Media & Crime
Labelling theory
Howard Becker 1963. He conducted a study on marijuana users
and soon realised they were referred to as hippy users and we
outcast within society due to the nature of their label.
People are not inherently deviant until a label is attached to them
and society then react. For example, if we label a person as
deviant, they believe the label and act upon it.
Furedi
Furedi suggests that Moral panic occurs. “At a time when society
has not been able to adapt to dramatic changes”.
The social construction of news
News values that influence selection are:
Immediacy: breaking news
Dramatization: action and excitement
Personalisation: human interest stories about individuals
Higher status: persons and celebrities
Simplification: eliminating shades of grey
Novelty or unexpectedness: a new angle
Risk: victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear
Violence: especially visible and spectacular acts
Since crime or deviance is abnormal behaviour, it will always be
newsworthy.
News Values
Extraordinariness: rare, unpredictable, and surprising events
have more newsworthiness than routine events.
Threshold: the ‘bigger’ the size of the event, the more likely it
is to be reported
Unambiguity: the simpler the event, the more likely it is to be
reported.
Reference to elite persons: events surrounding the famous
and the powerful are often seen as more newsworthy
Personalisation: if events can be personalised easily, they are
more likely to get into the news
Negativity: bad news is regarded as more newsworthy than
good news.
Labelling theory
Howard Becker 1963. He conducted a study on marijuana users
and soon realised they were referred to as hippy users and we
outcast within society due to the nature of their label.
People are not inherently deviant until a label is attached to them
and society then react. For example, if we label a person as
deviant, they believe the label and act upon it.
Furedi
Furedi suggests that Moral panic occurs. “At a time when society
has not been able to adapt to dramatic changes”.
The social construction of news
News values that influence selection are:
Immediacy: breaking news
Dramatization: action and excitement
Personalisation: human interest stories about individuals
Higher status: persons and celebrities
Simplification: eliminating shades of grey
Novelty or unexpectedness: a new angle
Risk: victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear
Violence: especially visible and spectacular acts
Since crime or deviance is abnormal behaviour, it will always be
newsworthy.
News Values
Extraordinariness: rare, unpredictable, and surprising events
have more newsworthiness than routine events.
Threshold: the ‘bigger’ the size of the event, the more likely it
is to be reported
Unambiguity: the simpler the event, the more likely it is to be
reported.
Reference to elite persons: events surrounding the famous
and the powerful are often seen as more newsworthy
Personalisation: if events can be personalised easily, they are
more likely to get into the news
Negativity: bad news is regarded as more newsworthy than
good news.
