Criminology
Criminological discussions about the media tend to stress the power of the media and its ability to discriminate and promote inequality. In my mini project I will support this view but also show some of the positives effects it could have. In consideration to the context of my project, I will start by showing the medias coverage of crime and go on to show how this can create a fear of crime as well as creating moral panics. Within this I will use leading academics view points and include some evidence, which will be attached in my appendix. I will also show the various theories used buy various criminologists and show how these affect crime represented by the media.
Research on crime and the media can be split between studies which are primarily either quantititives or qualitative. Quantities analysis are concerted with measuring the amount of crime, violence or control in the media for example the number of crime stories in the newspaper or the number of violent incidents in a TV program. This media created picture can then be compared with the “real world picture which is normally derived from official statistics such as the British crime survey or the official statistics produced by the home office.
Qualities analysis by entrant is concerned primary with investigating the media representations of crime, violence and control. Examples of these can be the way in which the media explores the use of language and the way in which the media relates issues of economic, political and cultural references to voice their opinions on particular crimes to create fear. Both the above mentioned have their advantages and disadvantaged but the most note worthy ibis that f quantities research which as shown in my forts essay and being confirmed by most criminologists dates that the official statistics are poor indicators of crime and actually reveal more about the reporting and the recording practices of the police and the public than...
View Full Essay