The Effectiveness of the NSW Police Use of Media and Media Representations - Research Proposal Example

?A letter of transmission: To whom it may concern, the following is a proposal to study ways in which the New South Wales police department can improve their public image. This proposal contains an introduction and background information concerning policing and the media, and also, the methodologies and data-collection strategies for evaluating current and best practices. We hope that you will consider this proposal, and get back to us for further consultation and feedback. We look forward to hearing from you. INTRODUCTION: The New South Wales (NSW) police department have an extensive media presence. Along with a comprehensive public and media relations department, active campaigns promoting outreach, the NSW police also have two television shows that feature them. The problem as it stands, concerns the evaluation of the NSW police and the media. Thus far, no studies have evaluated how effective existing practices are, and in turn, what future actions need to be made to improve media relations and the overall public image of the NSW police. The following is a proposal for a study to research the effectiveness of the NSW police in regard to their media image. The focus of this study, will be toward determining those variables that can directly connect to improvements in outcomes or the establishment of a criteria of 'best practices' for future media relations strategies. BACKGROUND & LITERATURE: POLICE AND THE MEDIA. In the area of policing and criminal justice, the media is unavoidable because it is the main source for the public regarding crime information [Mawby, p. 225]. Indeed, police departments such as that in NSW, have full guidelines clearly outlining the media relations functions of the police department. Further, they have full divisions committed to media and public relations who are available on a twenty-four hour basis [Lee, 2010, p 3]. The report in question [NSW Public Affairs, 2010], outlines a number of the core functions of the media relations department, but also presents some of the protocols and limitations of media relations. That is, it defines what can and can not be discussed with the media, such as identifying information or information, for example, that might jeopardize an ongoing investigation. The police use the media on a number of different levels. First, and in the most general terms, media relations helps improve the public image of the police [Lee, 2010, p. 1] For some time, the police have had a challenging time presenting themselves to the public, and arguably, they are most often or consistently under media scrutiny under circumstances where their image is in question. Further, it can be said that for most of the public, there is a great deal of misinformation regarding the average police department, and with some irony, it might argued that the misinformation is largely the outcome of the media -- that is, the representations that proliferate public consciousness such as crime shows or even reality crime shows and, of course, movies. Thus, the general function of the media for the police, is to serve the overall image of the police and to break down barriers that exist between the public and the police. When this end is achieved, there is a greater degree of "public trust" [Lee, 2010, p. 2] contributing to the overall "legitimacy" of their body [Lee, 2010, p. 2]. There are a number of important particular functions that the media serve for the police. First, at the level of public information, there are a number of basic functions do with ongoing concerns or crisis situations. The police need to have a set of protocols for explaining emergency situations, and need to be prepared with a 'crisis management' plan particular to media relations. How, under emergency situations, does the media best effectively serve to disseminate information that is essentially in the public's best interest? Second, the media is used by the police, with particular focus toward solving crimes. By this point in time, the value and use of anonymous tips to the police department has become a well-documented success. In order to gain useful public information, the police need the media to communicate or disseminate information regarding particular crimes and criminals. The use or value of providing images of criminals [NSW Public Affairs, 2010, p. 44] is now a standard procedure, and indeed, the use of new media technologies that allow a wider and even more cost-effective distribution of information is also currently being expanded upon by police departments world-wide [NSW Public Affairs, 2010, p. 33]. Likewise, a standard common practice is the use of child alerts [NSW Public Affairs, 2010, p.48]. Because time is so critical if a child disappears, the media is now viewed as a standard part of child investigations and alert systems have become very commonplace in recent years. Concerning the study and analysis of media and policing, there are a number of important methodological considerations. For present purposes, it is important to stress that the focus is toward understanding how effectively the NSW police use the media. And, while much of the methodological literature that focus' on crime is looking in broader terms, the methods themselves are equally valuable for the particular focus of policing in NSW. One of the core means by which the media is studied, is through many of the conventional approaches for studying literature. Methods such as "content analysis" [Mawby, , p. 230], "narrative analysis" [Mawby, , p. 234], and "semiotic analysis" [Mawby, , p. 237] are all working with the assumption that what is portrayed or presented in the media, is just another "text" [Mawby, , p. 228] and subject to the same methodologies of interpretation. Media representations tell a story, they are by no means just a sequence of static representations. Rather, there is a beginning, a middle an end, themes like redemption, tragedy, crisis, hope, and very much, situations that are resolved in a way that could be described as a happy ending. In other words, all of the variables that contribute to a story or a work of fiction, are present in the content of media depictions, therefore, literary methods represent a strong methodology for studying the relationship between the police and media. Other approaches toward studying policing and the media, are more quantitative than qualitative. That is, where qualitative methods include literary interpretation, other methods are important to incorporate as well. First, is the content of media in terms of what actually get published or broadcasted [Jewkes, , pp. 247-9]. Indeed, it is a common practice that police departments monitor the news for the purposes of anticipating any important items that need to be responded to, but also for the further purposes of just monitoring how they are being portrayed or presented [NSW Public Affairs, 2010, p. 9]. These quantitative approaches can be especially useful in examining how audiences are perceiving the police in NSW. Likewise, surveys and focus groups [Jewkes, , p. 252] which are generally used in marketing research, can equally be utilized as forms of research. The survey presented in the following analysis will largely utilize this approach, and will be described further in the following. Research Design and Methods: Proposed in this study, is a survey questionnaire. There will be two sets of questionnaires, one for the control group and one for the group which will be exposed to media representations of the NSW. The control group will be used in order to create a baseline. The effectiveness of media representations, depends on establishing what general perceptions are. Therefore, a control group will be surveyed in order to establish a baseline set of data that will provide for information regarding how the public currently perceives the NSW police department, and without having any exposure to the media representation that will be presented to a focus group. A control group allows for a comparison between the perception of the NSW police before and after having exposure to particular representations. It provides a baseline of average perceptions from which new perspectives can be contrasted [McBurney and White, 2009, 348] The non-control group or the main focus group, will be shown a number of media representations of the NSW police. Included in this study will be their formal tv shows, a selection of news stories that portray the NSW police in a variety of contexts (both positive and negative), and finally, exposure to new content that has been designed especially for the group in question. In this latter set of media representations, the goal will be to see what styles of presentation, and what meanings are discerned in presentations that have been specifically designed to improve the image of the NSW police. The goal in this latter section, is to establish the type of images that the public is most responsive to. The demographics for both groups, ought to be representative of the general population. That means both in terms of gender, socio-economic variables, and differences in terms of cultures, linguistic groups and nationalities. By using an expansive demographic base, it is possible to draw conclusions specific to groups. For instance, are there images or representations that are particularly positive for women; and likewise, for any demographic. Likewise, any images that are particularly negative can be determined and defined. The establishment of positive and negative images, and understanding how they are received, allow for improvement on eliminating the negative, and building on the positive. Finally, the size of the groups are important such that the data is sufficient to make inferences about the public at large. In other words, what is the minimum number of individuals needed to present a wider perspective about NSW? The focus groups will be moderated and monitored. They will be facilitated by someone with a market research background in order to draw out information from individuals. And, they will allow for a more intimate understanding of how audiences react, and what their preferences and disappointments were. Along with focus groups, large scale presentations will allow for a greater or larger sample. The same representations that will be given to focus groups, will be presented to a larger group. However, the basis for the data collection will be questionnaires. Rather than discuss the impressions of individuals which the focus groups will concentrate on, the larger group questionnaires will be tabulated to round out the wider perspective, and to increase the sample base so that it is representative of the population as a whole. Questions for the focus group, the control group, and the large group presentations will vary. The questions asked by the moderator within the focus groups will largely be on an 'ad hoc' basis. That is to say, the facilitator will be prepared for the general assessment of the positive from the negative, but also focused on drawing out the particulars about the images and their respective impressions. The questionnaire will be coded so that it is easy to tabulate -- coding is the style of questions and how the information is collected. For instance, rankings is a common way of coding. That is, rating on a scale from one to five, or a scale such as 'excellent', 'very good', 'good', and so on. By coding the survey/questionnaire, the results can be easily tabulated and analyzed using any basic computer data application program. TIMELINE: Consultations with Stakeholders: 6 weeks. Development of survey, interview and focus group methods: 6 weeks. Collect survey data from projects: 2 weeks. Collect data on outcomes: 1 week. Analysis of data and presentation of draft report: 12 weeks Preparation and presentation of final report: 4 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The goals for the current research proposal, are relatively straight forward. The general objective, is to improve the general public image for the NSW police. Specifically, the goal of this study is to analyze existing practices and media perceptions, and in turn, create an agenda for improving on the existing practices and perceptions. To this end, this study will create a control group to establish a baseline for perceptions, and also, have both a large group and focus groups. The groups will be presented both existing images and representations, but also a set of new ones for testing purposes. The focus in terms of content, will be on 'negative' and 'positive' images and representations, and very obviously, the objective is to increase the use of positive media representations, and reduce the number of negative ones. By improving the public image of the NSW police, there will unquestionably be an improvement in community relations and this is the optimal outcome of the current study. Further, police can further understand how the public perceives them, and this can help improve in areas of policing well beyond just the public image, and can help improve a multitude of day-to-day functions conducted by the NSW police. Works Cited: Jewkes, Yvonne. “The Media and Criminological Research”. SOURCE UNKOWN. pp. 245-261. Lee, Murray, 2010, “Force Selling: Policing and the Manufacture of Public Confidence?”, The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2010, Sydney Law School, Sydney. Mawby, Rob C. “Using the Media to Understand Crime and Criminal Justice”. SOURCE UNKNOWN. pp. 223-244. McBurney, Donald H., and White, Theresa L, 2009, Research Methods. Eight Edition, Cengage Publishing, Belmont. Public Affairs Branch, NSW Police Force, 2010, Media Policy. ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NSW POLICE USE OF MEDIA & MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS: A RESEARCH PROPOSAL. Read More