The Impact Of Media On The Media

Crime and justice provides a substantial portion of the media’s raw material; crime stories are good ‘products’ for the media; public perception’s are influenced by the media; and crime policies are created, endorsed, or abandoned based in part on media coverage and public reaction (Guastaferro,2008). With the recent killings of unarmed black men and boys broadcasted throughout today’s media, in addition to the backlash that they receive by society as being involved in any type of Criminal activity or being depicted as a threat to public safety to justify the injuries,

People are prepared to talk and make presumptions about crime that they have seen i.e. inspiration from the media. This outcomes in the individual's impression of crime and deviance in society which is being “affected by what media staff incorporate or forget”. (Oyza and Edwin, 2015, p.7)

Whether through social media, televised news, or newspapers, most people are exposed to some sort of news media every day. It is the responsibility of the media to inform the public about what is happening in the world around us, and more often than not, that includes reporting crime. If the media is the source of our information, they have the power to influence our perception of that information. The media have the power to not only influence our perception of crime, but also the course it takes through the legal system. External pressures have ultimately shaped the news media’s illustration of violence and crime, and their coverage has and will reshape public opinion and even the criminal justice policy (Beale 2006). There are many examples of how the media changes the influences the public discourse of crime. This change can range from instilling small amounts of bias or jeopardizing high profile court cases. Regardless of the instance, it is something the public needs to be aware of.

Despite the fact that television is still the dominant source, there have been shifts involving the consumption of news programming. There has been a significant fall in the reliance of the networks and their national newscasts for America's news. Today more people are relying on the reports given by local news programs than on that of the networks. Several surveys have recorded this shift as early as 1993, denoting that much of America cites local news on television as their major source of information.

Within media and society there are seemingly different representations of race and crime. They are different in how they are constructed for their perceived audience in the majority and the opinion that is supposed to be evoked by the event. Within the public perception of crime in reality there is abundant racism that has been socially constructed over many generations. Whereas media crime is gentrified and critiqued in such a way as to support fears and intrigue into crime through violence from what could rarely happen to the viewer. When both of these are combined the social construction of race is reinforced. Through crime television shows the allure of feeling a crime through draws an audience.

This article begins by reviewing the literature highlighting the ways crime news typically reinforces stereotypes of blacks and other nonwhites, particularly Latinos, and contributes to more generalized racial biases. Media stereotypes consist of recurring messages that associate persons of color with traits, behaviors, and values generally considered undesirable, inferior, or dangerous. In terms of speaking about crime coverage, there is considerable evidence that media portray blacks and Latinos as criminal and violent. These images matter because they are a central component in the on going cycle by which the media adds racial and ethnic misunderstanding and negative associations are reproduced, and end up in predictable influences in the criminal-justice process.

The media and society has a tendency to shy away from or almost ignore the crime of Whites and instead shift to highlight the crime of Blacks and minorities. Entman (1992) discovered during a six-month period in Chicago, news reports about Black perpetrators in violent offenses, like homicide, occurred 84% of the time while 71% of White reported crimes were violent. Another study of a local news media reporting crime found not only that “African Americans were twice as likely as Whites to be depicted as perpetrators, 6 times more likely to be portrayed as perpetrators than as law enforcement officers, and overrepresented as criminals,” but that they also represent “close to 37% of the perpetrators depicted” while only totaling one fifth of all arrestees. (T.L. Dixon & Linz, 2000; Mancini, Mears, Stewart, Beaver, and

What factors contribute to this significant gap between perceptions of violent crime and the reality of it? When asked where they obtain their information about crime, an overwhelming plurality of random participants ages 13 to 59 responded with the mass media (Warr, 2013). In the context of this survey and also this paper, the mass media is defined as diverse mainstream media technologies intended to reach a widespread audience (Warr, 2013). This encompasses all television, radio, internet, and paper outlets which broadcast to a wide range of audiences

As with most controversial issues, it is clear that the media play a strong role in people’s perception and fear of crime. Psychologists have proven that cognitive biases can skew our perceptions (Fogg, 2013). Crime is very prominent is all media and Robert Reiner (1997) claims:

ut also to society as a whole to avoid corruption, bad examples, and to ideally prevent bias.

Throughout the years the relationship between crime and the media has been a matter of reoccurring controversy. Society as a whole consumes media in different forms, if it is from the television, radio, newspaper, or the Internet. A few individuals within society are aware of potential biases within the construction and the reporting of news stories from the media. All forms of news, no matter which source it originated from, will have a constructed newsworthy quality. There are many important reasons for why just one story is chosen for coverage when others are not. According to Reiner, Livingstone and Allen, they stated, “Events that appear to disrupt expectations [or are] deviant occurrences are the stuff of news” (Reiner et al. 2003 page

The first article is on media, victims and crimes. The writer Chris Greer (2007) explores ways in which the media portrays the status of a victim and how different criminal acts are presented throughout the media, from some being over represented, unrepresented or misrepresented in news media discourse. The writer expresses how the media mostly covers high level crimes rather than smaller criminal acts which affect society socially and financially. Ferrell (2005: 150) states that the media presents ‘the criminal victimization of strangers rather than the dangerous intimacies of domestic or family conflict’, it can be argued that the media exaggerates crime to create moral panic, this can be a way of controlling public behaviour, and make them

The state of childhood is difficult to define due to the conflicting views that are held within society. As outlined in Creativity, Culture and Commerce (2015) children are considered a special audience in relation to television and media consumption. This categorisation of this audience allows childhood to be defined as a developmental stage in which youthful participants are considered both ‘vulnerable’ and ‘corruptible’. These distinctive underlying connotations lead to an assumption that children “must be protected,” within media exposure and content (Potter, 2015: 3). In relation to these media definitions society reflects these culturally and socially by linking the well-being of the children with protection. As stated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority the age bracket of a child is any individual “being aged under 14 years,” (Potter, 2015: 7). This definition provides insight into the factors such as the schooling age that govern programming within Australia’s media industry. Due to these diverse definitions childhood is a complex term that reflects aspects of society through media and television consumption in which children are protected from different forms of content.

As I pondered what I would do for this action project I knew I wanted to steer more towards women in the media. I have always been curious about what the public thinks about certain things, what is trending, what the common thought is on a specific thing, idea etc. As I thought about what my main focus was going to be, I remembered talking to my family about what I was learning and discussing in my Gender and Women’s Studies class and brought up how there seems to be a stigma in today’s culture on how marketing companies make it seem okay to portray women in a negative way just to get their product sold. I thought more deeply about this topic because it has always bothered me to see how companies got away with altering model’s bodies, dressing them in risqué clothing, or putting sexist blurbs smacked across an advertisement in a magazine. I wanted to find a way I could subtly bring about self-awareness to my community around me.

It seems that the cultural landscape is ever changing and evolving. Issues that were rarely discussed in media are now at the frontline of our media coverage, such as police brutality, racial disparity and immigration reform. Everything from political party preference to the increasing diversity of race and sexual orientation in each generation has an effect on the values portrayed in media. The value of each new generation effects how the media shapes itself to market to that general public. In order to understand the fluidity of the media, it is important to examine the change in the landscape of media, and how it has adapted to meet each generations needs.