Media Reporting of Crime
Sociology: AQA GCSE, topic 4.3.8
Media Reporting of Crime
Media is a secondary agent of socialisation. Media can influence public awareness over an issue since they are responsible for informing people.
Accuracy of media reports
- The media is powerful they decide what will and won’t be reported in the news.
- The media set their own agenda (agenda setting) according to what they regard as most significant.
- In other words, they include in their headlines specific topics that they think are newsworthy (news value).
News value
- Journalists believe that there are specific stories that audiences tend to get engaged with, such as anything that has to do with:
- Children.
- Violence / graphic images.
- Celebrities.
- Events that have taken place locally.
- Events that are easily understood by the majority of the people.
Influence
- The public relies on the media to be informed which means that media form people’s perception of current affairs.
Media Reporting of Crime
Media is a secondary agent of socialisation. Media can influence public awareness over an issue since they are responsible for informing people.
Sensationalism
- The media want to attract attention by exaggerating circumstances in order to have a bigger audience.
- The media have the power to make crime look worse than it is in reality.
- They do this because:
- People are attracted by the drama.
- This kind of news causes emotions.
Deviancy amplification
- According to sociologists, the media create deviancy amplification.
- A good example of deviancy amplification is the Mods and Rockers.
- Deviancy amplification happens gradually/in stages.
Stages of deviancy amplification:
- Initially the criminal act takes place.
- Then the media report it in a sensationalised/exaggerated way which results in increased concern from the audience who are focused on one group as the folk devil/scapegoat.
- Eventually this leads to public outcry when the problem is blown out of proportion causing a moral panic.
Violence media content
- It is argued that media can create crime as people (especially youngsters) imitate what they see, known the copycat effect.
- Research suggests that media violence can increase the possibility of violent behaviour.
Criticisms of the violent media hypothesis
- Other researchers, e.g. Ferguson, disagree with this statement as they claim that these results are based on lab experiments where the environment is contrived and doesn’t present the real world.
- They argue that other variables, such as family, are not controlled for in these studies either.