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Book part
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Alina Korn

Purpose: This study is concerned with media representation of crime in the Israeli press. It examines the pattern of offenses reported in two daily newspapers of seemingly…

Abstract

Purpose: This study is concerned with media representation of crime in the Israeli press. It examines the pattern of offenses reported in two daily newspapers of seemingly different characteristics, the “elitist” Haaretz and the “popular” Israel Hayom. Methodology/approach: Crime reports appeared in the news pages during November 2016 were content analyzed in both newspapers by using a coding scheme, which operationalized several variables relating to type of crime, characteristics of offenders and victims, and court proceedings. Findings: Violent and sex offenses featured disproportionately in the news reports in both newspapers, while conventional property offenses were under-reported relative to their prevalence in official crime statistics. In terms of the characteristics of offenders and victims, the vast majority of offenders portrayed in crime stories were adult Jewish males. Women were more likely to appear as victims of crime rather than perpetrators, and more likely to appear as victims of sex offenses rather than other offenses. Research limitations: This study was based on an analysis of crime stories which appeared in two newspapers during one-month period of time. Future research should extend the sample size and collect data from a longer period of time and from additional media outlets. Originality/value: Media coverage of crime stories has not yet been researched in Israel. Beyond the interest in the Israeli case or the potential contribution to comparative global knowledge, the value of the study may lie in expanding the lens of scholarship of media’s construction of crime.

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Mass Mediated Representations of Crime and Criminality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-759-3

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Book part
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Lisa A. Kort-Butler

Purpose – This study explored how the pandemic shaped or shifted legacy news reporting about crime, focusing on Twitter posts as visual elements of the crossmedia landscape…

Abstract

Purpose – This study explored how the pandemic shaped or shifted legacy news reporting about crime, focusing on Twitter posts as visual elements of the crossmedia landscape.

Methodology/Approach – Drawing a purposive sample of tweets about crime and the pandemic posted from March 2020 to December 2021 by major TV news outlets, the qualitative media analysis (QMA) scrutinized how tweets constructed narratives about crime. The analysis considered images, text, and their juxtaposition within tweets and over time.

Findings – This study found that news organizations partnered the pandemic and crime in the American discourse of fear. Tweets acted as crime news snapshots, which magnified a sense of instability and uncertainty. Tweets constructed a collective malaise that could contribute to users’ sense of ontological insecurity.

Originality/Value – The spectacle of crime churned through news organizations’ tweets, dissociating crime from the complex social context of the pandemic. Attention to the liquidity of images and information in the crossmedia landscape revealed fluctuating social meanings and disorientation.

Details

Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-279-2

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1995

Steven Chermak

Public opinion and political ideology affect the way in which police departments formulate responses to crime. Examines how departments construct public images to ensure favorable…

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Abstract

Public opinion and political ideology affect the way in which police departments formulate responses to crime. Examines how departments construct public images to ensure favorable media presentation. Uses direct observation of news production process for more specific data on how police sources impact on crimenews presentation. Finds that news media can hold police accountable to the public, but news media are also businesses and have to provide news that will attract consumers. News media rely on willing participants to produce crime stories cost‐effectively. Police look to the media to reaffirm their status as law enforcers; they invest resources in helping the media and thus influence crime presentation. Finds that police categorization of crime is self‐promoting and supportive of traditional responses, while reporters are not critical of police.

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American Journal of Police, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0735-8547

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Book part
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Janine Brill, Lars Guenther, Wibke Ehrhardt and Georg Ruhrmann

Purpose: Mentioning a criminal’s country of origin in crime news is a divisive and much-discussed issue among both journalists and members of society. Scholars assume that…

Abstract

Purpose: Mentioning a criminal’s country of origin in crime news is a divisive and much-discussed issue among both journalists and members of society. Scholars assume that mentioning a criminal’s foreign origin could develop and maintain prejudices against individuals with a migrant background among news recipients. However, until now, no attention has been paid to what increases the likelihood that a journalist does or does not mention a criminal’s country of origin when reporting on crimes. Methodology/approach: One possible explanation is that the frequency and intensity of specific news factors could lead to mentioning a criminal’s origin, since increased importance of a news story is usually assigned when many high-intensity news factors occur. Even though numerous studies have determined the frequency of specific news factors in (crime) news, the explanation hypothesized in this chapter has not yet been examined. To investigate this supposition empirically, a quantitative content analysis of four German prime newscasts (n = 290), including public and private broadcasts, was conducted in the current study. Findings: The findings indicate that mentioning criminals’ origins is still common practice in journalism; furthermore, criminals with foreign origins are explicitly represented as foreign almost ten times more often than German-origin criminals are explicitly mentioned as German. News factors such as personalization, location, and influence show some effects of positively predicting journalistic mentioning of a criminal’s country of origin.

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Mass Mediated Representations of Crime and Criminality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-759-3

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Book part
Publication date: 20 December 2000

Morgan Blake Ward Doran and Gray Cavender

Abstract

Details

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-889-6

Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2010

Gregory G. Justis and Steven Chermak

Purpose – The CSI effect, as it is referenced in mainstream media, is a purported effect on public perceptions caused by the portrayal of forensics and investigations in popular…

Abstract

Purpose – The CSI effect, as it is referenced in mainstream media, is a purported effect on public perceptions caused by the portrayal of forensics and investigations in popular entertainment programming. Despite the obvious popularity of the programs – a common source of blame for such effects and the focus of limited prior research – impacts on perceptions by way of media content must be viewed as a product of multiple internal and external factors, rather than a result of popularity and viewership alone.

Methodology – By examining the portrayal of programming within the context of contemporary news publications, this project focuses on the value and context of presentations of forensics television programming across media genres, highlighting the bidirectional flow of popular media cues through various influential media outlets and outlining the potential for resulting public effects.

Findings – The authors find that an increase in the overall media visibility of entertainment images of forensic science, coupled with news media's tendency to tie such images to real-world forensics on the local and national scenes given an absence of alternative sources for news-oriented stories, speak to the importance of the holistic examination of the role of CSI-related programming in influencing popular perceptions.

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Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-733-2

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1999

Adrian Bates

The manner in which the media reports crime stories and criminal behaviour, and how it portrays offenders, impacts upon the public perception of the type of services available to…

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Abstract

The manner in which the media reports crime stories and criminal behaviour, and how it portrays offenders, impacts upon the public perception of the type of services available to those requiring treatment, containment or training in the centres in which we work. News reporting not only shapes the views of the general public but also places in the spotlight those who work within these services.This paper examines the position of crime, and criminal or deviant behaviour in the hierarchy of newsworthiness and explores some ways in which public services are protecting themselves from the dangers of unwanted media attention.

Details

The British Journal of Forensic Practice, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6646

Content available

Abstract

Details

Place, Race and Politics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-046-4

Book part
Publication date: 19 May 2021

Katrina Clifford and Lisa Waller

The way crystal methamphetamine or ‘ice’ use in rural Australia has been represented for national television audiences provides rich evidence of the intersections between media…

Abstract

The way crystal methamphetamine or ‘ice’ use in rural Australia has been represented for national television audiences provides rich evidence of the intersections between media, crime and rurality. This chapter explores these connections through a framing analysis of three Australian television news and current affairs features about this topic. It investigates how concepts such as ‘fluidity’ and ‘boundedness’ operate in relation to the representation of ice use and drug-related crime in rural and regional communities. This raises questions about how certain images and associations come to circulate through media as well as their potential to evolve and change over time or to even be contested – sometimes by the very individuals and communities who serve as the subjects of stories about such problems in society.

Book part
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Jared S. Rosenberger, Valerie J. Callanan and Darcy Sullivan

Purpose: This study examines representations of criminal victims and offenders on television’s Law and Order, which ran for 20 years. Law and Order was praised by viewers as a…

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines representations of criminal victims and offenders on television’s Law and Order, which ran for 20 years. Law and Order was praised by viewers as a realistic and lifelike representation of the criminal justice system. Given its popularity and perceived realism, Law and Order was likely a major source of information about the criminal justice system, victims of crime, and criminals. Methodology/approach: Utilizing an ethnographic content analysis of 50 episodes of Law and Order, the data include demographic and contextual information on over 1,500 characters. The analyses in this study focus on the sociodemographic characteristics of victims and offenders in total and across time. Findings: Results find that Whites, women, and those from middle- and upper-classes were disproportionately presented as victims. Offenders were disproportionately White, male, older, and from the middle- or upper-classes. People of color were underrepresented in all roles, and Latinx characters were more likely to be portrayed in a negative light. Research limitations: The study lacks qualitative data, which would have contributed to a deeper understanding of victim and offender representations. Originality/value: The study represents the most robust content analysis of one of the most popular crime series of all time. Given the popularity and long running success of the show, it is likely that Law and Order is at least partially accountable for misconceptions and reinforcement of viewer’s misperceptions of what it means to be a “victim” and an “offender.”

Details

Mass Mediated Representations of Crime and Criminality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-759-3

Keywords

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