This blog is about me; where do I fit in with crime and the media?
My media habits are pretty thorough, I read newspapers, watch so much TV, get news online, read so many books, I’m a movie buff and I don’t mind the occasional video game. One thing all these mediums have in common is that in one way or another they feature crime.
Society seems to have a really deep fascination with crime and everything criminal, the media feeds into this obsession by creating and broadcasting so many crime related stories, shows, movies, games etc.
With so many crime outlets in the media it becomes easy for the media to alter the publics view on crimes and criminals. Three quarters of the general public generate their views on opinions of crime from what is presented to them in the media (Marsh & Melville 2009).
In my opinion the media is sometimes underestimated. The media plays a huge role in people’s lives (my own included) that it becomes a major driving force for many media-generated stereotypes and fears, for example moral panics and folk-devils (Cohen 1980). This can lead to the formation of different policies and practices within the criminal justice system which have their foundations formed by naïve interpretations in the media (Lieshman & Mason 2003, p. 144).
There is so much impetus placed on media outlets to generate interesting, exciting and newsworthy stories and the actual crime facts may become lost in translation. I’m afraid this characteristic of popular media makes it extremely difficult to get accurate and reliable crime information.
As for me I am a cynic; I have always been one and my sceptical view of the world makes me extremely suspicious and critical when viewing crime in the media. Through my cynical nature I am able to formulate my own opinions of crime in the media, I know when something is exaggerated or sensationalised, I know when words are taken out of context, I know when numbers are manipulated to mean certain things. I’m afraid not too many people are like me though. My message to the world is this:
Please do not believe everything you see in the media, Fox news is not a reliable source of information, neither is CSI. As intelligent and freethinking members of society we should be able to critically examine crime in the media and generate our own views.
References:
Cohen, S (1980). Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, 2nd ed. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Lieshman, F & Mason, P 2003, ‘Policing and the media: facts, fictions and factions’, Willian Publishing, London.
I believed that it is difficult to be all-the-time skeptical about crime news in the media. For some news it is easy to identify that the media's intention to deliver a news based on entertainment value. For example, I've read from another student's blog talking about a news that said prisoners are having very expensive food in the prisons and it is costing a lot to the taxpayers (with pictures of fancy expensive dinner taken from elsewhere). I can easily recognise the false misinterpretation of the media in reporting this news, thinking no way their food is THAT nice.
ReplyDeleteHowever for some other news it is difficult to stay rational when reading it and not develop a sense of fear of crime especially when it is closely related to you. For example, if there is a news saying that there is an increase in thieves in uni campus stealing laptops and phones, surely i will be worried that my stuffs will be stolen as well and i will be more careful about it. It is when the fear of crime kicks in that you lose the capability to stay rational and be skeptical about the media news. This is also exactly how the deviancy amplification spiral and moral panic are able to develop by the media.
I believe that no one can be completely rational about media news and not be affected by it in any way. The most important thing is to have access to a variety of news that enables you to have different views on the issue and therefore you are able to have your own judgements based on all the information that comes from different perspective. The media thus have a responsibility to report news from multi-angle for audiences to do so.
Great use of academic literature to highlight your points. Well done!
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