Accuracy of the Media's Portrayal of Youth Crime
How Accurate is the Media’s Portrayal of Youth Crime?
The media plays a major role in distributing crime stories to the public through means of the television, newspapers and the radio as well as several other ways. In terms of accuracy, it is commonly thought that the media do in fact distort the image of our youth, resulting in the public perceiving that youth crime is on the rise. The media is an extremely useful method of delivering information to the public, and has much power in directing decisions and placing much emphasis on particular issues such as youth crime, often making the issue out to be worse than it actually is.
In order to determine how accurate the media’s portrayal of youth crime is, different elements need to be looked and discussed, such as public perceptions, statistics, further research and young people as victims and offenders. I shall go on to discuss these elements further in order to develop a clearer understanding of how accurate the media’s portrayal of youth crime actually is.
The media plays a major role in creating public perceptions as well as creating policy and laws. It is important for the media to become more accurate with the stories and reports that they produce as a negative media hype can in turn lead to having serious consequences upon these things. Furthermore it had been said that negative media stereotypes can lead a young person to feel alienated and discriminated against in their society, which can further lead to young people wanting to act up to what society and the media portrays of them which can increase the number of young offenders. It is important for their to be a balance between both negative and positive stories that are reported through the media in order to encourage young people to act in a well behaved manner and to stay clear of criminal acts. If there was to be more of a balance between negative and positive stories about young people, I believe that only then would the media start to
The media plays a major role in distributing crime stories to the public through means of the television, newspapers and the radio as well as several other ways. In terms of accuracy, it is commonly thought that the media do in fact distort the image of our youth, resulting in the public perceiving that youth crime is on the rise. The media is an extremely useful method of delivering information to the public, and has much power in directing decisions and placing much emphasis on particular issues such as youth crime, often making the issue out to be worse than it actually is.
In order to determine how accurate the media’s portrayal of youth crime is, different elements need to be looked and discussed, such as public perceptions, statistics, further research and young people as victims and offenders. I shall go on to discuss these elements further in order to develop a clearer understanding of how accurate the media’s portrayal of youth crime actually is.
The media plays a major role in creating public perceptions as well as creating policy and laws. It is important for the media to become more accurate with the stories and reports that they produce as a negative media hype can in turn lead to having serious consequences upon these things. Furthermore it had been said that negative media stereotypes can lead a young person to feel alienated and discriminated against in their society, which can further lead to young people wanting to act up to what society and the media portrays of them which can increase the number of young offenders. It is important for their to be a balance between both negative and positive stories that are reported through the media in order to encourage young people to act in a well behaved manner and to stay clear of criminal acts. If there was to be more of a balance between negative and positive stories about young people, I believe that only then would the media start to
Bibliography: Catherine Clark, Amrita Ghosh, Emrys Green and Naushin Shariff. (2010). Media Portrayal of Young People - Impact and Influences. Available: Francis, P. (2007) ‘Young People, Victims and Crime’ in Davies, P., Francis, P. and Greer C. (eds.) Victims, Crime and Society. London: Sage Jewkes, Y. (2011) Media & Crime (2nd edition) London: Sage. Chapters 2-4 J. M. Hough, Julian V. Roberts (2004). Youth Crime and Youth Justice. London: The Policy Press Lucja Wisniewska, Lucie Harris and Claire Oliver. (2006). Selfish, Anti-social Criminal Uncaring. Available: http://www.byc.org.uk/media/16154/Report.%20Respect%20Voice%20behind%20the%20Hood.%20July%202006..pdf. Matt Wells. (2004). Media Casts Youth in a Constant Bad Light. Available:http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/12/pressandpublishing.broadcasting Muncie, J. (2009) Youth and Crime (3rd edition) London: Sage. Chapters 1 - 7 Robert Jubb. (2003). Youth Victimisation . Available: http://www.nacro.org.uk/data/files/nacro-2004120606-403.pdf.