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Theorizing Media and Crime

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Why are we so fascinated by crime and deviance? If the media can so successfully engage the public’s fascination, can they equally tap into and increase people’s fears about crime? Is the media’s interest in some would say, obsession with crime harmful? What exactly is the relationship between the mass media and crime? Students and researchers of both criminology and media studies have sought to understand the connections between media and crime for well over a century. It’s interesting to note that, although rarely working together, striking parallels can be found between the efforts of criminologists and media theorists to understand and ‘unpack’ the relationships between crime, deviance and criminal justice on the one hand, and media and popular culture on the other. Indeed, it is not just at the interface between crime and media that we find similarities between the two disciplines. Parallels between criminology and media studies are evident even when we consider some of the most fundamental questions...

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Media Interaction With The Public In Emergency Situations: Four Case Studies

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Emergency situations arise from a wide variety of natural and man-made events ranging from earthquakes and hurricanes to domestic disturbances and terrorist strikes to nuclear power accidents and airplane crashes. Information about these events can be disseminated by several means, but one of the most important channels for communicating information about emergency situations is the modern mass media. Despite reservations that may be expressed about their ability to play the role of communicator impartially, the media transmit considerable information about the circumstances and hazards of emergencies to a wide audience. In attempting to understand how the media function, it may be useful to describe journalists' work in terms of three types of "games."1 These "games" help conceptualize the ways in which the media generally handle the information they pass forward to the public. The first game may be termed the "gatekeeper game" in which a newsroom, as an organization, sets the rules and packages "the news" for its readers. Journalists decide what...

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The Effective Use of the Media in Serious Crime Investigations

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1. Introduction

Media handling in serious crime investigations is a complex issue. On the one hand, the media provide excellent access to the general public and can help generate important information for an enquiry. On the other hand, the media can sap the resources of an investigation, mislead the public, and interfere with the investigative and legal processes. As with other areas of policy-making in a serious crime investigation, it is the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) who is ultimately responsible for deciding the overall media strategy. Even though the SIO will be advised by the relevant media specialist and guided by force policy, the handling of the media in the broadest sense has been identified as a critical skill of the SIO (Adhami and Browne, 1996). This report examines media handling in major crime investigations and the development of effective media strategies, so as to produce useful advice for future SIOs. The study forms part of PRC’s Serious Crime Research Programme, which is... .

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Looking Through a Gendered Lens: Local US Television News Anchors’ Perceived Career Barriers

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The authors conducted a nationwide mail survey of 246 local TV news anchors to examine anchors’ perceptions of hindrances to their career progress. Women anchors’ highest-rated barrier was the overemphasis on their physical appearance; lack of professional networks and support groups ranked the highest for men. Career barriers ranked highly by anchors of both sexes included: balance between work and family life, conflicting roles of wife/mother or husband/father and professional newscaster, and relocation.

In the U.S., half af all TV news reporters and anchors are women (Stone, 1997). Twenty-five years ago, women made up only 13% of the television news workforce (Stone, 1997). This dramatic increase in the number of women in a once maie- dominated profession serves as onc result of what Pamela Creedon calls the “gender switch,” which occurred during the mid-1970s when more women than men enrolled in college journalism and mass communication courses (1989). While the “gender switch” has resulted in increased numbers...

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