Reliable Way of Deciding How Worried We Ought to Be about Crime - Essay Example

Is there a reliable way of deciding how worried we ought to be about crime? Introduction Electronic media and statistics are two major sources of crime reporting. In this regard, “Events that appear to disrupt expectations (or) deviant occurrences are the stuff of news “(Reiner et al., 2003: 13). In other words, the actual and non-fiction use of events is not the primary role and responsibility of today’s media but use the events for promoting their agenda in a sensational way in which the originality of event is mainly compromised for is mainly carried out. Consequently, the effects of such methods and their use have raised a number of questions about media ethics and use of media in a professional manner. In the following parts of this paper, first role of media has been discussed in which prime focus has been given to its required and actual role being played by various sources of media. It is followed by the part highlighting different models detailing the social theories pertaining to aggression and cultivation models which are highly related to the media and its reporting manners of crime events and crime stories as well. Subsequently, the effects of statistics have been provided in which difference between media and statistics has mentioned. Before the conclusion part, scope of crime and its coverage has been discussed in which how use of violence has severely affected the social fabric of society. The role of media for increasing crime in society has become a major source of controversy in the recent times. In this regard, numerous theories have been developed for highlighting the negative role of media for developing negative attitudes and behaviours among masses. In this regard, cultivation theory has received a considerable attention and focus from the sociologists and other researchers as well. The cultivation theory is primarily based on the assumption that prime-time television shows highlight world news and affairs more accompanied with menace than it is normally highlighted in other television hours (Gerbner et al., 1994). In other words, the prime-time television programs are more dramatised in a way to exaggerate real event on which such programs are based. Consequently, in the exaggerated depiction of events, the reality is no more relevant and only dramatic effects of programs influence on the mental structure of watchers. In addition, General Aggression Model highlights that watching violence-based media increases the tendency to become more violent (Bushman and Anderson, 2002). In other words, media images and story highlights become a source for spreading violence in society. On the other hand, Lorenz (1963) disagrees with this notion and argues that catharsis model represents that aggression is not an outer phenomena but a biological one only requiring expression. However, Bushman (2002) maintains that many critics do not agree with this notion but reflect that media has become a fundamental channel fuelling the fire of aggression, violence, intolerance, crime, rape and other stories that were rarely seen before the global onslaught of the electronic media. In addition, Ferguson (2007) points out that numerous journals were not willing to publish those articles were balanced but more preference and encouragement was given only to those articles which primarily supported a particular dimension of specific hypotheses, reflecting the widespread presence of discrimination about fairness in reporting some news items. Local television news also cultivates certain expectations, perceptions and images in the mind of local viewers. In this regard, McManus (1994) maintains that this medium of disseminating information and breaking crime and other types of news has become more relevant and effective as well for reporting crime related local stories in which focus is mainly given to the local violence, crime and drugs. In this regard, it is important to mention that the effects of watching a crime scene has more devastating and substantial effects than listening to (without watching any crime news) because it is a scientifically proven fact that the power of images is quickly received by human brain and it becomes a part of human memory. Consequently, the effects of watching crime scenes and crime-animated programs convince the watcher to become more violent in behaviour and action as well. Crime has become a fascinating news item for today’s electronic and print media as well. This fact has become an indelible reality which is commonly found throughout local, regional, national and international media as well. In this regard, it is important to mention that crime has attraction for news media because they consider it to be a reportable element of news and it should be reported. And this reporting intensity becomes so fierce that the actual story and its appropriate and correct representation is lost in war between reporting. Moreover, the reporting of crime has different dimensions as well. For example, some news channels only focus on the crime scene and they try to display the crime as a pure criminal act whereas some other channels do not stop here but they try to portray as an act of terrorism as well. Both cases have different effects on watchers. For example, the news channel who reports it as crime has a very limited negative effect but more negative influence is provided when the same act of offence is displayed as terrorism. Effects of Statistics The impact of crime statistics can be limited. This can be caused by a number of reasons. First, the reported statistics are purely in mathematical figures and less or no dramatisation is carried out. For example, if a newspaper reports monthly crime statistics in a city, it will only use either charts or simple description to highlight frequency or changes occurred between the previous month crime rates with the current month crime rate statistics. Consequently, the reported crime statistics has considerably limited influence on mind of reader particularly when this effect is compared with a viewer watching live a crime scene through a news channel. In addition, if the reported crime statistics represent data of foreign country or another state, the resultant impact would be considerably less as the reader may not be more interested to read the full article detailing and reporting the crime statistics. In contrast, when a viewer watches a dramatisation of crime, he or she becomes more interested to see the subsequent events because the entire depiction is displayed in a manner to increase the interest of viewers through adding different graphic images, violent behaviours, strange background music and hard voice to capture the viewer attention. Scope of Crime and Its Coverage In this segment, it is important to highlight which areas of crime will directly affect society. For example, some news channels report international crimes occurring in different parts of world while local or national news channels mainly focus on the local crime rate and report them accordingly. For example, for a citizen living in the United Kingdom, crime occurred in the United States of America may not be relevant and may have limited effect. Similarly, if that citizen is living in London and the crime is reported in Cambridge, the effect of crime may be relevant and influential as well to some extent. On the contrary, if the same crime occurs in London, the citizen would become conscious and ready to hear the whole story because of the nearness of the crime. Electronic media gives more attention to crime news than the print media (Cumberbatch et al., 1995). The electronic media includes television channels and radios as well whereas print media includes newspapers, magazine and other journals as well. And there are various reasons that the electronic media gives more coverage to crime news than other pieces of news. For example, many researchers and sociologists believe that the audience is more interested to watch crime scenes and this inclination is not mainly created by the audience but the coverage received by such events has psychologically compelled the viewers to expect the similar news coverage. In addition, the role of films and movies in which only negative attitudes and actions are more promoted and supported than the positive and constructive attitudes. Normally, films show a wide range of weapons, arsenals, battle fields, snipers and other negative aspects in which harsh and threatening words and behaviours have considerably legalised crime and violence in today’s society. For example, the impact of violence-based movies can be assessed by the fact that recently a person in the United States killed 12 people in a social gathering event; when the police interrogated that the killer, he replied that he was very fascinated by a film character (Joker) in the movie (Batman) who was violent and ready to kill everyone for obtaining his mean objectives (Graham and Gallagher, 2012). Conclusion Both crime statistics and media reporting separately affect society. The format of statistics is very simple in which charts and bars are mainly used in the print media whereas the dramatisation of crime reports by various news channels puts a damaging effect on the overall personality of viewers. In addition, the crime statistics are sometimes reported descriptively; consequently, they are not as destructive as the media reportage of crime in which they use hard voice, strange music, behaviour and strong words for highlighting crime. References Bushman, B (2002), Does venting anger feed or extinguish the flame? Catharsis, rumination, distraction, anger and aggressive responding, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6, 724–731 Bushman, B, & Anderson, C (2002), Violent video games and hostile expectations: A test of the General Aggression Model, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1679–1686. Cumberbatch, G,Woods, S, and Maguire, A (1995), Crime in the News: Television, Radio and Newspapers: A Report for BBC Broadcasting Research, Birmingham: Aston University, Communications Research Group Gerbner, G, Gross, L, Morgan, M, & Signorielli, N (1994), Growing up with television: The Cultivation Perspective, in J. Bryant & D. Zillman (Eds), Media effects: Advances in theory and research, New Jersey: Erlbaum. Ferguson, C J (2007), Evidence for publication bias in video game violence effects literature: A meta-analytic review, Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12, 470–482 Graham, C, Gallagher, I (2012), Gunman who massacred 12 at movie premiere used same drugs that killed Batman star Heath Ledge and messaged web lovers to ask... Will you visit me in Prison? Daily Mail, Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176377/James-Holmes-Colorado-shooting-Gunman-used-drugs-killed-Heath-Ledger.html Accessed: 17 July, 2014 Lorenz, K. (1963). On aggression. New York: Harcourt, Brace andWorld McManus, JH (1994), Market driven Journalism: Let the citizen beware? California: Sage Reiner, R., Livingstone, S., Allen, J. (2003) From Law and Order to Lynch Mobs: Crime News Since the Second World War” In P. Mason, (ed) Criminal Visions: Media Representations of Crime and Justice, 13-32. Portland: Willan Publishing. Read More