Media_Coverage_of_Crime

Media Coverage of Crime A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF HOW MEDIA COVERAGE OF CRIME EFFECTS CITIZNES VIEWS ON, AND FEARS OF CRIME Car-jackings and home invasions show that crime is out of control; that the crime rate is up; and violent crime is on the increase; these are all contemporary ways of expressing what is becoming an everyday fear about crime. However, is crime really on the increase or is it just media hype' The media is the major source of creating fear and having a profound effect on developing citizens view about crime. The underlying theme of this paper is that the fear of crime is constructed socially through the media. Therefore, the goal is to exemplify how the media magnifies fear and how it presents citizens a fear of crime. Police stories are one of the main staples of the media because they make a good reading. A good story is where you have conflict, a hero, a villain, and you have somebody overcoming obstacles. The police realize that they have an enormous responsibility, authority and accountability. Thus, one of the main areas where they (the police) are going to get accountability is through the media (Best, 1999: 145). The media can give a perspective crime, media, crimes, fear, police, citizens, violent, out, control, youth, news, increase, because, public, about, stories, young, society, result, reality, rates, one, moral, canada, whether, through, source, since, reports, part, order, offenders