Discuss the Influence of Press and Media in Shaping the Public's Fear About Crime. Use Examples from Recent Press and Media Coverage of Crime to Illustrate Your Answer.
Discuss the influence of press and media in shaping the public's fear about crime. Use examples from recent press and media coverage of crime to illustrate your answer.
An area that has caused much debate in criminology is the significance of the media and the effect is has on fear of crime.
Fear of crime is very difficult to measure as there are different types of fear and also different levels of fear but it is believed that the press and media can influence an individual to think that they are more likely to become a victim of crime.
In today's society with the development of technology and the fact that information is so readily available, more people are now aware of the amount of crime that occurs. The question is, are we getting a true representation of different types of crime? Nowadays a newspaper or TV news report is more likely to show cases of murder or sexual assault because they know it will sell copies and that it will grasp the attention of the audience. This is because the story has been deemed "newsworthy" or in other words, what a reporter thinks the public will want to hear about. Chibnall (1977) briefly outlined in Maguire, Morgan and Reiner's "The Oxford Handbook of Criminology" recognised eight imperatives of newsworthiness: Immediacy, Dramatisation, Personalisation, Simplification, Titillation, Conventionalism, Structured Access and Novelty and therefore we are more likely to hear about a story if it has just happened, if it is violent or sexual and if it is about a celebrity. Later three more imperatives of newsworthiness were recognised: Risk, Proximity and Children (Jewkes 2004).
In the past, newspapers and TV news were simply to give the public information that they needed to know and with the advance of technology this has now become dramatised.
In 2011 the number of violent crimes committed in England and Wales has decreased by 9% since 2010 (British Crime Survey 2011) but this has not been reflected in the media as,
An area that has caused much debate in criminology is the significance of the media and the effect is has on fear of crime.
Fear of crime is very difficult to measure as there are different types of fear and also different levels of fear but it is believed that the press and media can influence an individual to think that they are more likely to become a victim of crime.
In today's society with the development of technology and the fact that information is so readily available, more people are now aware of the amount of crime that occurs. The question is, are we getting a true representation of different types of crime? Nowadays a newspaper or TV news report is more likely to show cases of murder or sexual assault because they know it will sell copies and that it will grasp the attention of the audience. This is because the story has been deemed "newsworthy" or in other words, what a reporter thinks the public will want to hear about. Chibnall (1977) briefly outlined in Maguire, Morgan and Reiner's "The Oxford Handbook of Criminology" recognised eight imperatives of newsworthiness: Immediacy, Dramatisation, Personalisation, Simplification, Titillation, Conventionalism, Structured Access and Novelty and therefore we are more likely to hear about a story if it has just happened, if it is violent or sexual and if it is about a celebrity. Later three more imperatives of newsworthiness were recognised: Risk, Proximity and Children (Jewkes 2004).
In the past, newspapers and TV news were simply to give the public information that they needed to know and with the advance of technology this has now become dramatised.
In 2011 the number of violent crimes committed in England and Wales has decreased by 9% since 2010 (British Crime Survey 2011) but this has not been reflected in the media as,
Bibliography: BBC News, 2011. Bexleyheath stabbing: Woman killed in Broadway. England, BBC. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15240781 [Accessed 6 November 2011]. Jewkes, Y. (2004) Media and Crime, London: Sage Maguire, M., Morgan, R The Guardian, 2003. Tabloids 'stoke fear of crime '. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jul/17/pressandpublishing.politics [Accessed 6 November 2011]. The Guardian, 2011. Levi Bellfield: obsessed with schoolgirls and sexual violence. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/24/levi-bellfield-profile-milly-dowler?INTCMP=SRCH [Accessed 6 November 2011]. Schlesinger, P. and Tumber, H., 1993. Don 't Have Nightmares: Do Sleep Well. Sky News, 2011. Woman Killed In London Stab Attack Named. Available from: http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16086101 [Accessed 6 November 2011]. The Sun, 2011. Serial paedo drugged and raped girls in school uniform. London, The Sun. Available from: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3658505/Milly-Dowler-killer-Levi-Bellfields-perverted-lust.html [Accessed 6 November 2011].