The Misrepresentation of Police on the TV - Research Paper Example

Contrast essay on USA Police Officers Television has a great impact on ideas and attitudes of potential viewers, their perception of certain social groups and their social images. Critics admit that TV does not portray realistic images of police officers creating different images and identities of police officers and their values. Television uses opposite images of police officers: police can be portrayed as extremely effective and even sympathetic thus some programs depict police officers as corruptive and racist.

Thesis Television does not portray, neither positive nor negative, realistic images of police and their performance. In many TV programs and shows, police officers are depicted as the front line of defense, as a strong force able to protect all citizens from all possible threats and crimes. Drugs, crime, and threats to the family and to safety generally are the stock-in-trade of these shows. However, programs like "Cops" depict the police as the front line of defense against such threats. "America's Most Wanted" gives viewers a sense of empowerment as they fight back with telephone calls that help to capture dangerous criminals.

There is actual footage of the police in action, breaking down a door in a drug bust, or chasing and wrestling a suspect to the ground. In real life, police is unable to respond effectively to all reported cases of crimes and check all telephone calls coming each hour (Dowler 230). Also, some are concerned about the guarantee of confidentiality for callers that seemed to be compromised by televised comments identifying them as "neighbors" or "former girlfriends," or giving other identifiable characteristics.

In real life, the source of skepticism is, for the most part, related to the experience of various forms of contact with the police. In reality, when you do try to help the police, the police never turn up until the crime's been committed. Also, Scharrer (2001) admits that: “the depiction of previously unemotional cops who were "all business" has changed to include modern sensitivity and more well-rounded portrayals in these roles” (615).Negative images of police officers also contradict with real life police.

In some programs, the police often are depicted as being corrupt, thus the detective incorporates moral law as a personal code. The police may be clueless, but they are portrayed as "on the case." The hero, although an iconoclastic outsider who seems to flaunt the conventional, nevertheless restores the social order. Indeed, the stability inherent in the crime genre rests not only in the formulaic conventions of cultural production, but in the degree to which these conventions reflect and reproduce a preference for a populist-type social order.

In real life, police play a crucial role in investigation and pre-investigation procedures, monitoring and interviewing, etc (Kavoori 386). Also, television tends to paint a picture of crime in which African-Americans, in particular, are cast as the "evil" criminals, whereas police officers are portrayed as the "good guys". Television also presents a world where white ‘characters’ are more likely to be police officers, and nonwhites were more likely criminal suspects. These depictions are only slight exaggerations from those found in official data (Dowler 231).

The misrepresentation of police may be found on news programs, crime dramas, and the relatively new "reality" television programs. The most important is that television does not portray realistic images of police exaggerating their positive and negative qualities and features. While news programs claim to be objective and accurate, their coverage focuses only on positive and effective police performance while television programs and movies portray exaggerated negative and positive images. Television lacks attention to more typical kinds of officers portraying only ‘heroes’ or ‘criminals’ as the most typical police workers.

Works Cited 1. Dowler, D. Media Influence on Citizen Attitudes Toward Police Effectiveness. Policing and Society 12 (2002): 227 - 2382. Kavoori, A. P. Discursive Texts, Reflexive Audiences: Global Trends in Television News Texts and Audience Reception. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 43, (1999): 386. 3. Scharrer, E. Tough Guys: The Portrayal of Hypermasculinity and Aggression Televised Police Dramas. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 45 (2001): 615.