FEAR OF CRIME

Discuss the Extent To Which The Media Impacts On The Fear Of Crime.

Discuss the Extent To Which The Media Impacts On The Fear Of Crime.

Introduction

The media represent the set of information, official and unofficial, that pay daily on the population in order to influence the ideas, the psychological positions, and the opinion. In each state, there are official channels of information, say institutional, such example, the state television, and there are channels that can respond to business needs other than institutional. Both types can affect events political, economic and social structures of a country to represent them as a power (the fourth that of the printed page, the fifth of the television) and give voice to the interests of this power (Thompson Burns 2000, p. 409).

Often, turning to the general public, provide a very simplified version of complex, real world, surely minimizing the amount of information offered. The ability of the media is to provide the minimum information that can then allow someone to complete it and enrich it with personal opinions, personal knowledge, personal ways of feeling and thinking. Often the media are run of the charges relate to antisocial and criminal behavior with the statement that with the video and the press will convey stories, pictures and violent, aggressive, too full of illegal content.

Discussion

The focus on the coverage of certain types of crimes may significantly influence opinion public from crime, at least in regard to the perception the relative importance of certain types of crimes. The researchers found that the trends presented by the media meet, not to statistics compiled by the police. The distribution crimes on television would be even more distant from police statistics as presented in the papers.

Even, if, these researchers do not claim that television has a major impact on the public perception of crime, they nevertheless indicate that, with respect to the relative distribution of crimes reported, perception of public opinion is closer to the presentation of the media than the police (Sotirovic 2001, p. 311). The fact that the media give more coverage to certain types of crimes would also be a cause to explain why, despite a relatively low crime rate in Ireland, the Irish have the impression of a crisis of crime. According to Signorielli (2000, p. 85), poor public perception is due to a distorted picture of crime in the media. His study, from of articles published in Irish newspapers, argues that the media affect the appearance of crime in four ways:

By reporting more numerous extreme or exceptional crimes.

Giving a lot of space to serious crimes.

By choosing more crimes involving vulnerable victims and criminals invulnerable.

In being pessimistic all that relates to the justice system.

If journalists interviewed maintain that for the organized crime, the media, in general, simply relate the facts-however, they confirm that some subjects on priority over to others. This selection is performed in response to the public interest. There is thus a form of consensus between the media and public opinion public place ...