The Media vs. Reality; Crime in the Information Age
The Media vs. Reality: Crime in the Information Age
It 's not difficult to gauge what the popular notions of crime in the United States are. Engage in any polite conversation over dinner or cocktails and one is likely to hear similar themes: "crime is out of control, it 's just not the same world we grew up in, it 's not safe to walk down the street anymore, it 's a mean world out there," etc. The underlying theme that can be drawn from these notions is fear. There is a widespread conception that crime is a rampant problem in this country and that violent crime and others are on the rise. However, these beliefs are not supported at all by the facts, even those put forth by our own law enforcement agencies. So why then, are most Americans so concerned with the threat of violent crime in particular? While the answer to this question is a complex one involving many contributors, the focus of this essay is concerned with the impact of popular media on these perceptions, because the media, it would seem, is one of the most influential contributors to the social construction of crime in this country. The coverage of crime, and particularly violent crime, in the news media has increased in frequency of coverage and sensationalized reporting despite statistical proof that violent crime has been decreasing for many years. This phenomenon is of great concern because how we arrive at our perceptions of our world should be critically examined so policy solutions react to truth not manipulated reality.
As of 2001 homicides made up one to two-tenths of one percent of all arrests, yet made up 27-29% of crime coverage on the nightly news (Dorfman and Schiraldi). Still one of the most shocking statistics from Dorfman and Schiraldi 's study states that, "Crime coverage has increased while real crime rates have fallen. While homicide coverage was increasing on the network news by 473% from 1990 to 1998, homicide arrests dropped 32.9% from 1990 to 1998." We can see one
It 's not difficult to gauge what the popular notions of crime in the United States are. Engage in any polite conversation over dinner or cocktails and one is likely to hear similar themes: "crime is out of control, it 's just not the same world we grew up in, it 's not safe to walk down the street anymore, it 's a mean world out there," etc. The underlying theme that can be drawn from these notions is fear. There is a widespread conception that crime is a rampant problem in this country and that violent crime and others are on the rise. However, these beliefs are not supported at all by the facts, even those put forth by our own law enforcement agencies. So why then, are most Americans so concerned with the threat of violent crime in particular? While the answer to this question is a complex one involving many contributors, the focus of this essay is concerned with the impact of popular media on these perceptions, because the media, it would seem, is one of the most influential contributors to the social construction of crime in this country. The coverage of crime, and particularly violent crime, in the news media has increased in frequency of coverage and sensationalized reporting despite statistical proof that violent crime has been decreasing for many years. This phenomenon is of great concern because how we arrive at our perceptions of our world should be critically examined so policy solutions react to truth not manipulated reality.
As of 2001 homicides made up one to two-tenths of one percent of all arrests, yet made up 27-29% of crime coverage on the nightly news (Dorfman and Schiraldi). Still one of the most shocking statistics from Dorfman and Schiraldi 's study states that, "Crime coverage has increased while real crime rates have fallen. While homicide coverage was increasing on the network news by 473% from 1990 to 1998, homicide arrests dropped 32.9% from 1990 to 1998." We can see one
Cited: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Trends in Violent Victimization. Sept. 10th, 2006. <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm> Chiricos, Ted Dorfman, Lori, and Vincent Schiraldi. "Off Balence: Youth, Race, and Crime in the News." Building Blocks For Youth. April 10th, 2001. <http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/media/factsheet.html>. Entman, Robert. Projections of Power. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. Gans, Herbert J Glassner, Barry. The Culture of Fear. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1999. Lakoff, George. Don’t Think of an Elephant. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004. Lawrence, Regina. The Politics of Force. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2000. Surette, Ray. Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998. Torny, Michael. Thinking About Crime. Oxford, NY: Oxford, 2004.