Interest in Crime and the Role of the Media - Assignment Example

COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE CONTENT OF TWO NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Introduction Crime has always been a topic of fascination despite being condemned at all levels of society. The content presented by the mass media for public consumption is an indication of just how much this insatiable interest in crime has grown. Be it in the dailies, movies or books, deviance and crime have gained the title of an indispensable theme of consumption (Fishcher, 2013). As a result, the role of the media, and in this case the print media has been questioned in its effect on crime and those affected by crime. This report will, therefore, compare two Newspaper articles on crime related topics and establish just how seriously this topic requires attention. The report shall also provide information on the use of different elements such as imagery and vocabulary, and their effects on public opinion. Another aspect that the report seeks to uncover is the disproportionate media coverage dedicated to the victims or the offenders based on their background, religion, political affiliation or financial status. While previous research has indicated that there lacks a lasting solution to these problems, actions need to be taken to make sure that News agencies move away from the age-old stereotypes. Literature Review Interest in crime had always enchanted the society be it during the 19th century when Jack the Ripper committed his serial murders or during the American case of O.J Simpson. With the advances and developments in the forms of reporting, personal interests have continued to soar further, be it on the T.V, internet or Newspapers. The Media’s effects theory was introduced and based on psychological research, which according to Professor Jewkes (2004, p.67), several fundamental principles in the ‘moral of panics’ have not been discovered yet. The language used to refer to British Muslims shines mostly on the problematic and negative incidences related to people of Islamic faith. For example, the diction chosen for descriptions include: militants, fanatics, Islamists and extremists and fewer still are the positive nouns such as scholar or professional or humanitarian. Lewis & Salem (1986) sought to investigate how the communities' powerlessness fosters fear in the quality of information they were receiving. The findings were such that the society has a system of indoctrination, coupled by a similar system of propaganda (Chomsky, 1994) that is imposed majorly by the media. Victimization, on the other hand, has always been an interesting subject for discussion. For the media to run stories that will fascinate, entertain and inform, the importance of an ‘ideal victim’ cannot be emphasized enough. The media can use such a victim to re-affirm and modify traditional ideologies and stereotypes that favored few in the society (Redden & Witschge, 2010). This essay shall, therefore, strive to portray how the media uses this concept when giving a description of the crime. In this study, I analyze how the 2013 and 2016 incidences of crime in the United Kingdom perpetrated by two madmen; a black Muslim and another with a history of mental illness respectively were represented in two articles of The Sun Newspaper. The initial question to ask regarding this topic is whether the crimes committed by both individuals were classified initially as crimes or acts of terror. Along with this initial research question, the study also seeks to find out how the headlines, content, vocabulary and graphics used in the story influenced the readers’ opinion as they read through the gruesome incidents. The starting hypothesis is that the Newspapers are biased, primarily because of the diction used to describe the incidents, victims, and offenders. The study, therefore, is relevant to those in communication and media studies and the fields of linguistics Summary Article A: On May 23, 2013, The Sun Newspaper aired a front page story titled “We Killed this British soldier. It’s an eye for an eye; EXCLUSIVE MUSLIM FANATIC’S EVIL RANT AFTER BEHEADING.” The Newspaper tells the story of two young men who stabbed and hacked a British soldier to death, not far from a primary school in an incident that took place at 2 pm. The offenders dragged the victim to the middle of the street and asked the passersby to capture the incident on their phones as they waited for the cops, who later shot and injured the offenders. Article B: On June 17, 2016, The Sun Newspaper also aired a chilling front-page story titled; ‘MY JO; MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD; A Husband's moving tribute as MP shot three times and knifed seven times by crazed loner.’ The story featured the execution of MP Jo Cox who was stabbed seven times and shot thrice in her West York’s constituency by a loner wielding an antique pistol who fled the scene after committing the crime. Although the offender was caught about a mile away from the incident, witness statements explain that he was not in a hurry while committing murder. Norman Fairclough’s definition of discourse as; language use as a social practice (1995a) is important for this study. By all means, these stories had to be reported as they were important enough to headline the day’s news. Although under different headings, the stories occupied four separate pages of The Sun Newspaper, as feature stories. The location of the story is of great importance because of its ability to perform its fundamental function of captivating the target audience. Headlines and content The major purpose of a headline is to quickly and briefly capture the attention of the reader towards the story. The headlines often indicate the beginning of a sensational piece of information or news. Therefore part of its job is to highlight the important facts of the story. A newspaper reader often reads the headline before choosing whether or not they will read the story. Article A: The 2013 edition had the headline; “we killed this British soldier. It's an eye for an eye; EXCLUSIVE: MUSLIM FANATIC'S EVIL RANT AFTER BEHEADING” that was captivating as it conveyed the very clear message that a British soldier had died in the hands of a Muslim fanatic. The headline itself does not explain in what context the soldier died, but the fact that it was in the hands of a Muslim was enough to mount some interest in the story. The headline also has the largest font size in the entire text so as to fulfill its previously stated function of drawing attention to the story. Article B: The 2016 issue, on the other hand, had the headline; “MY JO; MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD; Husband's moving tribute as MP shot three times and knifed seven times by crazed loner.” The issue on this date presented the victim as the headliner to the day’s story, mainly because she was an MP, but also because she was the ‘ideal victim’ in this story. The article goes ahead to tell the story of the grieving widower who wrote a tribute to his deceased wife and who later posted a Twitter photo of her together with both her young children. The plight of the dead victim takes center stage in this story without regard for the gunman who had opened fire at the mother of two for unknown reasons. Content News production is complex due to its many phases and is also has a direct relevance to the CDA based research of media news. Text production is among the three points on interest during the analysis of distribution and consumption of information (Redden and Witschge, 2010). Therefore, analyzing the typical realities of news production would provide valuable insight into discursive practices involved in text production, distribution and consumption of news. The analysis would also reveal that gender and race are only but social constructs created for the purposes of domination and victimization despite taking up various forms (Delphy, 2015).The first article focuses on the young Muslim offenders responsible for the public execution of a British soldier and the drama that ensued. The story does not fail to mention that the murderers were quoting; ‘this is what God would have wanted,’ ‘Allah Akbar’ and ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ Besides Allah Akbar, the other statements focus on the radical side of Islamists that is commonly associated with terrorism, and in fact, their mention only supports the common stereotypes present in today’s society. The article does not fail to point out on regular occasion that the soldier/ victim was wearing a ‘Help for Heroes’ top while the offender's hands were soaked in blood from the butchering they had just committed. The article further suggests that the offenders were al-Qaeda ‘lone wolves’ which although was not proven at the time, it gives the reader the perception that there were British citizens committing acts of terror on British soil. It also helps to note that the description of a black male was constantly repeated by the witnesses and the article as well which reminds the reader of the stereotype that it is not unusual for black men to be associated with crime. Several extra details are included in the description of the incident such as ‘like a piece of meat,’ ‘we thought they were removing organs’ ‘rant of a butcher’ all which describe the barbaric nature of the crime. The article mentions the travel of Defense Secretary Phillip Hammond to Mali where he met British soldiers fighting Jihadists, reaffirms the previous suggestion that the incident in London could have been an act of Jihad. Some of the questions not asked could be; Are there any more radicals like these in Britain? With whom had they been associating with to warrant such anger and vengeance? If they were members of al-Qaeda, what was the government doing to prevent future attacks on British soil? Article B: The second article focuses on MP Jo Cox’s death at the hands of a madman whose name is later revealed as Thomas Mair, 52. Scanty details are given regarding the offender, yet the article focuses more on the victim’s husband who happens to be a political activist. Plenty of the quotes provided in the article are from witnesses who do not hesitate to label the offender as mad, although it was later discovered that the gunman indeed had a history of mental problems. The offender is said to have chanted ‘Britain first!’ on several occasions, but a leader of the far-right party ‘Britain First’ denied having any links to the offender. MP Jo, on the other hand, was paraded as a noble citizen, a wife, and mother of two who did her part in fighting for a better Britain. She was also instrumental in the launch of campaigns against hate crime and Islamophobia in her constituency. In Separate and Dominate, Delphy explains that the struggles of a single group of people can also serve as a tool to oppress the others (2015) which MP Jo may have witnessed and stood up against. Some of the descriptions used by witnesses and onlookers included; raged, screaming in pain, and panic. However, the article fails to mention any further details apart from the fact that the attacker screamed ‘Britain First!’ and the ambiguity of the statement. Instead, the statement was directed to a politician who effectively dodged it, successfully opening the story for political exploitation. Vocabulary and Graphics Article A: The first article does not fail to refer to the offenders as maniacs, blood lustful, hack, black guys, blood-soaked and killers (Sullivan, 2013, p.2). For the victim, the article mentions that he was helpless, young, wearing a help for heroes top, decapitated and victim which instantly demands favor and sympathy from the readers. There is also the mention of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ a metaphor used by the offenders as a validation of their actions. There is an awkward repetition of the term ‘black guys’ used in the article which is disturbing to a great extent. It is understandable that the offenders were of African descent, but besides their race, they were also British citizens. There is also a constant reference to the Mulgrave School which was not far from where the incident took place. The children unfortunate enough to witness the incident could have been terrified but their parents, although perfectly understandable sounded more scared because of their children’s safety. Article B: In the case of MP Jo, crazed loner, mentally ill loner, and raged are among the descriptions used in the article to describe the offender. On the other hand, Jo was described as a mum of two, volunteer, great star, having a big heart, a future government minister and exemplary (Sims, 2016, p.3). The article also refers to Jo Cox as a mum on several occasions, indicating that she was a valuable member of the society, not considering her career. Gaining the sympathy from the audience is the core function of the repetitions in the article such as the reference of Jo being a ‘great star’ and mother of two. Graphics Photojournalism is an important arm of journalism and photojournalists use pictures to narrate and interpret stories as well as communicate their opinions about the current society (Jewkes, 2004). As stated before, a picture is worth a thousand words, and so the pictures placed on newspaper front pages should be chosen wisely. Front page news is the main selling point of the Newspaper as it attracts potential and existing customers likely to purchase the paper. Article A: In the first article, the Newspaper presented a picture of a young black male wielding a cleaver with bloodstained hands next to a big heading, thus likely to capture the attention of the readers. Throughout the paper, the image presented to the reader bears the image of the same offender holding the cleaver, with his hands gesturing as if to make a statement. The message conveyed by the image is that of a soldier killer standing in the middle of the street and with the heading of ‘Your kids are next.’ The heading and the images portrayed in the paper express uncertainty in the safety of children, especially because of the nearby Mulgrave School, an indication of the exploitation of societal fears. Article B: The second article about Jo is marred with images of the beautiful legislator, except for one that has the image of the subdued offender in the background. As the story that follows is mostly sympathetic to MP Jo, it is important for the reader to have a vivid image of the beautiful wife and mother of two who was executed in the middle of a street. Similarities The two articles are therefore similar in that they headline the sentiments that they wish to express to the readers. The first article projects fear, chaos, uncertainty and racism while the second portrays the plight of one of Britain’s female rising stars who was unfortunate to die in the hands of a crazed loner. Differences The main difference between the two articles is the diction used by the authors to tell the story. For Article A, the language used projects fear, inhumanity, terrorism crime and death as it tells the story of two black Islamist men who killed a British soldier in the middle of the street, demanding that it was retaliation for the atrocities committed in other Muslim nations. Article B tells the tale of the young British Star, wife and mother of two who was murdered by a crazed loner for no reason. The phrase ‘British First!’ could not be verified as an utterance by the murderer. The political arena as well as the nation lost one of its great leaders. The language used in this article is therefore sympathetic and one of loss to the nation and to the victim’s family. Bias I think that the newspaper is biased by race, religion and political affiliations as it tends to shed more light on the story that it is willing to sell. Many of the stories that are sure to sell, prey on the anxieties of the society and such were Ungar’s declaration that the fear of crime is one topic that is easy to manipulate as it is one of the anxieties of a risk society (Ungar, 2001 p.275). One such instance is that of Islamophobia as described by Fleur Allen which he describes as the last respectable prejudice left in modern Britain. The information presented on the lesser story is insufficient and dismissive at best (Chomsky, 1994) and full of opinions from third parties, as compared to the bigger story that is backed by more compelling ‘facts.’ It is my opinion that only significant information should be provided for both the victim and the offender so as to allow the readers to make their conclusions. Journalists are expected to remain impartial to the content they write and avoid being subjective as is best evident in both articles. Conclusion According to the analysis, it is clear that the offenders in the first article could be easily referred to as terrorists within the context of the article despite the headlines not indicating this fact. The second article portrayed the victim, MP Jo as a martyr in the wake of a lunatic loner whose constant cried ‘Britain First!’ could not be ascertained even by witnesses. Therefore it is fairly easy to conclude that the language and imagery used to present news to the public has a high possibility of influencing societal ideologies and promote common stereotypes especially on the topics of crime and victimization. I, therefore, find it saddening that mainstream newspapers such as The Sun can influence the perceptions of a story. However, this single study is far from being sufficient to make a conclusion for media outlets across the globe, but I hope that it can serve as an example and provide a more exhaustive image of the subject of media analysis especially on newspapers. Bibliography Chomsky, N and Herman, S. (1994) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media New York: Vintage Dodd, V., “Two-thirds of Muslims consider leaving the UK”, The Guardian, 26 July 2005, www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/26/polls.jul7, accessed 15 April 2017. Fairclough, N. (1995a). Critical discourse analysis – the critical study of language. London: Longman. Fenton, N. (Ed.) 2010. New media, old news. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 171-186. Hall, S. (1978) ‘The Social Production of News’ (Chapter 3) in Hall,S., Crticher, C. Lewis, A. D. and Salem, G (1986) Fear of Crime: incivility and the production of a social problem New Brunswick: Transaction Books Mike Sullivan, M.S, 2013. We killed this British soldier. It's an eye for an eye; EXCLUSIVE: MUSLIM FANATIC'S EVIL RANT AFTER BEHEADING. The Sun, 23 May 2013. 1-7. Paul Sims, P.S, 2016. MY JO; MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD; Husband's moving tribute as MP shot 3 times and knifed 7 times by crazed loner. The Sun, 17 June 2016. 1-7. Redden, J. And Witschge, T. (2010). A new news order? Online news content examined. In Schlesinger P. and Tumber H. (1994) Reporting crime: the media politics of criminal justice, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Journals Ungar, S. (2001). ‘Moral Panic Versus the Risk Society: The Implications of the Changing Sites of Social Anxiety,’ The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 271–91 Read More