for us. We as individuals need

All things considered, what the media covers and how much they chose to cover has significantly changed over the years, the most apparent in crime coverage. This consistent coverage of crime gives the audience an opportunity to interact with the media. They can feel a part of the intensity of an investigation, cheer on the enforcers, become immersed in their stereotypes. On the other hand, they can appreciate deviance for its resilience to overcome and resist

According to Wykes, “A contrasting concern about media representations of crime has worried liberals and radicals”(Wykes 2001) (Morgan,Rodney,Reiner and mike maguire.The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. Fifth ed. OUP,2012 p246) The Media can be seen to give individuals a higher fear of crime as they feel what they see on the news happens to those very similar to themselves and

It is believed that the great Plato had a question similar to this, he was worried whether the violence in plays will have a negative effect on people of his land. We cannot mitigate the influence of media on the society. Some believe that it is the curse for the contemporary society, as it invigorates individuals to commit crimes. Are these people right? Read on to know the answer to this grave question.