The Media 's Success And Popularity Of American Media

Media coverage of news events can be disseminated to the general public in any number of different ways and media biases often “reflects certain organizational and/or professional preferences or values” (Bennett 2011, 173). In fact, Lundman (2003) points out “that journalists assess the newsworthiness of homicides occurrences using the relative frequency of particular types of murders and how well specific murder occurrences mesh with stereotypical race and gender typifications (357).” In addition, Johnson (2012) felt that the real job of media was to “create a message that…grabs public attention (62).” In other words, can the media grab the public’s attention and hold it?

It is no secret that the media is able to influence the general public’s opinion on most anything. Whether the subject is fiction or non, movies, documentaries, and the news especially, are capable of swaying the public’s opinions and perceptions one way or the other. Not even the world of law enforcement is safe from the media’s purview (Barlow, M. H. and Barlow, D. E. and Chiricos T. G., 1995), as media portrayals often romanticize law enforcement as a well oiled machine that always gets the bad guy, and has a perfect relationship with the public. On top of this, the media has displayed a poor habit of portraying crime as predominantly violent and racial, rather than showing the whole picture(Gilliam, F. D. and Iyengar, S. and Simon, A. and Wright, O., 1996). In this paper, the motives driving these depictions, as well as the scope and effect of the media’s influence on public perception of law enforcement, will be explored and discussed.

Grimes, J. N. (2010 January-December). The social construction of social problems: "Three Strikes and You 're Out" in the mass media. Journal of Criminal Justice and Law, 2(1-2), 39-56. doi:Ebscohost database

Trayvon Martin was a 17- year- old African America from Miami Gardens Florida. He was born Feb, 26, 1995 in Florida and he died Feb, 26, 2012 in Sanford, Fl. He was 5’11 and he had 3 siblings.

Since people are mostly only able to participate in catastrophes such as this mass shooting at a distance, news media is the primary source of information, which therefore creates the audiences’ reality of the events that occur.(Wheeler 80) With this, the mass media has the control of what people are exposed to, and the choice to amplify awareness to what they choose as important. In an interview conducted with Sarah, an undergraduate student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she recalled her exposure to the news of the shooting: “The only reports I had access to, was what I saw in the news”. When asked how she thinks the media had an effect on her perception of the shooting, she stated: ”Well I believe that since the only information I was able to get was from news sources, what I saw in the news is what I believed. So I really do think the media had a strong effect since I was exposed to mainly what they chose to present to me.” With this, media messages, such as the reporting on the Las Vegas shooting, exert a strong influence on audiences and the cultivation of people’s perception. The frequent exposure to these stories of mass shootings and the use of descriptors based on race are fed to the audience and become a common knowledge. Ultimately, the promotion of racial stereotypes through the disproportionate representation of perpetrators of mass shootings influences public opinion and perception.(Lankford) With the strong effect that media has on the people, it is

Trayvon Benjamin Martin was born February 5, 1995, he was a seventeen (17) year old African American male who lived with his mother in Miami Gardens, Florida. Trayvon had recently been suspended from his school Krop Senior High School, for a period of ten (10) days from a discovery of the residue of drugs that had been located within his book bag ("Trayvon Martin," 2016).

On February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin was a 17-year old African- American male walking home to his father’s

Trayvon Martin was in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student. Walking back from a 7-Eleven to the Sanford, Florida townhouse of his father's fiancée on a dark and rainy February evening in 2012. He was carrying a bag of Skittles and an Arizona watermelon juice cooler as he headed along a sidewalk in the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhouse community in Sanford. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic man and a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida, calls 911 to report "a suspicious person" in the neighborhood. He was instructed not to get out of his SUV or approach

Mass media is communication that reaches a large audience. This includes television, advertisement, the Internet, newspapers, and so on. Mass media is a significant effect in modern culture in America. It creates ideas and sustained within society not only send ideological messages out to the public but to advertise this ideas which are tend to manipulate our mantalities.

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.

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

In today’s society, media is present in our lives 24/7 allowing it to have a major influence on our culture in both positive and negative ways.

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.

Back in the 1920s people had receive news and entertainment through the radio, which then in turn out-shined newspapers and magazines. Now day’s social media sites have become the most popular form to get the news and information. The biggest tool in the media that generates revenue by the millions every day, is advertising. The media has its way of showing us constructive information when it comes to news channels, travel and other educational shows. Kids benefit from watching these, since it can boost self-esteem, heighten interest levels in a particular subject, or encourage them to ask relevant questions.

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