What is the relationship between Crime and the Mass Media?
The role of the media in relation to Crime and Deviance has been, and will always
be, a very important factor in our society. since crime and deviance have remained a
universal problem, media as a predominant force in modern culture, sociologists,
mass communications and criminologists will continue seeking to research and
understand the connections between media and crime for as long as crime exists.
Firstly, the relationship between media and crime can be seen as the
misrepresentation of crime and the fear and fascination that comes from it. This
feared response from factual programming and documentaries on the subject, due to
the fact they only focus on the most shocking types of crime. This is down to News
Values which is a set of criteria which determines the news worthiness of a story.
For instance sensational stories such as muder or terrorist attacks tend to be shown
on the news because of their value as a story. This is further couples with the idea of
composition where the news must fit in to a compositional framework wheeby the
most important story is on the first page. More, the idea of Dramatic Narratives is
functional to the media’s role in crime as the news has to be on the dramatic. At the
same time, we are fascinated by crimes which we see in fiction such as films, novels
and so on. We are utterly fascinated by crime which can lead to discussions of
sensitisation and whether fictional representations of crime desensitises us from
more serious of crimes like murder, rape and etc. furthermore, the media’s
misrepresentation of victims can be seen as problematic. For instance, ‘White Girl
Syndrome’ is just one example of how we have very misrepresented views on
victimisation and who are the real victims of crime. Also, the media must take
responsibility for creating racial stereotypes of criminals. Showing a specific type of
race and ethnic group for being held responsible for crimes such as Knife Crime. For
instance, Stuart’s Hall ‘myth of the black mugger’ which concluded that the media
had the effect of labelling all young African – Caribbean’s as criminals had a
potential threat to white people.
Furthermore, we must consider that the media creates crime through deviance
amplification and exaggerating a story i.e. Moral Panic’s. The phrase and the
development of the sociological concept is credited to the late sociologist Stanley
Cohen. Cohen introduced the social theory of moral panic in his 1972 book titled
"Folk Devils and Moral Panics." In the book, Cohen describes how the British public
reacted to the rivalry between the "mod" and "rocker" youth subcultures of the 1960s
and '70s. Through his study of these youth and the media and public reaction to
them, Cohen developed a theory of moral panic that outlines five stages of the
process.
Moreover, the ‘Weaponization of the media’ where New Media has affected crime
and it has increased crime in a number of different ways. On a practical level, the
increase of street thefts because there are m
