PICT103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Moral Panic, Environmental Crime, News Values
5 Jun 2018
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Course
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PICT3
Crime in the Media
PART 1: Crime Reporting
Crime and Media Reporting - Background
• Crime and disorder formerly presented as a problem of society and class (particular
low-socio economic classes)
• Even fictional media portrayed crime largely as a social problem (e.g. Victor Hugh,
Charles Dickens)
• Linked to morality but also to conditions of poverty and lack of education- Poor
living environments and poverty = crime
• E.g. "Jack the Ripper" murders. Sensationalised sex-crime murders against
prostitutes. There is a focus on the broader social conditions that may have made
people likely to be victims or perpetrators
Crime as 'infotainment'
• Crime changes in the 20th century: rise of sensationalism newspaper tabloids,
magazine and TV
• Portrayed as being committed by 'bad' people on 'good/innocent' victims: not
necessarily accurate
• More of a focus on the individual morality: people's good or bad moral choices +
sympathised or condemned by society who their respective choices
• Romanticised, popularised crime
• Stick enforcement as the solution to crime - instead of addressing social causes (e.g.
poverty)
• Ethnic minorities or people involved with drugs were highlighted and presented as
'bad' people and perpetrators
• Stick law enforcement and mandatory sentences were a response to the 'bad morality'
of the people: not a response of trying to fix the poverty cycle because this as not seen
as the cause of crimes
PART 2: Newsworthiness and News Values
Newsworthiness
• The vast majority of crimes are not reported in the media - only those that are
considered newsworthy
• How much media coverage a crime received depends on its level of newsworthiness:
how likely the story is to 'sell' - the interest of the reader
• Newsworthiness is determined by a range of news values
News values
• Threshold (how serious or not the crime is)
• Predicability (we are more shocked by crimes that defy predictability or seem
unlikely)
• Risk (on-going risk in society: e.g. killer on the lose, contagious disease)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Crime and media reporting - background: crime and disorder formerly presented as a problem of society and class (particular low-socio economic classes, even fictional media portrayed crime largely as a social problem (e. g. victor hugh, Charles dickens: linked to morality but also to conditions of poverty and lack of education - poor living environments and poverty = crime, e. g. There is a focus on the broader social conditions that may have made people likely to be victims or perpetrators. Ideal victims: chrissy (1986) suggest that ideal victims are those who share characteristics that generate maximum sympathy, and who the media/public will find easy to view as innocent victims because of this, usually include: Extremes of age (young child or elderly) Engaged in morally pure activity: often unrelated to actual risk of victimisation, opposite characteristics to ideal offenders (bad, scary, men, violent, drugs, ethnic, etc)
