The Media And The Criminal Justice System

The media is supposed to be and unbiased news source that we can rely on to give us unaltered and factual news from around the world to keep us in the loop of things, or so we thought. Yet most of the reports on Ferguson have been of people who view the police as antagonists or with having fault and with black protestors in the background. The media is biasedly and sometimes falsely reporting about the Michael brown shooting with reports siding more with and encouraging the activists. These actions lead to greater unrest among the people and caused interference with police duty.

Freedom of the press is one of the most important aspects of democracy. In many countries including Canada and the USA it is at the forefront of their civil rights. Yet often when ideals are not in congruency with the government this right is tested. There has not been a great deal of media coverage on the protests taking place in North Dakota against the Keystone Pipeline. Documentary filmmakers are now facing decades in prison over their filming of the protests. Deia Schlosberg and Lindsay Grayzel are facing felony charges and advocates are stating that this is a direct attack on their first amendment rights. It is important to hear about cases like this because we need to maintain media democracy to protect our own democratic society. Furthermore, the agenda setting theory seems to

There are so many conflicts in life and when people go to find the truth, the media is the first to be looked at. People like to think that there is correct information from the media but in reality there isn’t. There was a book written by Bernard Goldberg called “Bias” where a CBS insider exposes how the media distorts the news. This books lectures about how news networks need to get a reality check since there is bias fed to the media. This happens when there are a large group of people who think alike that use group thinking. These groups usually get filtered news that are not all so true. The news is supposed to be where people get facts about what activities or events going on in the world. Although stories can be changed when too many like minded people make the decisions on what an audience or reader views.

This paper goes over the effects the media had on the O.J. Simpson case and how the media interfered. The O.J. Simpson murder case is touted as the most televised criminal trial in history and from the second the murders were discovered there was a media frenzy. On the night of June 12, 1994 the bodies of Nicole Brown and her waiter Ronald Goldman were found outside of Nicole’s condo both stabbed to death. The suspect, former athlete, icon, and actor Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson was the main suspect of the crime. On June 16th, 1994 the LAPD pressed murder charges against him and placed a warrant for his arrest

The media controls the way the public views a controversial event. It can create the illusion that everything is perfect by leaving out important information, or can reveal the deplorable truth as the media did during the Civil Rights Movement. It was not always that way though, during the Colonial Era the media glossed over the brutality African Americans

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?

     The media is often considered to be biased. The reason for this is because they do not act neutral on the things that they report on. They usually give their point of view and tend to warp the information so it’s easily digestible by the average person. This type of “nugget feeding,” can influence the judgment of some one who has no idea what is going on. The media tends to

Not only that, but constantly churning out stories about the incident every hour until it ceases to matter to them anymore. The media do not realize the problems created by the haphazard ways of this kind of reporting. In the 1950’s, media could be said as being the polar opposite of today.

Policing the Media: A literature review of the Role the Media Plays in the Public’s Perception of Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System.

Malcolm X said “The media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” The media is powerful. The world is full of lies. People have to be able to tell what is the lie and what is the truth. People get their news from websites and newspapers, often from only one source. People should read multiple news sources, because again, the world is full of lies. If a person always gets their news from one source, they will be brainwashed by it and believe it.

The media plays the role as entertaining and a source of information to its viewers, however, with the current crime trends, most viewers have the perceptions that our criminal justice system is lacking in areas of proper sentencing and protecting the viewers. All this is based upon what we see in the media is the information reliable or not? I say this because of hearing about news personality lying about their experience only to booster the networks rating. When the criminal justice system has contact with the media, most will withhold information or give misleading information to justify the capture or conviction of a criminal. So not only are we questioning the efficacy of the criminal justice system but the media as well.

Americans have given up some of their freedoms to be protected by the United States, so they have a right to be informed. In the majority of the all the discussion boards, the classmates agreed that the media creates problems. By giving stories more attention than others, the media creates problems. The media tends to focus more on seriously violent crimes more than missing, or kidnapping cases. According to Champion, in the portrayal of both offenders and victims of crimes in the media there is a "significant focus on high profile crimes as well as societal ills related to crime and victimization" (Champion 2007). In addition, the media reports stories that can make money, and to draw viewership. These are important to the media because without the funding the media wont be able to report from different places across the U.S., and without the support of the public looking them, the media will lose its only audience. The media plays a significant role in public safety by keeping the public aware of crime increase, violence, and fugitives. This allows the community to take action to promote their safety. Americans put a lot of trust into the media in hopes that everything they report is honest and fair.

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which

No person charged of any crime should be judged by the media because that person is innocent until proven guilty, and it one the basic premise of criminal jurisprudence. And, no one, and this includes also the media, should be allowed to temper with the functioning of law. The rule of law as

Without the media, how would the citizens be able to hold the government to account for their actions? A fair and just society is built by transparency and accountability of the leaders. The media serve to promote this, by acting as a witness of government actions. Politicians make decisions and take action on behalf of the public. Journalists analyse those decisions and give reports of the consequences to the public.