Chapter 8

We live in an age of 'media saturation', an age in which media play an increasingly central role in everyday life. It is also an age in which high crime rates and levels of concern about crime have become accepted as 'normal'. The rapid and relentless development of information technologies over the past 100 years has shaped the modern era, transforming the relations between space, time and identity (see Giddens, 1991; Castells, 1996; Jewkes, 2002; Greer, 2004). Where once 'news' used to travel by ship, it now hurtles across the globe at light speed and is available 24 hours-a-day at the push of a button. Where once cultures used to be more or less distinguishable in national or geographical terms, they now mix, intermingle and converge in a constant global exchange of information. Where once a sense of community and belonging was derived primarily from established identities and local traditions, it may now also be found, and lost, in a virtual world of shared values, meanings and interpretations. In short, media are not only inseparable from contemporary social life; they are, for many, its defining characteristic. In this context, understanding the connections between crime and the media is central to understanding the cultural place that crime and media occupy in our social world.

The chapter is divided into four principal sections. The first section offers some background information and addresses the crucial question of why exploring media images of crime and control is important. The second section considers how scholars have gone about researching crime and the media, and presents an overview of the main findings. The third section critically discusses the dominant theoretical and conceptual tools which have been used to understand and explain media representations of crime? And the fourth section considers the evidence for the effects of media representations, both on criminal behaviour and on fear of crime.

Fortunately, though sections of the popular press may suggest otherwise, most of us have little first-hand experience of serious criminal victimisation. Our understanding of the crime problem – how much crime is out there, what types of crime are most prevalent, who is most at risk, what are the best responses – mostly derives from sources other than personal experience. Paramount among these is the media. The media, then, are key producers and purveyors of 'knowledge' about crime, disorder and control. For this reason alone, media representations are worthy of in-depth investigation.

But precisely what kinds of knowledge do these representations generate, and to what effect? Below are some of the key questions which have perplexed students of crime and the media:

Is it possible to discern a coherent picture of 'the crime problem' from the media and, if so, does this picture bear any resemblance to what we may claim, however tentatively, to know of the 'reality' of crime and disorder?
Do the media merely reflect, objectively and impartially, what happens in the world, or are they active agents in socially constructing 'mediated realities' in which certain values, interests and beliefs are promoted, while others are downplayed, or even actively suppressed?
Do the media reproduce and reinforce prejudice and the stereotyping of marginalised groups, or actively challenge it?
Do the media undermine or fortify the existing structures of power and authority?
Does violence in the media make us more aggressive, more fearful, or both?

Concern about the pernicious influence of the media is perennial, and academic research exploring media representations of crime dates back to the early 1900s (Pearson, 1983; Bailey and Hale, 1996). Yet despite literally thousands of studies, these key questions have generated few straight answers. It is important to be clear that the media cannot (if they ever could) be usefully thought of in the singular, like some monolithic, unified institution to be understood through generalised statements and assumptions. The media are a multiplicity of institutions, organisations, processes and practices which are hugely diverse in composition, scope and purpose (Fiske, 1990; Briggs and Cobley, 1998). Today there are more media forms (television, newspapers, magazines, radio, the internet, mobile phone Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology) and greater levels of diversity within each individual form (satellite, cable and digital television), than ever before. Understanding the media, therefore, requires a critical and reflexive appreciation both of the diversity of forms and formats involved and of the complexity with which images, texts, messages, signs are produced, transmitted and received.

One of the key points to grasp is that we do not all use, interpret, and respond to media representations in the same way. Images of violent crime, for example, may repel some and attract others, disturb some and excite others, frighten some and anger others. It is necessary to look beyond the instinctive desire to tackle complex dilemmas with simplified accounts and generalisations. The relationship between media images and the world around us is so fascinating precisely because it is complex and hard to pin down.

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 8.

Chapter 8