Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of Crime Criminology Essay

Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of hatred Criminology EssayMedia discourse is sutured with discourtesy. Crime consumes an enormous amount of media space as some(prenominal)(prenominal) entertainment and tenders. Much of our information about(predicate) the nature and blossom out of annoyance comes to us via the secondary reservoir of media. We should expect then, that as distributors of companionable association, they interpret a signifi batht role in our cognition and apprehensiveness of the boundaries surrounded by narrate and dis parliamentary impartiality. (Surette, 1998 11) Be puzzle of the importance of media in everyday life, the purpose of offence and the media becomes a vital headache of sociology and media studies.Since media has the exponent to interpret and give inwardness to events through and through dramatization, this places it at the pinnacle of all amicable institutions in its ability to shape information and reactions of its reade rship. It has been criticized everyplace years by enormous sociologist that media is responsible for(p) for fomenting moral sensibilities and anxieties about detestation and dis found. (Cohen, 1963 Young, 1971 entrance hall, 1978 Reiner, 1997 Munice2001) The media manufactured of word of honor (Cohen and Young, 1973/1981), performd moral alarms (Cohen, 1973) and worship of vile offense (Gerbner et al 1980 Carlson 1985) about folk devils, stigmatized outsiders, and amplified their deviance (Young, 1971) thus legitimating the bumble to a law and rig society ( dormitory room et al, 1978) and a much haughty style of policing the crisis. (ibid.) In this assignment, I allow for discuss how and why these consequences of facsimile of abhorrence be develop, and how they allow for affect the society.Fear of offensiveIn recent years policy debates fork up foc expendd increasingly on tending of hatred as an reappearance as drab s offense itself. As Home blot on the jo b(p) party noned that consternation of detestation as an return key of kind business sector it has to be taken as seriously as offense prevention and reduction. (Home Office, 1989 ii)When the media authority of shame is compargond to real bea offensive activity as measured by official crime statistics, it appears that the media discovers exaggerate the probability of danger. This is said to cultivate a delusory view of the world based on unnecessary perplexity about levels of risk form gaga crime. gibe to the BCS 1983, masses be de noneed most about those crimes which they ar least likely to experience. (Hough and Mayhew 198323) The BCS entropy show a discrepancy surrounded by peoples forethought of organism a victim and their chances of being that victim. (Reiner 1997 210 Munice, 2001 59 Hewitt, 1995 19) This has engendered a debate about why in that location should be such(prenominal) a disparity amidst the perception of risk and the actual risk.Most c ommonly, the media ar acc employ of exaggerating the risk of crime, representing an doubling of the world which is scary and have in mind, (Carlson 1985) (Sparks 1992 Chapter 1) which lead to prevalents fear of crime in an monstrous moldion. (Reiner 1997 199) Most analyses of countersignpaper crime melodic themeing have been concerned with the potentially twisted impression is created by the high proportion of historys of impetuous crimes. Ditton and Duffy (1983) analyse the crime content of three Scottish give-and-takeworthinesspapers concludes that the proportion of violent and cozy crimes atomic issue 18 far more than those reported in the official statistics. (Ditton and Duffy, 1983) legion(predicate) British studies likewise showed the same pattern of over internal re commencement appearance of violent and interpersonal crimes. The risks of crime as portrayed by the media ar both quantitatively and qualitatively more serious than the official statistical ly save picture.1Although media commission of crime is slanting and they present crime in an amplify elan, we skunknot simply conclude that fear of crime is associated with media presentation of crime. The reason why people corporation be easily influenced by media is because they atomic number 18 need of knowledge about crime. It is rare for people to experience or define up crime. at that placefore, they need to rely on media as tooth root of information to generalise crime and use it as a guideline in assessing probability of being a victim. Furthermore, people are tended to use a simplistic way and the most operational information to make assessment without reviewing former(a) alternative source before they make popular opinion, this deal lead to people use newspaper and television as source of information to say crime and construct perceptions of crime. (Williams and Dickinson, 1993 36) Base on these assumptions, it is sensible to say that medias means of cr ime do have influence peoples perception about crime.The media biases associated with human race misperceptions argument is confirmed by the study of affinity between newspaper crime reporting and fear of crime by Williams and Dickinson and 1996 BCS. According to Williams and Dickinson, there was a significant relationship between reading newspapers with more tenseness on forcefulness crime and measure of fearfulness expressed in a survey. This association survived control by a number of demographical variables. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Thus, the interrogation concludes that readers of those newspapers that report crime in the most dramatic and salient fashion have the highest levels of fear of crime. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Moreover, in the 1996 British Crime Survey, Hough and Roberts also reason out that there are nearly strong associations have been found between media biases representation and unrestricted misperceptions. (Hough and Roberts, 1996) These study both clear the media have direct influence on constructing fear of crime.The news media may constitute biased perception of crime, however, some scholars have a controversial view on the association between media representations and its effects. Increasingly, it is acknowledged that media representations are unlikely to be legitimate passively, but rather interpreted by an active audiences but as one element in their lived experience. (Ericson, 1991 Livingstone, 1996, Reiner, 1997) Many studies show that the media is not the critical agent in accounting for fear of crime, increasingly, it is more widely genuine that demographic factors such as age, sex, class, background, level of education, area of residence are significant determinants of anxiety about crime and violence. (Gunter, 1987 Sparks, 1992 Ericson, 1991 287 Schlesinger and Tumber, 1994 188) C defenselessford and his fellows (1990) also support such argument that fear does indeed arrangement to peoples real life cir cumstances. It may be ceded by any number of personal, cultural or environmental factors. Box et al also concur with Crawfords opinion, he notwithstanding suggested that fear of crime depends on an interactive complex of vulnerability, environmental conditions, personal knowledge of crime, confidence (or lack of ) confidence in the natural law. (Munice, 2001 59) Since there are many a(prenominal) factors can affect the perception of crime, we should bear in mind that fear of crime is extraneous, generated by societal and personal factors other than risk of crime per se. Moreover, we should endure alive to ability of the humans to differentiate and interpret the information they receive. Though there is evidence concerning media partiality and whirl, it cannot by any mean be assumed that media representation are always received uncritically. (Munice, 2001 62)The issue of media effect on perceptions of crime remains controversial. It is because of the difficulties in rigorousl y establishing truthful casual relationships between images and effects. (Reiner, 1997 191) Since the association between tow factors are remain unknown, it is plausible to conclude that media may have influence on perception of crime. What is more authorized about the issue of fear of crime is not whether it has any rational basis or it is solely complaisant by media, but rather how far its affectionalness as a topic can be used for ulterior and governmental motives. (Munice, 2001 62)Moral PanicDuring the 60s to 70s, the British public was riveted by magnified coverage of highly unusual crime stories of violence crime connected by youth that turned into what some news outlets showd as an all too familiar explanation. sooner than providing context, the medias cross offing of these youth violence as note of friendly decline has tended to worsen peoples moral sensibilities about youth violence. The result is that misdirected public policy is being generated to affix amic able control, even though the real threat is minimal. consider of Mod and Rockers by CohenThe first systematic empirical study of a moral panic in the UK was Stanley Cohens research on the social reaction to the Mod and Rockers tumult of 1964. (Cohen 1973b) (Munice, 2001 50) A group of youths bust out sabotage in the seaside resort of Clacton over the easter bank holiday in 1964. The events were to receive front page floor in the national press. The media spoke out of a day of flagellum of greensters who beat up entire town. Youth were described as nonionised gangs who takely caused trouble by acting aggressively towards local anaesthetic residents and sunk a corking deal of public property. In Cohens research, however, found no evidence of any structured gangs in spite of appearance that area, thus, the total amount of serious violence and vandalism was not as great as media described. (Cohen, 1973)According to the Cohens analyses, it is obvious that media have exagger ated the seriousness of the Clacton event, in toll of criteria such as the number taking part, the number involved in violence and the amount and effects of any damage or violence. Such distortion took place primarily in terms of the mode and style of presentation characteristics of most crime reporting the sensational headlines, the melodramatic vocabulary and the deliberate heightening of those elements in the story considered as news. (Cohen, 1973) The shop use of misleading headlines and vocabulary like riot, beat up the town, attack, screaming mob which were incommensurable with the actual story and left an image of a besieged town from which innocent holidaymakers were fleeing to escape a marauding mob.Medias distorted reporting not only exaggerated the seriousness of the initial events in 1964 but also amplified the youth deviance. The incessant news coverage of Mod and Rockers initiated a wider public concern, youth are labeled as a symptom of social decline. They are por trayed as being outside the fundamental core respects of our consensual society and as posing a particular threat to society. (Cohen, 1981 273) Once youths have been identified with negative labeling, they will believe themselves to be more deviant and segregating out from the community, which will create a greater risk of long term social disorder. Thus, overreaction of the law and general public will contribute to further polarization between youth and the society. As a result, more crime would be committed by stigmatize group and lead to less tolerance of deviants by conforming groups.(McRobbie and Thornton,1995 561) (Munice, 2001 52)As Cohen shows in Mod and Rocker study, The continuing disturbance attracted more news coverage would increase natural law activity and further public concern. Media exaggerate the problem can give rise to local events seem ones of pressing national concern, and an index of decline of morality standards, which make the law to step up their surv eillance. Consequently, the stepping up of controls lead to further marginalisation and stigmatization of deviants which, in turn, lead to more calls for jurisprudence action and into a deviancy amplification spiral. (McLaughlin, 2001 176)Study of Mugging by Hall et alHall et al (1978) reused the concept the moral panic in identifying a serial of major social problems to do with permissiveness, vandals, student radicals and so on, culminating with the moral panic of mugging. Hall and others failed that the media make use of moral panics to both define and distort social problems was fleshed out into a general critique of the medias construction of social naive realism. (Munice, 2001 52)In Halls study of mugging in Policing the crisis, the media regarded mugging not as a particular type of robbery but rather a general social crisis and rising crime. (Hall et al., 1978 66) The media presented mugging as a new and rapidly growing phenomenon. In fact, the crime was not new, only the label was, and official statistics did not support the view that it was growing rapidly, however, with a consult for the crime now in existence old offenses were categorized as such, creating the impression of growth. The medias generated new category of crime created the impression of a crime draw in, it further whipped up a moral panic around the issue which served to legitimate an increase in punitive measures they conclude that the media played a key role in developing and maintaining the pressure for law and order measures-for example, practice of law mugging squads and glum sentences. (Munice, 200152-53) (Hewitt, 1995 17) In this regard, moral panic can strengthen the powers of state control and enabling law and order to be promoted without cognizance of the social divisions and conflicts which produce deviance and governmental dissent. (Munice, 2001 55)It is not clean a new category of crime has been defined by media, the media dissembling of crime also stigmatize the black youth as the cause of mugging without further explaining the structural reason of the crime, like poverty, social release and class and racial inequality. (Munice, 200153) This ready application of stereotypes in mugging crime reporting portray crime in a way to be depicted in terms of a basic confrontation between the symbolic forces of good and evil. The process of deprivation and modes of social organization are rarely provided. (Chibnall, 1977 79) As Hall concluded, crime reports tend to undo the complexities of crime by constructing a number of easy categories into which each type of crime can be placed. (Hall et al, 197813-15) (Munice, 2001 47)After the analyses of issue of moral panic or fear of crime, there is one common element between twain consequences of media representation of crime-both are generated by the media biased representation of crime. In order to investigate cases of apparent moral panic and fear of crime, it is necessary to record how news is devel oped and the structural relationship between media and source of crime stories.The element of newsworthinessThe media appear to be involve in a continual search for the new unusual and dramatic. This is what makes the news. Under the market set (Cohen and Young, 1981), because of the business concern, news content needs to be generated and filtered primarily through reporter sense of newsworthiness to produce what makes a good story that their audience wants to know about in order to engage audiences and increase readership. The core elements of these are immediacy, dramatization, personalization, titillation and novertly. (Chibnall, 197722-45 Hall et al., 1978 Ericson et al., 1991) Thus, there are louvre sets of informal rules2of relevancy which govern the professional imperatives of popular journalism these are visible and spectacular acts, sexual or political connotations, graphic presentation, someone pathology and deterrence and repression. (Chibnall, 1977 77-79) These rules help us to understand how news values are structured and explain why there is a predominant tension on violent offences.Organizational pressuresBesides the element of newsworthiness, there are a variety of concrete organizational pressures, for example, the periodicity, or timing, of the events and how they match the plan needs of the agency, cost metier and efficiency, all these factors not only work what is reported, they also lead to an unintended consequences- that is bolstering the law and order. (Reiner, 1997 142) For example, numerous natural law force staff office are available and willing to provide comments about an incident, which resulting in frequent citation of police sources in all types of crime stories. (Chermak, 1995 38) Thus, court cases are frequently used by media, because lots of newsworthy cases are evaluate to recur regularly, therefore, court cases are an economic use of reporting resources. (Reiner, 1997 221) Because police and courts resources are easily accessible and constantly available, media become more habitually rely on them as the main source of news information, and over prison term, the structural dependence of media on between abominable evaluator bureaucracies will be established, which permits the institutional definers to establish the direct interpretation of the topic in question. (Hall et al, 1978 58 Chibnall 1977 chaps. 3, 6 Schlesinger and Tumber 1993)The flightiness of impartiality and the use of license sourceThe feeling of impartiality and the news source used by journalists are the crucial reason to explain media biased representation of crime and the tilt towards institutional definers ideology. (Hall, 1981 341-343) The media reporting is underwritten by the notions of impartiality, balance and objectivity. (Hall et al., 1981 341) The practical pressures of constantly working against the clock and the professional demands of impartiality and credibility resulted in constant use of accredited r epresentative of major venomous justice institutions- the police, the courts and the Home Office as the main source of news. These institutional representative agents are accredited because they are in a position to provide initial definitions or primary interpretation of crime and locate them within the context of a continuing crime problem. Because they control over material and mental resources, which news media have little direct access to, and their domination of the major institutions of society, this classs definitions of the social world provide the basic rationale for those institutions which protect and reproduce their way of life. This control of mental resources ensures that theirs are the most powerful and universal of the available definitions of the social world. (Hall, 1981 343) As a result, these rules which are originally aim to observe the impartiality of media turn media as an apparatus to reproduce the definitions and ideology of primary definers.The study of Crimewatch UK-case illustration of relationship between Media and source of crime newsThe study of Crimewatch UK by Schlesinger and Tumber (1993) is a modern example to illustrate the supra argument. The production team of Crimewatch UK has heavily used the information provided by the criminal justice institutions as the main source of crime stories. It is partly because of the notion of cost effectiveness, more importantly, it is because they want to make the course as documental reconstruction rather than merely a crime drama without a realistic and documentary basis. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993 24) However, the police as the source of crime stories broadly define the terms of reference within which Crimewatch UK may operate. It can be shown by the two basic ground rules of productions requested by the police in exchange for information first, anything filmed would be embargoed and could not be used again unless the force involved gave its permission, and second, the police m ust reveal all the known facts and their suspicions to the Crimewatch team. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993 23) Although the production team exercise editorial judgment over how the cases that they reconstruct are to be presented in television terms in order to maintain their impartiality, it is inevitable that their decisions are still within the criminal justice bureaucracies defined putwork. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993 30) From the above analyses, we can see how the notion of impartiality lead to the use of accredited source, and how the source provider- the criminal justice institutions turn a documentary program into the polices public relations program to reproduce the definitions of primary definers.Furthermore, this study also demonstrate the asymmetrical relationship between the news and source of information. Journalists are always in an wanting(p) negotiating position in the negotiation process regarding to the definition and presentation of crime. tidings media are constrain to sacrifice their relationship with the police personnel because they fear losing information access. Reporters rarely challenge the police perspective because of the information police can provide. As what Chibnall described, The reporter who cannot get information is out of a job, whereas the policeman who retains it is not. (Chibnall, 1977 155) This asymmetrical relationship between media and the source is evidently demonstrated in the case of Crimewatch study. Since the production team is heavily dependent upon the police to provide information of crime cases, they realize that if the police do not provide such information, the program can never be successfully produced. Therefore, editorial judgment is limited and the presentation of crime stories are constrained within the polices basic grounded rules and their defined framework.Representation of crime and definition of criminal justice bureaucraciesMost commonly, the media are accused of exaggerating the risk of cr ime, representing an image of the world which is scary and mean, creating crime waves in order to cultivate moral sensibilities and fear among the society. However, such argument ignores the significant influence of the source of crime and overestimates the representation power of the media. It is important to understand that the power to construct social reality rests not merely with media, but also with those who can control the medias raw materials for news-the criminal justice institutions. (Fishman, 1981 136) Crime news is mutually determined by journalists, whose image of crime is shaped by police concerns and by police, whose concerns with crime are influenced by media practices. However, if criminal justice bureaucracies are not concerted in providing relevant information as requested by media, media would not have sufficient resource to form crime waves and representation of crime will be changed. In this regard, criminal justice institutions are the crucial determinant to define what is produced and presented. Journalists convey an image of crime wholly accord with the police departments notion of serious crime and social order as orchestrating with criminal justice institutions. Therefore, as long as the habit source for crime news is criminal justice institutions, the presses are inevitable to reinforce the crime definition from criminal justice institutions.Representation of crime and social controlAccording to hegemony theorists, media are regarded as a secondary definer to score with dominants consent by actively intervening in the space of public opinion and social consciousness through the use of highly emotive and rhetorical language. This exaggerated way of presentation has a effect of requiring that something has to be done about it. Thus, the impartiality notions of media can be served to objectify a public issue. That is, the publicizing of an issue in the media can serve as an independent opinion to a real issue of public concern rath er than merely official information or a direct projection of the governments ideology. In this regard, media can be leveraged as a public agenda setting function to translate primary definers definition of crime into a public issue. (Hall et al., 1981 346) Once the elongated public agenda concern in particular crime is formed, moral sensibilities and anxiety are cultivated among society, the press can help to legitimate and reinforce the actions of the primary definer by bringing their own independent arguments to bear on the public in support of the actions proposed or it can bring pressure to bear on the primary definers by summoning up public opinion in support of its own views that stronger measures are needed. (Hall et al., 1981 348)In late 1976, a great deal of publicity and anxiety was generated over an apparent crime wave against the elderly in New York, which led to the setup of a police sponsored community esteem program. However, the official statistics did not support the view that violent crime against elderly was rapidly growing at the same time as the media were reporting a crime surge. The US sociologist Mark Fishman used this example to demonstrate the above argument. According to Fishman, the police do play a crucial role in reinforcing journalistically to produce concern about crime waves by selecting further incidents for reporters based on what has been cover before. Furthermore, the police are in a position to intimate perceptions of a crime wave themselves by the way in which they select crime incidents for their press release. (Fishman, 1981) In this regard, media play an orchestrating role to present what is defined by the police in order to create crime wave, the widespread of news coverage cultivated anxiety among society, as a result, like what we have concluded above, media in respond to public opinion to pressure the police in order to increase social control by forming the deference program. In this case, the initiation of soc ial control can be legitimated as the reaction of the criminal justice institutions to the public opinionNewspaper reports are disproportionately concentrated on violent crimes, even it seems they are not deliberately focus on this particular category of crime cod to medias organizational pressures and code of practice, however, as what I have discussed above, without the source of news provided by criminal justice institutions, crime stories can never be formed. Therefore, the criminal justice institutions are also responsible to affect the media representation of crime by manipulating the source of information. Criminal justice institutions and media can generate fear by providing same kind of crimes persistently in pestiferous proportions. For instance, media will suddenly focus on crimes that they had previously ignored and report them to the public. (E.g. mugging and violent crimes against elderly) (Fishman, 1976). In this regard, criminal justice institutions and media are b oth responsible for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem to sustain public attention for prolonged periods, as a result, fear and moral sensibilities can be instilled. What is important to recognition that moral panic and fear of crime are the first link in a spiral of events leading to the maintenance of law in society by legitimize rule through compulsion and the general exercise of authority. The sudden defining and focusing of the historically fall out event of street crime have created the impression of a crime wave, this provides government with the justification to introduce repressive legislation in order to increase its control among the society. (Munice, 2001 53) Since fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, unsentimental measures and hard line postures. They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities and other anxieties. (Signorielli 1990102) (Reiner, 1997 217) Consequently, the report of crime waves will produce public pressure to call for tough authoritative institutional control, public support can be mustered to lay down formal sanctions.The study of Mod and Rocker by Stanley Cohen and the study of muggers by Stuart Hall and his fellows both demonstrate medias exaggeration of crime risks is claimed to increase political support for authoritarian solutions to a crisis of law and order which is largely the launching of media misrepresentation of crime. Media act in a role to stigmatize young Afro-Caribbean as folk devils and generate moral panic in order to created social conditions of consent for the construction of a society more focused towards law and order. The government uncontrollable and structural causes of social unrest can be overlooked, when the public gaze is fixed by stigmatizing young Afro-Caribbean as visual symbols of what was wrong in society, with the increase of social control measures initiated by the government. As a result, the threats of society seems to be eliminated by social and legislative action the tough punitive measures can be legitimized to control the risky social environment, the legitimacy of the government can be reassured by providing public a image of strong government and strong leadership. (Cohen, 1973 Munice, 2001 52 McRobbie and Thornton, 1995 562, Hewitt, 1995 12-16)The media not only exaggerate crimes, on the other hand, they portray the criminal justice bureaucracies, especially the police in a positive light. operation news reporting about police and crime has a public relations function for police, promoting organizational and occupational ideologies. (Ericson, 1991 224) The news media dramatize the polices routine works and give the police a ceremonial force. This has promotional value for the police, because it often shows them to be quite effective in fighting crime. (Marsh 1988) (Ericson, 1991224) some(prenominal) researchers have examined the relationship between news and police personnel (Chibnall, 1977 Ericson, Baranek and Chan, 1989 Fishman, 1980 Hall et al., 1978) . Most ethnographic research concludes that the police determine what is presented in the news, and describe news media as conduits for police ideology (Chibnall, 1977 Fishman, 1980 Hall et al., 1978) Police frame crime stories in a self promoting way to exaggerate their effectiveness by compiling statistics on performance measures such as the number of offences as well as arrest data. Furthermore, the police can square up when story information should be released, limiting access to reports and diverting attentions from specialised events, in order to manipulate medias representation of crime and criminal justice. The US sociologist Chermaks media contend analysis study (Chermak, 1995) and Roshiers study in the UK3both evident that (Schlesinger and Tumber, reading list 186) criminal justice bureaucracies, especially the police can manipulate the medi as representation of crime and criminal justice system by manipulating information in order to provide a favorable image of police and strengthen the states legitimacy. Furthermore, it has been also suggested by Carlson (1985) that such biased representation of criminal justice bureaucracies can lead to support of more social control. He claims to show that heavier television viewers are comparatively ill-informed about legal process they have a propensity to believe that the police are effective in combating crime and support. As a result, heavy viewers are tended to support more social control. (Sparks 1992, , Ericson, 1991 283)Criticism of hegemony and Halls hypothesisThe theory of hegemony has been criticized by many scholars that it has paid inadequate attention to the conversation process. They argued that the hegemony theory supporters have been characterized by a tendency to treat media as homogeneous, this largely ignores the distinctiveness of particular media and the wa ys in which such media are internally differentiated. (Schlesinger et al., 1990 96-97 Ericson et al, 1991)It has been suggested by Ericson et al that there are systematic variations between the presentations of crime in different media and markets.(Ericson et al, 1991) This is partly because of they have different variants to political and professional journalistic ideology according to patterns of ownership and perceived audience. There are interconnected with differences in technological resources, budge