How does the media represent crimes such as paedophilia and do shows such as Chris Morris' 'Brass Eye' illustrate a need for change in the way crime news is presented to society?

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How does the media represent crimes such as paedophilia and do shows such as Chris Morris' 'Brass Eye' illustrate a need for change in the way crime news is presented to society?

Society is in continual need of being aware of what is going on around them. The most common and what is widely agreed to be the most useful source, is the media. Whether this medium gives a continuously fair representation of the world's events is a subject, which has been much debated, in the criminological sphere.

Crime and Criminal Justice has been the main subject of the media for an extremely long time. Reiner et al.'s historical study of two British newspapers since the Second World War found that homicide was by far the most common type of crime reported, accounting for about one-third of all crime news stories throughout the period. Studies conducted in the 1990's continued to show the same pattern of over representation of violent and interpersonal (especially sex) crimes. (Chiricos et al, (1997) as cited in Oxford handbook of criminology p.384 (2002).

The media has a huge influential power therefore having the ability to control the way society thinks and perceives a given subject. We are a media nation. The time spent watching television, films, video and audio recordings, radio program's, video games, the Internet, newspapers and magazines makes the media virtually unavoidable. Most places will have their own newspaper and some their own news. Families all round Britain sit down together and watch the headlines, these are more often than not about crime and justice. Surveys conducted by the Canadian Sentencing Commission in 1987 reported that as many as 95% of the general population cite the mass media as their primary source of information about crime. (Dominick 1978 p.106 as cited in Surette, R (1998)) The way the media portrays many subjects has been recognised as being disproportional to reality. Recently people who are in an influential position have tried to express their feelings on this subject, most recently the Black Eyed Peas music group released some lyrics to a song that reached the number one spot: 'Wrong information always shown by the media, negative images is the main criteria, infecting these young minds faster than bacteria, kids wana act like what they see in the cinema.' This is a useful way of expressing the point of the media sensationalising certain criminal activities as it is heard through a variety of audiences. Also the converse argument could be that the media by themselves cannot turn a law-abiding person into a criminal. This may be true but again it could be fair to say that the media doesn't create criminals, but it can make criminals more creative.

Adding to the complexity of the media relationship, many other sources either interact with the media or work alone to produce crime. These sources range from individual biology to facets of our history and culture. The other influential factors that are non-media based are: neighbourhood and family conditions, genetic and physiological traits, social structure, race relations and economic conditions. (Surette, R p.2 (1998))

I shall be looking at the way in which the media influences our reactions and thoughts and link it in to criminal behaviours we hear about, concentrating largely on the subject of paedophilia and its representation in the media.

When a new piece of crime is reported in the media and with the volume of coverage it may receive, there is then the possibility of a 'moral panic' arising. For example when a case of paedophilia is reported in the media repeatedly and with a strong sense of wrongful doing, the moral panic then, is characterised by the feeling, held by a substantial number of the members of a given society, that evildoers pose a threat to the society and to the moral order as a consequence of their behaviour and therefore 'something should be done' about them. (Goode, E, Ben-Yehuda, N p.31 (1994))

The response to such threats is likely to be a demand for greater social regulation or control and a demand for a return to 'traditional values'. (Thompson, K p.8-9 (1998)) This may then cause people to create their own reality (social construction of reality) in which the world they believe exists, is based on their individual knowledge and from knowledge gained from social interactions with other people. People then act in accordance with their constructed views of society.

Subjects such as paedophilia and sex crimes are covered regularly in the media. This is extremely apparent when the case involves a celebrity or someone in an authoritative position. These allegations then have the capability to essentially ruin someone's life or career as the media has such an influence over the nation. 'The over-representation of higher-status offenders is primarily confined to national news media.' (Reiner, R p. 385 (2002)) A good example of this is the incident involving Matthew Kelly the host of such television program's as 'Stars in their eyes', the family show. He was accused of being a viewer of child pornography
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on the Internet and to have sexually abused a young boy. As soon as the accusations arose in the media there was a big uproar in society and it would be common to hear people say 'what is he doing hosting a family show' even before they had become aware of the facts and truths of the subject in hand. It was common belief and still is to some extent that the police and media were attempting a sort of 'witch-hunt' to expose celebrities. When examining the BBC web-site on this subject I found a piece written on ...

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