The Roles and Influences of Media on Crime

CSI, Law and Order, Fox News, Making a Murderer, Nancy Grace and Cops: these shows have large audiences and high ratings, showing that western society is obsessed and mesmerized with crime and criminal activity. Crime and media go hand in hand, as the media frames crime as a major social problem, due to the lack of policy and policing certain behaviors. The media and the criminal justice system go together, like peanut butter and jelly, a sandwich of chaotic fruits and nuts. The media is quite concerned with policing, but much less about the court system, consequences, and the punishment received by the offender, devising misconceptions of the judicial processes. There are several different sociological perspectives pertaining to the media

Media had had a long influence on society, and top to bottom take a gander at its most famous forms today would most certainly uncover a few glaring disparities in the way TV network and print media communicate the information to the public. Many media are slanted, and somehow they are inclined to cover events and support people similar to their beliefs or ideas. Television and newspaper dominated the average American household in terms of being used to access information, nonetheless new ways of obtaining news like online web, and films are steady growing day by day into major ways in which people learn about what is happening close city and in the word. For instance, deportation has been a hotly debated issue in the media, especially during

One of the largest ways the media influences public opinions is through the news. News outlets report on local and world events, often applying their own bias to advance an agenda (Cavender, 2004). In general, entertainment television depicts crime, especially violent crime, far more often than it actually occurs in the real world (O’Keefe, 1987). Crime is more often than not presented to the public in two ways: crime is violent and criminals are nonwhite (Gilliam, et al, 1996). When put together, these two factors have

The media is an extremely powerful source in society today. Surprisingly, many are unaware of this and choose to believe everything they read in magazines, newspapers and online without actually understanding where this information is coming from. This is a monumental problem in our generation today because like Malcolm X said, the media has the power to make the innocent look guilty and the guilty look innocent. In other words, the media has the power to manipulate our views and perspectives on controversial issues to persuade us to believe their

Media is everywhere. Television, newspaper, cell phones, movies, as well as numerous other sources. Today, just about everyone depends on information and communication to keep their lives moving through daily activities. We need to be aware that the values we hold, the beliefs we harbor and the decisions we make are based on our assumptions, our experiences, our education and what we know for a fact. Mass media is relied on for the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of. Media is considered a trustworthy source for news, information, education and entertainment. Though someone has to have thought behind an issue to write it.

Media is everywhere nowadays. Whether it’s billboards, radio, commercials, trailers, or product placement, the media has spent the better part of a century perfecting the ability to sway public opinion. How could this not have an impact on the Criminal Justice System? There is an old saying, perception is reality. This clearly applies to the narrative shaping abilities that the media poses. Although not explicitly resulting in an effect on Criminal Justice Policy, Communication Theorist George Gerbner proposed Cultivation Theory, also known as mean world syndrome, which refers to the phenomenon that a viewer experiences when they consume too much violent media content, where in that, they begin to perceive the world as more dangerous than it actually is.

We’ve all heard it hundreds of times from people that the news and media is overdramatic. That is one of the biggest complaints about the media, but is it true? Scholarly articles have found that the news is in fact over dramatic about crime which induces public fear and may produce many myths about how much crime is actually happening in our society. As a broadcasting major, it is easy for me to see why the news would cover stories in such a dramatic way. These types of stories capture the users attention which means more people will watch your station resulting in advertising spots being worth more which in the end benefits the stations because they will make more money. Popular examples such as the “knockout game” and the Central Park jogger case both show just how much the media has an effect on society, copycat criminals and other crimes. Is the media overdramatic? Does the media cause higher public fear? What myths does the media create?

Within media and society there are seemingly different representations of race and crime. They are different in how they are constructed for their perceived audience in the majority and the opinion that is supposed to be evoked by the event. Within the public perception of crime in reality there is abundant racism that has been socially constructed over many generations. Whereas media crime is gentrified and critiqued in such a way as to support fears and intrigue into crime through violence from what could rarely happen to the viewer. When both of these are combined the social construction of race is reinforced. Through crime television shows the allure of feeling a crime through draws an audience.

Media plays a huge role in today's society. Media, in its many forms, can be very persuasive and can change how people view a certain topic. The past few years, media has greatly affected how people feel about topics such as: gay rights, abortion, racism, and anything political. Depending on what site, or source you are on, media can depict the topic you research however it wants. It has been argued that there are political bias in media, which is not wrong. You can find just about anything in whichever political view you want. When talking politics, there are multiple media outlets that are party-based. Even in print, you can find just about anything in favor of what you believe if you look for it. Media does a fantastic job of manipulating people to believe certain things without the audience realizing it. The media provides constant information about politics, and in more times than not, political rather than professional. In this lesson, we learned about liberals and conservatives and how political parties can be affected through media bias and public opinion.

Different forms of media, such as television, films, books, and newspapers, have similar ways of portraying the criminal justice system. The media constructs representations of crime and justice and in doing this, it presents an often dramatized representation of the criminal justice system; and this does not just influence on the public’s lay view of crime but also for criminal justice experts (Marsh, 2014). In the media it is commonly known that they are a business, and businesses need to make a profit. Because of this, the media’s portrayal of the criminal justice system has been very negative. With the news, their main purpose is to produce what sells. So many of them would edit the information they have gathered and make a story that will sell. Also the media does not show the full process of the criminal justice as a quick process, while in fact it is not. For example, last year, Netflix released a short series called “Making A Murderer”. Most people claimed that they feel like they can solve a crime when they finished watching a series. While that series is very factual, it does not hit every single step of the criminal justice process.

Crime and courtroom proceedings have become a fascination for the Western society. Reality and fiction though have begun to distort the expectations of what is expected in the courtroom. These distortions deriving from television shows such as CSI, 48 Hours Mystery, American Justice, Law & Order and even, on occasion, Dateline NBC. The mass media play an important role in the construction of criminality and the criminal justice system. The public’s perception of victims, criminals, the gathering/processing of evidence, deviants, and law enforcement officials is largely determined by their portrayal in the mass media. “Research indicates that the majority of public knowledge about crime and justice is derived from the media (Roberts and Doob,

The public depends on the news media for its understanding of crime. Reportedly three quarters (76%) of the public say, they form their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news (Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001). After reviewing five hours of reality crime television shows, one is left with a very dismal look on society and a prejudice towards minorities as they are largely depicted as the perpetrators of crime. This new genre commonly referred to as reality television appears to be sweeping the nation by storm. Opinions vary, depending on whom you ask, to what extent reality plays a role versus the selling of a product. Sensationalism, advertising, ratings hype, profiling and fear all comprise the mass

The mass media is a vehicle for delivering information and to entertain. But implications that the media do more harm than good concerning its practices and its effects on the public. The two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Although they overlap in some areas, they differ mostly in the subject matter they cover and in their delivery methods. Research had been conducted in using both these forms to gauge the impact that each one has on the public. Print media tends to be more factual based whereas electronic media tend to focus more on visual aids to help relay the information. The public’s fear of crime has an impact on the public agenda of policy makers. Fear of crime not only affects individual but may

     The media provides the public political issues, which sets the agenda for political discussion. In theory the media tries to attune themselves to the interest of the public, but “in most instances the media severs as conduits for agenda-setting efforts by competing groups and forces” (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999, p. 298). To gain public support, groups and forces need media coverage to promote their ideas. However, the media has great control over which issues they televise. The issues must have media appeal or be considered newsworthy.

Over the course of the semester, I have learned about numerous aspects of Mass media and crime. We have broken these aspects into nine major topics based on what they focused on. The nine major topics includes theorizing media and crime, construction of crime, media and moral panics, media construction of children, media misogyny, police, offenders, and victims in the media, crime and prison films, role of the internet in crime and crime and surveillance culture. The topics that I found most interesting to me would be media and moral panic, construction of crime news and children and police, offender and victims in the media. I chose these four topics, because they play a role to the overall information that I have been paying close attention to in regards to how the media presents the information and how our Criminal Justice system addresses the concerns in the media. For our final exam, were asked to pick and discuss a topic that interested us, because of my curiosity of those four major topics I decided to pick a historical case that touched basis with all four topic areas. My topic being the historical case of Brown v. Board of Education. My goal of this essay is to give you the back story of the case, explain why I chose this case, discuss how the case is considered newsworthy and how it links to broader social structures.