HOW HATE CRIME CAN DIFFERENTLY BE REPRESENTED IN NEWS REPORTS?
Exploring news reports, which can shape the aspects of our society, within the light of news values and news imperatives.
Introduction:
Crime is always news worthy, especially, in this century of telecommunication, internet and media. It nourishes the audiences, which are waiting to see new events in every new hour. With the impact of internet and fast data transfer, incidents happened in the morning, becomes outdated by the afternoon same day. This requires spanking original news every second. In this case, crime reporting grows to be a savior for news agencies. Crime news is about moments of immediate crisis states Wykes. Whilst reporting a crime, the headlines, choice of words and pictures play a significant role, because; the way that an incident is reported can develop an aspect towards the victims or the perpetrators according to the political or social opinions of the newspaper or the reporter. Dijk remarks this as “choice of words in newspaper headlines plays an important role. Not only do they express the definition of the situation, but they also signal the social or political opinions of the newspaper about the events. That is, headlines not only globally define or summarize an event, they also evaluate it”. Crime can attract attentions easily and occurs constantly which makes it; an irresistible source of news for the reporters. Here rises the question, within the described rush of news reporting, do the reporters care about the news values? Are they aware of the impact of the news reports for the society? Particularly about hate crime reporting, which is a very fragile issue for the societies, and also it concerns mainly the most vulnerable components of our community. Besides all, can they be orientating the society consciously?
Bibliography: Books used: Chibnall Steve, Law – and – Order News (Tavistock Publications, London, 1977) Dijk Teun A. Van, Racism and the Press (Routledge, London, 1991) Jewkes Yvonne, Media and Crime, (Sage Publications, London, 2004) Wykes Maggie, News Crime and Culture (Pluto Press, London 2001) Documents Used: A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh took almost eight hours to convict Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and 27-year-old Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq of the abduction, assault and brutal killing on Monday March 15, 2004.