Preview

True Crime Documentaries and Tv Shows

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
446 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
True Crime Documentaries and Tv Shows
True crime documentaries and TV shows have grown in popular culture, but are more than entertainment; they have inspired the pursuit of many different careers.

Television and movies are a major part of our everyday lives. Many of these movies and tv shows are influenced by real life situations giving them a natural and major influence on our behavior. There has always been study as to whether violence in movies and tv shows causes violent behavior in the younger generation. This has been shown by individuals in some U.S. schools violently imitating things they have seen in movies and shows. Research will also show that this violent behavior amongst the younger generation is increasing because of the influence of tv. The reason that television shows and movies influence us is that we try to associate with what we see. We try to find similarities between the characters and ourselves. Much of what we learn and associate with comes from documentaries. Some of the more popular documentaries are true crime mysteries. Along with these are documentaries about gang life and drugs. For the most part, these shows are meant to be educational in the matter of safety and the hope of teaching the population to make better decisions. Many tv shows such as CSI, Law and Order, Bones, and some others are meant for entertainment purposes. They are fictional dramas that may be based on true events. These true crime dramas have caused many different reactions. For some they are just entertainment and they do not associate anything from the episodes into their daily lives, but for many others, this is not the case. There is now something called the “CSI effect” where the exaggerated portrayal of forensic science on crime dramas actually influences public perception. Jurors are demanding more forensic evidence in criminal trials which actually raises the standard of proof for prosecutors. This turns into a “snowball” effect because as prosecutors demand more forensic evidence, so do

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Media Violence and Cartoons

    • 2702 Words
    • 11 Pages

    While it is not the first medium ever to reproduce violence for entertainment, television has certainly been the most notorious. However, television stations "do not air violence because they want to. They air it because that is what sells. The blame is upon ourselves for the large volume of violence, since they are merely responding to what we want" (Kim). This love for violence has filtered into nearly every television show aired currently. Virtually every television station airs shows, either live action or animated, that involve the characters fighting, arguing, or just acting in a malevolent way towards something or somebody else. The news always carries stories of what crimes have been committed during the day, daytime talk shows and soap operas often involve fighting and conflict, and even children's television is starting to take a more serious,…

    • 2702 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As Americans, we rely a great deal on the entertainment industry to educate us about things we don’t understand. In many ways, we live vicariously through the experiences of fictional characters and believe they learn many things from those fictional characters. For example, many people have said they learned about forensic techniques by watching the “C.S.I.” shows on television. They firmly believe that can assist in an actual criminal investigation because they have seen “experts” on television handle similar situations.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gcse Media Crime Drama

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1a) The ever increasing popularity of crime dramas is a result of the programme being voyeuristic and escapist in terms of representations, as people often seek the thrill and danger without being involved in the programme itself. An example of this would be in ‘Sherlock’, as the protagonist ‘Sherlock’, is shown to be an intellectual genius, solving the crimes mathematically by using his own unique technique. This is important, as the audience almost want to spy on the character to find out how they solve the crime, which is one of the audiences needs. Also, he finds himself in a lot of risky and action fuelled situations, which would appeal to the audience in contrast to their day to day lives, and emphasises the fast pace of the programme. ‘Sherlock’ can also be viewed as a method of escapism, as many women find his quirky and intelligent character attractive. Crime dramas are also popular because the audience can also make connections between real crime and crime fiction, as often the locations in which they are set in are familiar with the audience. For example, in ‘Scott and Bailey’, the prime location is Manchester, which reflects the typical working class audience of the programme, therefore the audience would share similar values and be able to relate to real crime that has taken place. Also, the script and dialogue would be important, as the language used in ‘Scott and Bailey’, for example ‘You are under arrest…’ would also be spoken by real policewomen. Equally, the equipment such as handcuffs as seen in ‘Scott and Bailey’, would also be a part of real crime cases, therefore allowing the audience to make connections. The demand for crime dramas is increasing, as the audience are kept sustained and interested throughout the whole series, by showing a wide range of storylines, and not being repetitive. This is shown in ‘Whitechapel’, where each week the murder scene changes. For example, one week it could be focusing on several…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    TV Crime Drama

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Are you a personal fan of TV crime dramas or are you just disturbed by them? The past couple of months and/or in the past year tv crime drama have been becoming more popular. Whether people enjoy them or there’s been a case of boredom and there’s nothing to watch. Either way the viewers of tv crime drama have increased from the last couple of years. A crime drama is a type drama show, which has its primary focus or heroes, people whose main job or occupation is to investigate, punish or commit crimes- especially homicide, assault, robbery, etc. Notable crime dramas on TV history include Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Sopranos and CSI. Most people without a doubt enjoy the thrill of crime…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Violent crime in America has always been a problem, but as a result of the media citizens think it is a bigger issue than it actually is. The media would rather focus on violent crime, specifically murder, rather than the more common crimes such as: burglary assault, etc. This helped create what is known as the ‘CSI Effect,’ which is the idea that viewers think crime is exactly like crimes portrayed on television. As a Criminal Justice major I am able to see how the ‘CSI Effect’ affects members of society.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap Psychology Essay

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Whether it’s watching the girls on America’s Next Top Model fighting and screaming at each other or if it’s brutally murdered victims on CSI, violence finds its way into almost any TV show. As the crime rates and arrests increase many researchers and parents are beginning to believe that violent crimes are caused from watching violence on television. But is there a way to prove that?…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hypothesis/Claim: American culture gives eccentricity emphasis to TV shows like Dexter and movies like Chainsaw Massacre. The viewers are psychologically predisposed to the violence and inept to assimilate into social customs thus brings the audience to resolve their life problems with violence. Hollywood movie producers should revise their scripts and removed movie projects based on murderers in order to decrease the percentage of viewers turning to crimes.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay On Fear Of Crime

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Annenberg public policy centre at the university of Pennsylvania conducted a study comparing annual changes in the amount of violence portrayed on popular primetime dramas from the early 70s through 2010 and the study shows that “Incidents of TV violence on broadcast television have increased since the late 1990s and has the public’s fear of crime, the study also says that its findings suggest that TV drama may “transport” viewers emotionally into the imagined world of TV shows in a way that creates fear of crime beyond the influence of the national violent crime rate or the reported perception of local crime”. For example programmes like ‘crime watch’ on BBC one, the show features around three to four cases and each case has its own reconstruction of the crime, they usually show the audience key evidence from the crimes, the…

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    argue that the media has a much more prominent role in causing disorderly conduct. Their studies suggest that, particularly amongst children, the portrayal of violent media can cause certain members of society to behave in particular ways. Although a link between viewing television of a violent nature and acting out what has been seen by the viewers has been established, it has not been conclusively proven that the former has directly led to the latter. Unlike the observations made by Hall et al. they do not take into account other explanations such as naturalistic or social factors, including intelligence, weakness and inequality, which it could be argued are the reasons for viewing that particular type of media in the first place.…

    • 1625 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Guns and Gun Control

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Media does not help in this constant debate since many feel as though outlets such as TV shows, movies and games promote violence especially in youth. However in studies where children were observed before and after viewing violent shows on TV, they did become more aggressive meaning there is a correlation between watching TV and acts of aggression but that connection doesn’t necessarily mean watching that particular show caused it to happen. Meaning a child acting out in violence could have been acting out on his aggression but not because he saw it happen. ‘A conservative conclusion is that mass media violence has a small effect on real-life violence that is eclipsed by other influences… we should remain skeptical of mass media effects until the empirical evidence becomes compelling…’ (Barkan, 2007, pp. 290-291)…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most studies show that the more real-life based and reasonable the violence media is the greater chance it has of affecting human behavior. In real life violence, the outcome is always suspense; while in fictional violence, the outcome is excepted and happy ending. Example of these would be Kill Bill and Rodney King; in which Rodney King was the one that caused lots of violence and attention since it was a real-life crime…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tv as a Shaper

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Violence has become a major part of television shows increasing regularly. Many may think that it is only the shows that get the warning “viewer discretion is advised” are bad influences on people but I believe that all shows can have a negative influence. For example, in the 90’s cartoon show Spiderman, all he ever did was tie villains up with his webs. In today’s cartoon he hits them and draws blood when fighting the villains. As innocent as cartoon shows may seem I have seen the increase in violence in these shows. Children, especially young, are not ready to distinguish right from wrong so when their favorite action hero is beating up a bad guy, therefore kids get the impression that it is all right to do the same. Witnessing repeated violent acts can lead to desensitization and lack of empathy for human…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media can also be an influence in the crime rate. Marcus Felson identified nine fallacies about crime (some related to media). The ingenuity fallacy presumes that “criminals are far cleverer that they really are”. The constabulary fallacy “assumes that police…know more about crime and can do more about crime than they actually do. (qtd. in Walklate) These two fallacies are shown in many television shows like “Criminal Minds”, “NCIS”, and others. Not all public is educated in the subject and believed in this. A proof of this is that many teenagers want to study in a criminal justice are, thinking that it would be like in television. Now, the same occurs with crimes. Movies and television shows make avoiding justice seem easier than what it actually…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child Behavior

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages

    American children watch an average of four hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Television shows that allow the character that commits the crime to receive no punishment, teaches children that it is all right to commit a crime because nothing will be done. Criminals and violent acts do not get punished. Television is a powerful teacher and if children are always viewing their favorite characters using violence or aggression to get what they want, children will do the same.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Television viewing is a major activity and influence on children and adolescents. People complain that certain TV shows are having negative effects on their children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) both feel that TV does influence the behavior of children as young as one year old. From their studies, the AACAP states, “Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see” (as cited in Wilcox, 2004) This speaks to the impressionable mindsets of young children, who are still learning control of their minds and bodies, and are likely to mimic what they see, as it seems quite normal to them. Everything that children see or hear in the media early on in their lives affects them in some way. Violence, sexuality, race and gender stereotypes, drug and alcohol abuse are common themes of television programs. The Academy of Pediatrics says “More than one thousand scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behavior…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics