Making the News: If It Bleeds, It Leads

SOCI0067: Crime and the Media Lecture 2Dr. L. Cho, PhDE-mail: Lifcho@gmail.com

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

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Theories About Media and Crime

Relationship between media and crime

How do media affect people?

Do the media “cause” crime?

What Do We Mean By Media?

Something that carries some kind of communication

Communication involves sending message from one or more senders to one or more receivers

Most Common Media

Newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, comics, books, films, billboards, photographs, recordings, telephones, video games, etc.

Including “New Media” Media created with the

help of modern computer processing power

Computer: internet, xanga, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Tudou, Baidu

Mobile phones MP3s, etc. More coverage of

“private affairs” with fewer restrictions

Bus Uncle Incident:

Available at: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHziqJWYcM

To Become “E-Famous”

Available at: http://www.wftv.com/video/15817921/index.html

Recorded Brutal Attack to Post on YouTube March 20, 2008 Polk County, Florida One 16 year old girl attacked by

group of girls (14-17 years old) Treated for concussion, damage

to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises,

Video taped with the intent to upload on MySpace and YouTube

April 7, 2008 tape released to media

Eight charged with battery and false imprisonment

Demand Stiff Punishments for Web Sites "I want stiffer punishments

for these shock Web sites that entice kids to make these videos so they can be famous on the Internet,"

-- Patrick (father of the victim) told The Ledger of Lakeland, Fla.

YouTube Ban Video That “Incite Violence”

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) criticized the site was too open to terrorist groups disseminating militant propaganda.

Videos will be deemed to be "inciting others to violence,"

YouTube removed some of the videos that marked with the logos of al-Qaeda

Refused to take down most of the videos on the senator's list

Existing guidelines prohibiting graphic violence and hate speech

What Do We Mean By Crime?

Popularly perceived by the public as “deviant”

Behaviours “legally” deemed as an offense (murder, rape, assault, pick-pocketing, street scams)

“Deviance is created by the imposition of a particular

definition of behaviour of a particular context”

Stealing Note Paper

Shelves of Supermarket From HKU library printer

Same Act Defined DifferentlySupermarket Arrested Charged with theft

HKU Internal discipline

Social context where the offence and deviance takes place is a central aspect of sociological

explanation

Cross Cultural Communication as Deviance

OK Signal Middle Finger

Thumbs Up Whistling

U.S. U.S. U.S. U.S.

Expresses approval

Offensive gesture

Hitch-hiking or show of approval

When happy

JAPAN KOREA NIGERIA EUROPE

Means you are asking for money

Used for pointing

Rude gesture

Sign of disapproval at public events

Including Sex Work

Not legally defined as crime

However, considered by many, though not all, in Hong Kong as deviant

Why Study Media and Crime?

Media is pervasive

Permeate All Aspects of Our Daily Life

Media Usage by Young People in the United States

A typical day: 3:04 hours a day watching TV 1:44 hours a day listening to music 1:02 hours a day using a computer 0:49 hours a day playing video games 0:43 hours a day reading 0:32 hours a day watching videos, DVDs 0:25 hours a day watching movies in a theatre 0:14 hours a day watching prerecorded TV

Total 6.7 hours using media of some form

2005 Kaiser media usage study for young people (ages 8 to 18)

New Media Use

66% use instant messaging 64% downloaded music from the internet 48% streamed a radio station through the internet 39% have a cell phone 35% created a personal Web site or Web page 34% have a DVR such as TiVo in their homes 18% have an MP3 player 13% have a handheld device that connects to the Internet

2005 Kaiser media usage study for young people (ages 8 to 18)

An Average American 9.2 hours using consumer media 62% households have video game equipment 50% households have newspaper subscription

Homes with children: 70% own video game system 18% of teenagers (13-17) read “often” 50% read sometimes, 32%

never read Teenagers spend 2.5 hours on a home computer 66% of U.S. children have a TV set in their bedroom Children spend about 28 hours watching TV (twice as much time

as they spend in school in a year)

Adapted from Popular Culture and the American Child site

Media is an Important Source of Knowledge

Media can create and reflect popular sentiment about crime

and justiceIn turn, influence social policy

Understanding Media’s Role in Constructing Our Reality

Nature and priorities of media as a business

How is media driven by organizational needs and/or political beliefs?

How do they accomplish this?

Why Study Crime and the Media?

Crime is a basic staple of media

Internationally featured in all mass media forms

2006 Local TV News Coverage (TVB & ATV)

• Economy (14.7% of local news): Seasonal economic figures (GDP, inflation, prices, salaries), business environment, government policies, corporate developments, fluctuations in market situation (equity, food supplies, gasoline);

Crime (14%): ICAC cases, customs actions of search and seizure, court verdicts and sentences, homicide, fraudulent acts, dead body found, illegal gambling. criminal damages, trafficking of drug, crime investigation, robberies, arson….etc.  

• Politics (13.7%): 71 rally, the re-emergence of Mrs Anson Chan and Mrs Regina Yip, Government responses to popular pressures for universal suffrage…etc.

• Accidents (12%): Fire accidents, car crashes, traffic jams, suicides, casualties due to drug abuses, pedestrian hurt by falling objects from nearby building, disruption of electricity supplies…etc.

• Health and Safety (11%): Resumption of supply of live stock from the mainland, impact of drug abuses on health, health issues associated with over-weight children, outbreak of bird flu, safety of elevators in KCRC, the ranking of killing diseases in Hong Kong….etc.

Adapted from Mr. To Yiu-ming’s Introduction to Journalism Course at HK Baptist University. Available at: http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~jour/course/1120/

2006 Local Newspaper Coverage (Apple Daily, Ming Pao, SCMP)

• Politics (18.7%)

• Crime (17.3)

• Accidents (16%)

• Economy (16%)

• Health and safety (5.3%)

Adapted from Mr. To Yiu-ming’s Introduction to Journalism Course at HK Baptist University. Available at: http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~jour/course/1120/

Comparison

TV• Crime (14%) 

• Accidents (12%)

• Economy (14.7%)

• Politics (13.7%)

• Health and Safety (11%)

Newspapers• Crime (17.3%)

• Accidents (16%)

• Economy (16%)

• Politics (18.7%)

• Health and safety (5.3%)

US Crime Coverage

7.1%

12%

20%

5.8%

9.5%

4.2% 4.7%

Hong Kong Violent Crime Statistics 2003 to 2007

2006 Crime Coverage

Hong Kong Population nearly

7 million Violent Crimes 14,817

HK newspaper coverage of crime: 17.3%

Los Angeles Population nearly

3 million (2,936,101) Violent Crimes 87,940

US newspaper coverage of crime: 4.2%

Los Angeles County Crime Statistics 2006

Why Study Crime and the Media?

Does media give objective and neutral presentation of

reality?

Case Study #1

O.J. Simpson

Most publicized criminal trial in history June 12, 1994 Nicole Brown

Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found fatally stabbed outside Brown's Los Angeles apartment

Former American football star and actor

Brought to trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman

Acquitted in 1995 after a lengthy trial, the longest jury trial in

California history.

OJ Simpson June 27, 1994

Time Magazine Justification The Time cover made Simpson's face

darker, blurrier, and unshaven. Matt Mahurin, the illustrator at Time

Magazine who manipulated the police photo, said he "wanted to make it more artful, more compelling.”

An NBC poll taken in 2004 reported that, although 77% of 1,186 people sampled thought Simpson was guilty, only 27% of blacks in the sample believed so, compared to 87% of whites.

Break

What is the Relationship Between

Crime and the Media?

Heated public debates since the early 1900s

One Popular View

Media is a primary cause of crime in society

Distinction

Causality X causes Y. Whenever you have X,

you get Y

Correlation Y comes after X and is

possibly connected with it

Direct Effect

Sensational media encourages and accounts

for evil & violence

Implication

Censorship

Other Popular View

Media has little to no effect on crime

No need to censor

Effects Model (Stimuli-Response Model) 1920’s Psychologists into behaviourism

(view individual behaviour in response to a stimuli)

Period of great social change, immigration & urbanization

Related problems: breakdown of traditional values and family structure

Media seen as positive & powerful to promote change, improving society

People directly affected, absorb and follow what they hear and learn from media

Tend to accept neutrality and objectiveness media

Tend to quantify attitudes, behaviours, feelings, see what they study as “objective” and “real”

Lab test, lab test, lab test

Stanford Study

Bandura et al. (1950) Children shown film/cartoon with violence Children left in room to bash “Bobo” dolls

See you tube for re-enactment of Bandura study : http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeE_Ymzc1rE&feature=PlayList&p=DD6880672E8F6D40&playnext=1&index=12

Functionalists Account of Media

Aka “hypodermic syringe model”

Audience is passive Media “injects”

values and ideas to passive receiver, producing direct negative effect on behaviour

Apply Direct Effect Theory to Nude Photo Scandal

Critics of Direct Effect Model Most of these psychological research conducted in

labs under controlled conditions Fails to account for human interaction Fails to account for competing messages Recipients are mechanical and passive Unable to think for themselves Reduce behaviour as being due to only one factor

when multiple reasons for human action Measures “immediately response” only rather than

“long term” accumulative effects Lab condition, cannot replicate in real life situation

How to Account for Aggressive Behaviour When Individual Does Not View/Read Media?

Critics of Direct Effect

Violent crime occurred before media became popular

No evidence show that remove violent media means no violence

See shows on tribal societies where there is violence but no T.V.

In Hong Kong

Lots of popular movies and Chinese newspaper coverage show lots of blood & guts

Hong Kong has low incidence of violence, in particular murder.

2006 Crime Coverage

Hong Kong Population nearly

7 million Violent Crimes 14,817

HK newspaper coverage of crime: 17.3%

Growing Frustration from 1960’s

Can’t show how or why people are influenced by the media…

So, changed research direction…

What Does the Media Do to People?

What do people do with the media?

What is the purpose of media in people’s everyday life?

Audience is Not Passive,but Active Agents

Studies of British & American Soap Operas…

For viewers: TV watching is

functional Escapism, tension

release, enhance social interaction, personal identity…

Why Are People Not So Influenced?

Selective exposureSelective perception

Selective retention and recallMedia has few lessons on everyday

life – too removed

Rise of Reception Analysis (1980s)

Media doesn’t “control” individualsUses media as a resource

Select images and meanings that relate to wider experiences

Sociology Perspective: Critical of Direct Effect Approach

Limitations to direct effect / psychological Approach:

Media is not value neutral Media rooted in ideological beliefs Direct effect de-contexualize individual &

collective behaviour Behaviour must be understood in its social

context

Sociology Perspectives

People are active participants in media interpretive process

Functionalist: media is part of the structure and workings of society necessary for survival of society. Media stabilizes society (as oppose to cause change)

Marxist/conflict: Media allied to power structure, agents of political control

Cultural and Media Studies View

Focus less on effects, more on variation of responses to the content as part of broader cultural phenomenon. Focus on normality of media role in people’s lives rather than the dangerous effect.

How do media construct and censor certain behaviours in oppositional terms?

How does it promote moral lessons?

Criminology Perspective

Direct effect: TV retards higher cognitive functions, TV acts as stimuli

Indirect effect: media coverage on sex >>> lax attitude on sex >>> crime

Media part of political process: media pressuring state to “do something” about a problem. Does the public influence media or vice versa?

Criminology Perspective

Rational Choice: media is positive as audience learn about negative aspects of crime (deterrence)

Social Control: media reinforces conventional values (role of media in preventing crime)

Public Perception: media influence perception and fear of crime

Public Pressure: media influence what criminal justice system does

Social (Media) Construction of Reality

Assumption: Knowledge is subjective, variable, socially

based

Constructed Reality

Knowledge(sources of, shared meanings

PersonalExperiences

(direct,Experienced reality,

Fairly limited, butMost influential)

Significant Others

(peers, family,Friends)

Other SocialInstitutions

(schools, unions,church, govAgencies)

Mass Media(TV, movies,

Internet)

Shared symbolically

Collectively shared through language Others experienced is shared What people believe to be true is largely

acquired symbolically rather than actually experienced

We have limited experience, rely on media for information

President Bush

Donald Tseng

Man Walking on the Moon

Media is BIG Business

Driven by profit Content and images

influenced by business motives

Need to present competing claims

American Approach to Media and Crime

Social Constructionism

Competing Constructions

Claims – descriptions, assertions, stereotypes about nature and extent of problem

Claimsmakers – various interest groups who make specific claims, shape problem as they see it, morally, politically and financially driven

Secondary Claimsmakers – news media Ownership – who owns or come to own the

problem Links – linkage of one issue to other problems

Media Filter

What is majority view What is dramatic What will lead to

more business

Happy New Year!

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