Media And The Media's Depiction Of Crime

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As human beings, we have the ability to form our own beliefs, opinions, and biases. However, this is not a current trend in today’s society. We often form these things based on the world around us, whether it is our peers, public figures, or media outlets. Media specifically alters our depiction of crime. Until recently, I was naïve to this fact. Watching the news or reading the newspaper is how we stay in touch with what is going on in the world around us. We believe what we read and hear and form opinions based on this information. Media inaccurately represents crime. For example, journalists and editors speculate what their audiences would find interesting. They only write about these things limiting the knowledge of their community. We are only aware of the stories told through the news. The media acts as a social construct; we base our view on criminal activity and those who commit it from the patterns the media portrays. Thus, our perspectives are …show more content…

Over the past few weeks, I have been analyzing articles on crime from newspapers and a variety of news websites. I noticed three main trends. The first trend is that the crimes chosen to be broadcasted were mostly violent and drug crimes. I saw very few articles about property crime or white collar crime. Secondly, I noticed that the media magnifies the number of violent crimes and the nature of the crimes. The amount of violent crime is magnified because other types of crime are suppressed through selective reporting. The nature of the crimes is magnified because journalists use language with a negative connotation. They use words that evoke feelings from their audience. Journalists also use language that implies the perpetrators are cunning, but the acts of crime are simply opportunistic, as most are. The final trend in the media is the focus on crimes that are horrifying to the moral members of society, such as those with children involvement or other innocent

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