Crime Justice and the Media
Crime, Justice and the Media 1
Crime, Justice and the Media
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Aileen O’Dea
CJS101
November 28, 2011
Crime, Justice and the Media How does the media impact the criminal justice system? Listed below are some very publicized cases and the reaction of the media. I will discuss the impact media has on societies’ opinions, whether police are successful in solving crimes because of overexposure of the media. Or are citizens’ opinions about the criminal justice system misconstrued by the media’s exposure of crimes? And I will compare positive and negative effects between Canada and the United States to discover if the media has the same kind of effects in another country. Remember the O.J. Simpson trial? How could we forget! The trial was televised every day and was the longest trial in California history costing more that $20,000,000. (Muraskin and Domash, 2007). Society was fascinated by this case because it involved a celebrity and a brutal crime. The victims (Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson) were forgotten and people were more concerned with the publicity and outcome of the trial. Then there was the Scott Peterson case. The media loved that case because he murdered his pregnant wife and their unborn child. How about the case of Jon Benet Ramsey? The media publicized that case continuously because she was a young beauty queen. Her parents were accused of killing her and later cleared of all charges. The people are influenced about how they feel about the justice system because of the way the media portrays crime (2007). Society as a whole has a fear of crime and it is mainly due to reporting of crime in several sources (2007). People tend to believe what they read in newspapers, magazines, news articles on the Internet, radio, and television. It is hard to believe there are any positive factors regarding the media
Crime, Justice and the Media
-------------------------------------------------
Aileen O’Dea
CJS101
November 28, 2011
Crime, Justice and the Media How does the media impact the criminal justice system? Listed below are some very publicized cases and the reaction of the media. I will discuss the impact media has on societies’ opinions, whether police are successful in solving crimes because of overexposure of the media. Or are citizens’ opinions about the criminal justice system misconstrued by the media’s exposure of crimes? And I will compare positive and negative effects between Canada and the United States to discover if the media has the same kind of effects in another country. Remember the O.J. Simpson trial? How could we forget! The trial was televised every day and was the longest trial in California history costing more that $20,000,000. (Muraskin and Domash, 2007). Society was fascinated by this case because it involved a celebrity and a brutal crime. The victims (Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson) were forgotten and people were more concerned with the publicity and outcome of the trial. Then there was the Scott Peterson case. The media loved that case because he murdered his pregnant wife and their unborn child. How about the case of Jon Benet Ramsey? The media publicized that case continuously because she was a young beauty queen. Her parents were accused of killing her and later cleared of all charges. The people are influenced about how they feel about the justice system because of the way the media portrays crime (2007). Society as a whole has a fear of crime and it is mainly due to reporting of crime in several sources (2007). People tend to believe what they read in newspapers, magazines, news articles on the Internet, radio, and television. It is hard to believe there are any positive factors regarding the media