Crime and News Media

Hello, everyone.

When there is Franchise committee, Kelly and I work at the university of Sorry.

Today I'm going to talk about to talk to you about crime

and media.

And in this first section, we will talk about specifically

the relationship between crime and news media.

So why do we talk about crime and media at all?

This is a really important topic both for media studies,

but also for a criminology as well.

I myself as, um, a criminologist and I really,

really think that this is a really important area of study

talking specifically about news media.

For most of us, journalism is the main source of information about the world.

So through news media, we found out where we find out what happens in the world.

What happens where we live, what are the important events that are happening?

But obviously, news media do not report on everything that happens everywhere.

They just report on a tiny selection of facts

and events.

As social scientists,

we really need to therefore explore the

processes through which these decisions are made,

because doing this can tell us a lot about the

way society is structured the way society works and the ways

in which different people and different groups have power and

have the opportunity to influence the way events are represented.

So essentially, there are two

sets of factors that play a part

in determining how,

um, news are made and how facts are chosen to become news.

So the first one is the production processes of news making.

So here I'm thinking about things like, um, for example,

media traditionally rely on official source of information.

Uh, so if, um, I don't know Police force issue a press release

the media are likely to report on that much more than

its random individual was was to issue a similar document.

Also,

most news organisations will deploy reporters in some hotspots.

As far as crime is concerned,

For example,

you will find crime reporters in crown courts because they know that that's where,

uh, business happens.

They can also, um um, that will typically also attend, As I said,

press conferences organised by police forces.

Um, that can also, um,

regularly attend big police stations that

will also have relationships with contacts within

the police that are able to inform them if and when something happens

this first set of factors are more to do

with the technical reality of how news organisations work.

The second and I think more interesting, um,

set of factors relate to the so called agenda setting theory.

And essentially,

this looks at how and why certain stories are selected because

they reflect the interests or the assumptions that society holds.

Within this approach, there are two main contrasting theories that, um,

we can look at to elucidate and to illuminate how agenda setting works.

So the first one is the pluralist approach, and essentially,

what the pluralist approach holds is that we live in a democratic society,

more or less.

Everyone has the right to make their, um needs, desires and grievances known.

The media play an important part in this because essentially what they do,

according to the pluralist perspective,

is that they provide a venue where different groups, different interests,

can all be represented.

Obviously, a lot of media organisations are commercial enterprises,

which means that they need to turn in a profit

because otherwise their medical business would not be sustainable.

So this is another thing that within a pluralist approach,

we need to take into account

so, um, media organisations,

commercial media organisations um they need to present the interests of different

people and different groups in society so they become their audience.

You may have noticed that when I was talking about the pluralist approach,

I said a variety of groups will have more or less

the same access

to the media. And this is essentially what

the contrasting

approach embodied by Marxism and more critical approaches at

the media ledge onto so essentially what they say.

It is not true that everyone in society will have an equal

opportunity to present their interests and their needs through the media.

The media are essentially, in this perspective,

an instrument in maintaining the dominance of the elites over everyone else.

So essentially in this perspective,

what the media select are those stories there those facts, those events

that can be

packaged to produce and strengthen

consent.

You may be already familiar with Marxism,

but essentially what this theory upholds is that there are two groups in society.

The ruling class and the Working Classes

Society is designed to keep the ruling class in a position of power

and the working classes in a lower

subordinate position

Obviously, if the working classes were aware

of their subordination, that might decide to rebel.

But this does not happen.

And we all live in a capitalist society where

order is more or less assumed

day in, day out. So how can we explain this?

Essentially, what Marxists say is that the media are instrumental in presenting

the state of society as the natural state of things so that everyone buys into it.

And everyone thinks

that the way things are

is the way things should be.

And obviously, if we believe that the way things are is how they're supposed to be,

we're not really likely to revolt and rebel against them.

Obviously,

these are very I've presented this to

approach approaches in very distinct separate ways.

But I think, um, you know, as students of the media,

you will soon understand that obviously, things are never so black and white.

So I think it's really,

really helpful for you to think about these two perspectives.

But then, when you approach a specific media content, specific media product,

think of the ways in which, um, you know the reality

of what you're reading,

what you're watching on TV or on the Internet can challenge this two perspectives.

The other thing that it's important to consider is, well, if on Duke's calls,

news values.

Essentially, these are the things that if a story possesses them,

then it means that it is more likely to

be turned into something that the media will report.

So something that is particularly, for example,

the crime that is particularly daring, Uh,

something that is incredibly exceptional.

For example, if someone was just wants to steal the crown,

jewels or the media would be on that day in day out, because how could that happen?

Um,

events. Facts involving extreme violence is also more likely to be reported.

Another important factor is that of proximity,

and we can understand this into distinct ways.

So one is geographical proximity that were in the

UK If something big was to happen in Ireland,

the media would be more likely to report on it than if it was to happen in Japan.

The other thing that it's important to consider is cultural proximity.

So, for example, everything that happens in other English speaking countries,

no matter how far, is also likely to be reported.

So I hope that this has given you, um,

an overview of how crime news is constructed and how it is made.

And before I stop here,

I would like just to highlight some factors that are driving change.

On one hand, we have a 24 hour news cycle,

which means that media outlets are trying to

produce new content on a constant basis.

So obviously this can challenge

some of the things that we've been talking about and most importantly,

the rise of social media.

We all have a smartphone.

We can all produce our own content and you know,

we could get become go viral if something was to happen that we

were able to be there at the right time in the right spot.

So obviously there's particularly this challenges the idea that the media are

simply an instrument to maintain the dominance of the ruling classes.