Media And Crime

802 Words2 Pages

distort our understanding of crime? Which consequences can this distorted view have for an individual person?
There is currently substantial amount of literature on the criteria which make our news and current events ; eye-catching, or worthy of media attention(Chibnall, 1977; Hall et al., 1978; Katz, 1987; Ericson et al., 1989) While. It is common knowledge that across the current events and entertainment domains, the media focus largely on the most severe examples of crimes and victimization (Marsh, 1991; Reiner et al., 2000), paradoxically, it is ‘white collar’ crimes such as fraud, burglary, money laundering and embezzlement actually make up the majority of recorded criminal offenses. (Maguire, 2002).This essay will aim to explain how the media can manipulate and distort reality and alter an audiences perspectives on crime and victimization.
Firstly, a medium or ‘media’ in its plural form is an outlet of communication. It is a domain in which people in society can dispatch and obtain information. Mass media, therefore, refer to platforms of communication which involve transmitting information to large audiences. However the issue of precisely how many a “large number” has to be, in order to qualify as a “mass” is something that is ultimately left undefined (Dutton, O Sullivan, Rayner & Rayner, 2003)
One of the most prominent and influential techniques of gaining social control in modern day society, is utilizing mass media and its ability to not only reach out to; but also influence and manipulate a large audiencand the perspectives they hold. In order to fuel public curiosity as well inform us of current events, it is the duty of local and global media outlets to report their findings by any means possible. This often takes...

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...an. They do this using survey, facts, polls, and other tools. Meanwhile, they have to make sure many of these tools aren't biased in themselves.
Stories of murder, assaults and other violent crimes seem to be overrepresented because they can easily and make headlines catch viewer’s attention, regardless of how much crime is declining
. Of all the crime stories, the stories that are reported on the most are murder, though statistically murder is the rarest crime, and also one that's nationally declining. Even in New Orleans, where the murder rate is 10 times the national average, it's still very rare relative to the population of the city. People in cities surrounding New Orleans often read about New Orleans crime in their news media too, giving them a sense that murder is happening in their neighborhood.
The crimes that bombard our headlines are not common crimes,

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