Media Representations

Question 1

Whta type of society do we live in today in terms of the media?

Answer 1

Media saturated - a S dominated + influenced by the media

its our main course of knowledge about crime

Question 2

What do Howard + Young (2012) argue that advertisers have turned crime into?

Answer 2

Turned it into a consumer spectacle
= tool for selling products in a consumer market

Crime = become a integral part of media infotainment (crime packed as entertainment)

Question 3

Many issues discussed in relation to c+d are based on topic that the media tell the public are important
What is this influence called?

Answer 3

Known as agenda setting

Media cannot report every crime that occurs - very selective

Question 4

When did the mass shooting in Pulse nightclub take place?

Answer 4

12th June 2016 (made international news)

Question 5

Along with the Pulse shooting, how many other mass shootings were there from January - June 2016?

What does this shoe the media may be influenced by?

Answer 5

136 separate mass shootings (7 occurring in same week as Pulse)
BUT these received little to no International coverage

Shows media representations may be influenced by what people believe about crime, regardless of whether its accurate or not

Question 6

What did Williams + Dickinson (1993) find about the newspaper space given to crime stories?

Answer 6

BIG DIFFERENCE

The Sun: 30% vs The Guardian: 5%

Question 7

What % of crime reporting did Williams + Dickinson find involved violent crime?

Answer 7

65%

Despite the fact that these crimes make up 6% of recorded crime

Question 8

What did Williams + Dickinson say the development of media technologies has led to?

Answer 8

Even higher public awareness of their risk of victimisation

Question 9

What type of crimes does the media over-represent?

Answer 9

Violent + sexual crimes

Creates distorted image of crime

Question 10

What did Marsh (1991) ID?

Answer 10

Studied newspaper reporting in USA

Found violent crimes = x36 more likely to be reported than property crime

Question 11

What are the 2 concerts that Felson uses to describe the way that the media portrays crime?

Answer 11

Age Fallacy: portrays V’s + criminals as older, more mc than those typically found in CJS

Dramatic Fallacy: exaggerates extraordinary crimes + underplays ordinary crimes

Question 12

What are the 2 reasons that the media over exaggerate police success rate in clearing up cases

Answer 12

1. Police = major source crime stories, want to paint in a good light
2. over-represents violent crime, has higher clean up rate than property crime

Question 13

What does Surette (2010) argue that the media creates?

Answer 13

Creates ‘backwards law’

Constructs images that = backwards misrepresentations of reality

Question 14

Is news a social construct?

Answer 14

YES
Doesn’t exist without a journalist wanting to gather + write about it
= outcome of social process which some potential stories = selected whilst others rejected

Question 15

Which sociologists note that news isn’t discovered but manufactured?

Answer 15

Stan Cohen + Jock Young
More recently Jewkes (2011)

Stories = assessed in terms of ‘news values’

Question 16

What are news values?

Answer 16

Criteria by which journalists + editors decide whether a story = newsworthy enough to make it into news

Question 17

List the 10 news values

Answer 17

1. Immediacy
2. Dramatisation
3. Personalisation
4. Proximity
5. Higher status persons + celebrities
6. Simplification
7. Sex + violence
8. Graphic images
9. Children
10. Risk

Question 18

Describe Baudrillard’s concept of hyper-reality

Answer 18

Suggests media doesn’t reflect reality of crime but activity creates reality using media images
Means we have an unrealistic fear of violent + unusual crime + who likely Vs are

Question 19

What does Cashmore (2012) argue about the fear of crime?

Answer 19

Functional fear
Suggests a certain level of fear of crime = desirable IOT inspire problem solving
Also encourages individuals to take measure to minimise own risk

Question 20

How might the media cause more crime? (5)

Reiner

Answer 20

1. Copycats
2. Arousal (due to sexual/ violent imagery)
3. Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
4. Medi stimulates desire for unaffordable goods
5. Glamorising offending

Question 21

Why does Schramm (1961) argue that the media doesn’t cause more crime to occur?

Answer 21

Media exposure to violence has a small + limited effect on children
Majority of children seem to be unaffected

BUT cases such as James Bulger - copy scenes from film

Question 22

Why does Sparks (1992) argue that the media doesn’t cause more crime to occur?

Answer 22

Takes an interpretivist view
Argues must consider the meanings that viewers give to violence
e.g. different meaning = given to violence I cartoons/ horror films

Question 23

How can Lea + Young’s concept of relative deprivation be used to explain how the media ca cause more crime?

Answer 23

Media only emphasis relative deprivation
Full of materialistic goods

Not whole explanation, marginalisation = also cause

Question 24

What do McRobbie +Thornton (1995) argue about the concept of moral panic in the New Age of media?

Answer 24

= no longer useful for understanding crime
= outdated in age of new media;
1. New media tech = sophisticated e.g. twitter/ FB, youtube
2. Audiences = more sceptical
3. Short shelf lives, news = 24/7, reported minute to minute basis, constantly changing
4. Hall (2012): moral panic = ‘zombie concept’, died out but still considered as active process within S

Question 25

What do postmodernists argue about the concept of moral panic in the new age of media?

Answer 25

Argue that = so much information + opinions of events available to public that they’ve become more sceptical of mainstream reports + = likely to ignore them

Question 26

What does Hall (2012) argue about the concept of moral panic in the new age of media?

Answer 26

= zombie concept

Has died out in modern media age but = still considered an active process within S

Question 27

What % of the world is online?

Answer 27

50%

Question 28

What does Jewkes (2003) argue that the internet has creates?

Answer 28

Opportunities to commit both conventional crime (fraud) + ‘new crimes using new tools’

Question 29

What are the 4 types of cyber-crime categorised by Wall (2001)?

Answer 29

1. Cyber-tresspass: crossing boundaries into others cuber property e.g hacking, spreading viruses
2. Cyber-deception + theft: includes ID theft, illegal downloads
3. Cyber-pornography: includes porn of minors/ children being able to access it on the net
4. Cyber-violence: psychological harm/ inciting physical harm e.g. stalking, hate crimes

Question 30

Why is policing cyber-crime so difficult?

Answer 30

Due to sheer size of the internet + limited police resources

Global nature of cyber-crime poses additional problems of jurisdiction