Media Misconception Of Crime

Large proportions of news coverage are on crime (Bissler & Conners, 2012). Most news television and newspaper coverage tend to be on crime or deviant behaviour. However, the accuracy of these crime reported by the media are often over-represented. Ditton & duffy, (1983) conducted a research study and found that 46% of media reports covered mostly sexual and violent crime, but in actuality, only 3% of these recorded crimes were legitimate so big disparity between what is real and what is over exaggerated. Bissler & Conners, (2012) stated that personal crimes such as sexual and violent crimes were 36 times more likely to be reported by the media than property, inchoate and statuary crimes. There is this idea that there are only certain types

Furthermore, another exaggerated representation of crime by the media is this overemphasis of extraordinary crimes. Felson & Eckert, (2015) discusses the 2 main fallacies about crime, these focus on misconception of crime. The ‘Dramatic fallacy’ is the focus on drama crime that are shocking. Felson & Eckert states that “The media are carried away by a horror-distortion sequence” they find a story that entertains the public and also make profit while forming a fairy tales in the minds of the public then carry on this fable into the next story. While this is happening, the public misconception of crime grow therefore, it is no accident that crime becomes so distorted in the public mind (Felson & Eckert, 2015). Also, the Ingenuity fallacy is where it is falsely believed that you have to be very clever to either commit certain crimes or to solve them however, the majority of the people who commit these crimes are normal everyday people for their personal reasons. SACCO, (1995) looked at these ideas of how fictional crime is represented and how there is a ‘law of opposite’ thus it is closer to news than it is to

“Criminologist have shown that the media portrayal of crime distorts reality to make people worry about the least common crime and increase fear of crime” (eg;1992) also states that it is down to the individual meanings of viewers. It is a interpretivist view that we have to take into consideration what every single person takes from what they are watching. Because of the way in which the media are encouraged to report crime, the incident can eventually seem more dangerous that it initially was. For example, the way in which the Mate Ma’a Tonga team were reported about during the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. For many Tongans, and Pacific Islanders in general, the Mate Ma’a Tonga team were loved and cherished for making history by qualifying for the semi-finals at the 2017 Rugby world cup. Traditionally, the way in which Tongans, and Pacific Islanders alike, celebrate this was through loud and vibrant gatherings with people dancing and cheering. (link to actual traditional celebration). However, majority of articles that were released by the media were seen to be dramatize any violence or disruption that occurred. For example, articles released by stuff.co.nz & newshub.co.nz expressed how Tongan rugby league fans cause problems in