PICT103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Moral Panic, Mandatory Sentencing, News Values
8 May 2018
School
Course
Professor
• Crime Reporting - Historical Context
o Crime & disorder formerly presented as problem of society + class.
o Even fictional media portrayed crime largely as a social problem - e.g. Victor Hugo,
Charles Dickens.
o Linked to morality but also to conditions of poverty + lack of education.
• Crime as 'Infotainment'
o 20th century - ride of sensationalist newspaper tabloids, magazines & TV.
o Portrayed as being committed by 'bad' people on 'good/innocent' victims.
o Strict enforcement as the solution to crime - instead of addressing social causes
(e.g. poverty).
• Newsworthiness + News Values
o The vast majority of crimes are not reported in the media - only those that are
considered newsworthy.
o How much media coverage a crime receives depends on its level of newsworthiness.
o Newsworthiness is determined by a range of news values.
News Values;
• Threshold
• Visual Spectacle
or
Graphic imagery
• Predictability
• Children
• Risk
• Simplification
• Sex
• Individualism
• Proximity
• Conservative
ideology +
Political
diversion.
• Violence
• Conflict
Which crimes are over-represented?
o Violent crimes (committed by strangers)
o Sex crimes (also committed by strangers)
o Celebrity Crimes
o Crimes involving police
o Crimes involving children or young people.
o Crimes that have been visually recorded.
Media gives us a false impression of the nature of these offences.
Which crimes are under-represented?
o White collar crimes
o Domestic violence
o Cyber crimes
o Environmental crimes
o Anything other than 'street crime'
o Crimes committed against 'undeserving' victims (homeless people, drug users, people
with criminal records, etc..)
Out of sight = out of mind.
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