Media And Crime Analysis
After choosing a total of four articles this workbook will critically compare and evaluate how the media represents offenders, the Criminal Justice System, victims and the crime. It will then analyse whether film and television cause people to commit crimes and if media news increases people's’ fear of crime.
In terms of finding stories worth reporting and that will sell, the media rely extensively on crime. One crime that made it very quickly to the news was the murders committed by Stephen Griffiths. Article one, from the guardian in 2011, straight away makes an assumption about Griffiths, relating to Cornish and Clarke's’ Rational Choice Theory, the title of the article reads, ‘Crossbow Cannibal: He killed because it was easy’, this being …show more content…
Article one, from the guardian in 1993, contains a detailed description of the kidnap, torture and killing of two year old James, being so formidable within the first few lines of the article will shock the reader and this is exactly what the reporter is intending to do, they want the reader to really feel outraged for the victim and by stating how his mother was seen on CCTV frantically searching for her son only adds to the animosity. The article represents James as a bit of a tear-away child saying on several occasions he ran off from his mother and at one point ‘helped himself’ to some sweets at a store, not the perfect little boy he is usually described as. In a further part of the article James is portrayed as not much more than just a mutilated body, the language used seems very apathetic and straight to the point. However article two, from BBC news in 1993, focuses on encouraging the reader to feel grief for the two year old, portraying James as not just a murder victim but a very real person with a family that deserve privacy and respect.
Croall (2011) looked in a thesis called ‘the ideal victim’, in media an ideal victim would be one that would generate a lot of public sympathy, for example, a male in his mid thirties who had been assaulted by another male of a similar age would not get half as much sympathy as an elderly lady who was subject to the exact same assault, the media knows this so they strategically choose the stories they report . James Bulger fits perfectly within the description of an ideal victim, therefore his murder was reported world
In terms of finding stories worth reporting and that will sell, the media rely extensively on crime. One crime that made it very quickly to the news was the murders committed by Stephen Griffiths. Article one, from the guardian in 2011, straight away makes an assumption about Griffiths, relating to Cornish and Clarke's’ Rational Choice Theory, the title of the article reads, ‘Crossbow Cannibal: He killed because it was easy’, this being …show more content…
Article one, from the guardian in 1993, contains a detailed description of the kidnap, torture and killing of two year old James, being so formidable within the first few lines of the article will shock the reader and this is exactly what the reporter is intending to do, they want the reader to really feel outraged for the victim and by stating how his mother was seen on CCTV frantically searching for her son only adds to the animosity. The article represents James as a bit of a tear-away child saying on several occasions he ran off from his mother and at one point ‘helped himself’ to some sweets at a store, not the perfect little boy he is usually described as. In a further part of the article James is portrayed as not much more than just a mutilated body, the language used seems very apathetic and straight to the point. However article two, from BBC news in 1993, focuses on encouraging the reader to feel grief for the two year old, portraying James as not just a murder victim but a very real person with a family that deserve privacy and respect.
Croall (2011) looked in a thesis called ‘the ideal victim’, in media an ideal victim would be one that would generate a lot of public sympathy, for example, a male in his mid thirties who had been assaulted by another male of a similar age would not get half as much sympathy as an elderly lady who was subject to the exact same assault, the media knows this so they strategically choose the stories they report . James Bulger fits perfectly within the description of an ideal victim, therefore his murder was reported world