Crime in Media - Case Study Example

 Crime has been a subject of interest for quite a long time together with deviance. The information that is passed to the media shows just how much interest crime has gathered. There is a massive demand for the theme of deviance as people become more and more interested in what is going on around them. The media is awash with reports of crime, and this has led to the question of the effect that media has on crime. The media constructs various criminal and the crimes that they commit based on their age, gender, ethnicity and social class. People’s interest in crime is not a recent phenomenon and the expansion of the media over the years has made access to such content much easier. Reality TV shows have come up and social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has made the interest of the society in crime soar. However, the question as to whether the ease of access of the public to such material is enough to cause worry among the public has arisen. The use of crime both as entertainment and for information is very controversial as it may to some extent influence the behavior of the viewer negatively (Goldstein 2006). The media has immense powers to influence the public towards certain directions be it politics, crime, and even social behavior. Therefore, the way that they portray crime is likely to have an enormous effect on how individuals perceive crime and the criminals in general. There are various theories that tend to explain how the media portray crime. There is the hypodermic syringe model where the media has the responsibility of relaying messages to the audience. The media has an enormous influence on the public in that they have the role of injecting messages to the audience with the power to change and to manipulate the opinions of the public (Jewkes 2011;Neuman & Guggenheim, 2011). The popularity if this theory died during the 1940 elections where the majority of the voters were influenced more by their social circles rather than the propaganda by the media (Lazarsfeld, Berelson & Gaudet, 1944). It was discovered that media on its own was not able to influence the entire population in the same manner (Kirsh, 2006). This has led to the belief that human beings have the free will to form their opinions and realities based on their interactions with other individuals. The two-step model then followed the hypodermic syringe model. The model assumed that social relationships among individuals determined how people would react to social media. There are some people who were referred to as the opinion leaders use the information that they find in the media then in turn pass the information to the public. However, they give this information in their interpretations and how they perceived the news. In return, the media was said did not have direct influence but rather controlled the way information was passed to other people through the interpretation of certain influential characters in the popular social networks. Technology and the media have grown immensely over the years with researchers looking at the effects of the media on the public. It was believed that the media acts as stimuli, and it is regarded as one of the most powerful stimuli. It is believed that learning through the various illustrations of the media leads individuals to act in a particular manner and to display certain behavior (Bryant & Miron 2004). The way that the media portrays news sets the agenda and the opinion of the public (McCombs & Reynolds, 2008). People use reports, advertisements and make political and decisions on what products they will take based on the information that they get from the media. For instance, if the media focuses on a particular issue, then the public is likely to be influenced by the importance of the issue. As a result, the public takes the issue seriously and forms an opinion on the same and act accordingly (Petty, Brinol & Priester, 2002). Most people obtain their knowledge of crime through newspapers, broadcasts, and even television series, and, therefore, their accuracy in depicting the issue have been a primary concern. The issue of crime is likely to remain a topic of interest as the media uses it for both information and entertainment purposes (Dowler, Fleming, & Muzzatti, 2006). The fact that crime is content for both entertainment such a television series and newsworthy is proof that it has values that are necessary for the construction of news. According to Jewkes (2011), crime meets the threshold and predictability of any newsworthy material. Although all the crime have the same basic notion, the media twists it in a manner to give more importance to a certain issue in the piece and thus giving more emphasis and teaching something new to the audience. The media is known to exaggerate and distort facts in regards to reporting certain types of crime (Jewkes 2011, p. 41). The media over-represents particular crimes such as rape against minors, crimes committed by various groups of people and crimes against the elderly just because they are uncommon events. Sexual crimes are represented more than white collar crimes (Pizarro & Chermak & Gruenewald, 2007). However, the truth remains that the issue of crime is a fixed commodity where the public is intrigued by the theme of crime and thus changes the facts and statistics in order to keep the public interested (Dowler et al. 2006). A comparative study was carried out where the issue of crime constituted between 1.6% and 33.5%. One of the significant achievements of newspapers and magazines is to achieve high sales and ratings. Therefore, they go to any lengths to ensure that they meet their targets regardless of the news that they present. Apart from the public interest in crime, production of crime new also aims at economic well-being and including the public in instigating social change and making them aware of the justice systems available to them (Tamang, 2009; Dowler et al. 2006; Taras, 1990). Alternatively, some researchers claim that sometimes the media portrays the issue of crime they way that they do with the intention of causing fear and moral panic. The constant crime stories in the news lead to fear in the communities and people get the feeling that they may easily become victims of crime (Goldstein, 2006; Sharpe, 2000; Roberts, 2007). Fear of crime has been a major cause of research and determines a significant relationship between fear of crime and media consumption. Due to their lack of information, they are likely to accept the stereotypes that are given by the media hence increase in moral panics. The age of both the victim and the perpetrator is of primary importance when reporting a crime. The younger the ages of those involved, the more sensational the story will be. While the media of late has been awash with crimes committed by juveniles, only a few are arrested for violent crime and 90% of the documented crimes are perpetrated by adults (Dorfman & Schiraldi 2001). The information further proves that the media distorts and exaggerates on the crimes committed by the youth. Exaggeration was further justified when it was found that 40% of newspaper reports and 48% of television news stories were based on juvenile crime (Kunkel, 1994). The language that the media uses to portray news adds to the distortion in how the media paints the story. The language that is used to relay the news is very crucial in how the public will understand the report and their perception towards the particular story (Pollak and Kubrin 2007, p.61). Therefore, the issue of crime among the youth is recurring and how the media uses language will form the basis of how people perceive crime. The way that the reporter chooses to report the crime is likely to influence the opinions and perspectives of the viewers regarding the crime. Since most journalists report crime using the harshest words, people are likely to be more afraid and take measures to ensure their safety against the individuals. The effect of such language is that it will make people believe that the youth are dangerous, and active measures need to be taken to avert the situation. The choice of language also helps to perpetrate stereotypes against certain groups of people and make people distance themselves from the people in question. The media does not allow the people to make their decisions but rather makes their judgment final and thus help in making the stereotypes conclusive. They make a clear distinction between what is bad and what is evil consistently portraying the victim as good and the offender as bad regardless of what had happened. Labeling of certain groups of people starts and gets reinforced in this way (Thomas, 2000; Grubin, 1998; Soothill et al. 1998). The youth offenders are labeled as brutes or monsters especially in cases where young children are involved. In spite of the fact that the media does not give the accurate representation of the facts, there are valid reasons as to why the information needs to be brought to the public (Jewkes 2011). However, what is more important is the types of violence by the youth portrayed by the media instill fear in the public which leads to change in the public policies (Zimring, 1998; Sasson, 1995). It makes the public see the children as little monsters that cannot be helped and are a danger to the society. All the evilness of the crime is individualized and hence having an opinion on the criminal and their psychology. While the aim may be to warn the public, it is also unfair to the criminal as it does not give them a chance to be rehabilitated properly and integrated back into the society once they are freed. It also ignores the fact that other social and environmental factors such as poverty could have been the cause of the criminal act. Gender and crime draw a lot of attention to the media. Men are known to commit more than 80% of crimes. However, the crimes perpetrated by women a have been exaggerated by the media. Exaggeration is mostly because women are meant to be home keepers. According to the social norm, women are expected to be more gentle according to traditional gender roles hence the media’s interest in crimes committed by women. According to research, more than a third of the crimes reported by the media involve a female perpetrator (Comack & Brickey, 2007; Roy, 2005). Since women are perceived to be gentler, any unnatural act perpetrated by them is likely to be exaggerated and discussed at great lengths and condemned in equal measure. Women are judged more harshly as they go against both nature and the law whenever they commit such crimes. The media does not shy away from condemning them in both ways. The media portrays such women as evil, wicked witches, evil manipulators and people who cannot be trusted (Jewkes, 2011; Marsh & Melville, 2009). The issue of race and crime, as portrayed by the media, is also a cause f major concern as certain races are depicted to engage more in crime than other groups. For instance, blacks are known to commit more crimes than the white populations (Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001). Research also claims that white collar crimes are either not reported or under-reported since they are owned by individuals who can manipulate the news to their advantage. They can manipulate the news items through their connections and influences with the various media stations. In conclusion, the interest in crime is a popular theme is used in great parts as it is newsworthy. It cannot be denied that the media uses its influence to cause moral panic and instill fear among the people by the way they portray the news particularly based on race, ethnicity, age and social standing. These portrayals are further criticized since they do not reflect the statistics drawn but rather aim at entertaining people. References Barak, G. 1994. Media, Society, and Criminology. In. G. Barak (Ed.) Media, Process and the Social Construction of Crime, New York: Garland. 22 Bryant, J. & Miron, D. 2004. Theory and Research in Mass Communication. Journal of Communication, 54, 4: 662-704. Chermak, S. 1994. 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