Media Perceptions of Violence - Essay Example

Critical Reflection Introduction The main topic of discussion in the seminar was how the media, political andthe public discourse discuss the aspect of violent crime. As part of the seminar, the members also had several debates discussing various topics that mostly affect humanity. Some of the debates topics during the seminar include; political influence on media, how the government control the aspect of social media, the fall of violent crime over the last 20 years and the fear of crime. Other debate topics during the seminar include models of crime, social integration models and the disorder models. During the second seminar, members of the forum discussed debated on several issues that face if not the society, the issues face humanity. Some of the common issues debated during this case include; the aspect of sexual desire, social isolation, anger as an aspect of motivations, personality disorder and the aspect of being sadistic. Other debated topics included sexuality, fantasy, characters of the perpetrators, actions and victim’s psychological features. However, the main topic of the seminar was sexual offending and sexual homicide. During the first seminar discussion, it was revealed that violent crime entails a crime whereby the offender threatens or uses violence upon an individual. In most cases, violent crimes entail crimes whereby the main objective is violent act. Alternatively, violent crimes include the types of crimes, which are committed with weapons. The seminar revealed that violent crimes are always seen as negative and unnecessary. Most of the members drew a conclusion that violent crimes always turn out as bad, dangerous and ugly towards fellow human beings. However, it was also discussed that violent crimes can be ambiguous along with power dimensions which mostly results in ineffectiveness and weakness. Some members of the seminar however were of the opinion that acts of violence remain a successful aspect of social positioning. Media perceptions of violence In response to the aspect of media perceptions of violence, the discussion generally established that there are three different fundamentally spheres of media communication which generally interact the aspect of violent crime. The three aspects include the entertainment aspect, online and news. Further discussions revealed that the three spheres are subdivided into media sub-spheres, which include television, radio, films and the internet. These forms of media and sub-media aspects play an essential role in interacting with a near inexhaustible crime numbers as well as crime control activities assortments. Alternatively, the media play a big role in crime representation (Freedman 2002, 58). The most important question during the discussion about media perception of violent crime was if the media makes people get more scared regarding crime aspects. From the seminar, it was revealed that people have the fear of the world and not for their immediate neighborhood. Alternatively, there were discussions on how people must be aware of some of the powerful journalism ideologies (Freedman 2002, 68). The ideologies in this case include political affiliations, patriarchy and capitalism. There was also the idea that sex and violence remains staples in the newspaper whereby the crime amounts that the newspaper report are unrelated to crime rates. Alternatively, the media tends to report most violent crimes than the non-violent crimes. In doing this, the media tends to omit the most important contextual details including the motive behind the crime(Freedman 2002, 75). Public perception of violence The members in the seminar also discussed the public perceptions towards the severity of crime. From the discussion, it was revealed that violent crimes were ranked second after inhabited building bombings (Childs 1965, 87). By early March 2003, at least 200 people were serving jail terms from various aspects of crimes including sexual motivations or murders. Of the violent crimes in the United Kingdom, 3% of the violent crimes murderers were sexual murderers. Alternatively, the seminar revealed that sexual murderers were mostly men who kill their female counterparts. Contrary to the public beliefs on such violence, most men do not kill several victims (Rapp-paglicci 2002, 212). There was the opinion that most people tend to be bombarded with media information on crime hence making them to believe that the world is a dangerous place. This therefore makes people to fear their own environment hence negatively affecting the way they live or work. Public perception of violence is mostly associated with the media. Lastly, it was revealed that the media perception of violent crimes does not really affect the public every time. Instead, the message tends to have some effect on a few people but on a few occasions (Rapp-paglicci 2002, 236). Debate As the seminar went on, there was a debate on the how the political aspect influences the role of media in the society. There were different arguments as whether political aspects positively influences media role in the society or whether it negatively influences the role of media. To better understand the debate, there was need to understand various aspects regarding the two aspects. The main important aspect was to understand the political setting in which the two aspects operate on. In most cases, the state control of media will always remain a routine element especially when it comes to totalitarian systems. Generally, the state’s structural constraint tends to dominate media’s potential agency. On the other hand, broadcast media and state-owned media agencies tend to act as propaganda arms against the state. Most opposition political powers also tend to protect the media freedom from acts from the government. From the debate, it was quite evident that most if not all nation’s governments serve as organizing structures, which promote or constrain media’s free activity. The relationship between the media and the political forces therefore raises various important questions regarding the limits of media information to the public or free speech. The Debate on how the government controls the social media Contrary to what the public believes, the state always keeps a close eye to the social media. In as much as the social media might be seen as social forum, to the government it is quite different. Many social media users have wrong perception on how the majority of web services operate. Some of the common forms of social media include YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The debate in this case was whether the government should control the social media in its nation (Mergel 2012, 67). In as much as most students in the class were against the idea of government control of the social media, it was established that the state plays a significant role in controlling the social media in its nation (Mergel 2012, 85). Generally, governments in most nations are more careful while analyzing communication platforms especially with the vast information they hold. Social media acts as privileged instruments, which provide a platform for gathering information and mass conditioning. Additionally, they are vital components in which the government through its intelligence services can analyze information in them (Lathrop 2010, 37). Therefore, any information passed through the social media must go through the government first for an analysis. Some parts of the forum argued that the government is right to control the social media in a particular nation. In controlling the social media, the government would be trying to keep vigil of the entire nation. In the contemporary world, terrorists and robbers tend to use the social media to strategize therefore; it would be important if the government keeps control of the social media (Lathrop 2010, 50). The class members also debated on the crime topic, which also was the main topic for the seminar. In this case, some members in the group debated as to why the public still live in fear of violent crimes despite the fact that there are reports of crime decrease over the last 20 years (Clement 1976, 46). One section of the group suggested that the public still has a negative perception towards violent crimes hence making them to have a fear phobia towards the vice. Another section of the class felt that criminal activities remain dangerous aspect hence the public cannot risk about it. The fear factor is important in helping the public to remain vigil about it. The public is terrified about the prospect of people being killed randomly without warning hence the fear factor crops in (Clement 1976, 56). The fear of crime is generally the fear the public have against acts of crime or being the victims of crime. In this debate, members of the forum debated on whether public fear of crime is a psychological aspect or physical. Additionally, the members of the forum discussed on some of the psychological outcomes of crime. In as much as fear of crime can generally be differentiated into public behaviors, thoughts and feelings about a person’s criminal victimization risk, distinctions can also be established between a person’s actual experiences and tendency to a fearful situation (Clement 1976, 98). After the debate, the forum established that the fear of crime has its own consequences, which are beyond a person’s anxiety feeling. It outcomes mostly undermines the quality of life. It also limits a person’s ability to do something. In some cases, it increases divisions that exist between the poor and the rich individuals. It also transforms some of the public spaces making the place avoidable(Clement 1976, 106). Models of fear: Vulnerability Model During the seminar, members of the class debated on the models of fear thus the vulnerability model in line with Kleiman and Clemente readings. In this debate, the argument was whether the some of the public members who have no ability to defend themselves would be more fearful. Some of the vulnerable members of the public in this case include the elderly, the children and the women in the society (Moore 2007, 47). The forum members established that these groups of vulnerable individuals in the society would have fear of aspects of crime. Alternatively, the members participating in the debate established that some neighbourhoods’ incivilities play a significant role in instilling fear to the society. This aspect was termed as part of the disorder model in which (Shaw 1972, 67) demonstrate in his reading. Social Integration model Lastly, the members of the forum discussed the aspect of social integration model. In this case, some of the variable roles were discussed. Examples of such variables include cohesion, social capital and collective efficacy. The main debate in this case was how the social integration model is exhibited (Ferraro 1996, 47). Seminar 2 During the second seminar, the members of the forum discussed about serial sexual offendingand the aspect of sexual homicide. Before engaging on the topic, the members defined what serial sexual offending and sexual homicide really means. In this case, the members established that sexual homicide is generally a homicide aspect and not categorized as a sexual crime. This was established in reference to (Burgess 1986, 47). As the members debated, they established that there was no exact estimate on this type of sexual crime. Additionally, the members of the forum failed to establish the standardized definition of sexual homicide. A section of the forum argued that serial sexual offending and homicide results from death in the context of sexual power and control. While other members argued that sexual homicide is as a result of aggressive brutality. This is was in reference to (Holmes &Holmes 2001). There was a heated debate regarding the aspect of sexual homicide with members of the forum raising various topics that coincide with the aspect of sexual homicide and serial sexual offending. In this case, some members of the forum felt that sexual homicide is as a result of sexual desire where mostly men feel the urge to have sex hence resulting to forced sexual encounters. There was a section of the forum, which felt that sexual homicide could result to social isolation aspect. Social isolation in this case was established to be rooted in childhood disturbances, which results from parental infidelity. The members agreed that there is a link between sexual offending and loneliness. In most cases, lonely adults tend to be aggressive and hostile due to social isolation. The result of social isolation is personality disorder and anger. All these aspects link together. In reference to Langevin 1988, it is possible to diagnose personality disorder among sexual murders. The forum members also established that there are three key motivations regarding sexual murdering behaviors in the society. The three sexual murdering behaviors are the deviant sexual assault urges, grievance towards women and the aspect of killing to avoid discovery. These sentiments are shared by (Beauregard et al., 2008; Beech et al., 2005). Alternatively,some men commit the offence as a result of anger while others do it just because they are sadists or for fantasy. Generally, these aspects are psychological and negative to the society. Conclusion The seminar and the debates went on as planned with members in the forum gaining valuable lessons from the seminar. After the seminar, it was established that security remains an important aspect in not only the society but also the entire nation. The members of the forum decided to meet more often in a bid to discuss more humanity issues facing the nation. Bibliography Clement, F. and Kleiman, M.B. (1976). Fear crimes among the aged. Gerontologist 16, 207-210. Dolan, P. and Moore, S.C. (2007). Preferences or Experiences? Valuing the Intangible Ferraro, K.F. 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