Unit 1 AC1.4 Describe Media Representations Of Crime
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Course
Changing Awareness of Crime
Institution
WJEC
Unit 1 AC1.4 full marks that I used in my controlled assessment and I received an A*. This writeup was marked by my 2 criminology teachers who are also Criminology Examiners.
AC1.4 Writeup Describe Media Representation of Crime
Newspaper
One media representation of crime is in newspapers. Newspapers often devote a lot of space to
crime stories such as stabbings, shootings, murder and terrorist attacks. A newspaper may usually
designate the front page for major crime events or situations such as a terrorist attack or a high
profile murder. The use of images and captions are used to show events as they go on. There are
two types of newspapers that generally report crime, tabloids and broadsheets. Tabloids are image
led newspapers and tend to be sensationalist and are often ‘negative’ in reporting. They have less
words in their stories, so they tend to be less factual and use language which summarises the crime
in a more exaggerated way and sometimes there can be inaccuracies. Broadsheets are text led, they
have more words and tend to be more factual and informative. The difference between the two is
that Broadsheets offer an in depth analysis about the crime whereas tabloids are considered as
‘infotainment’.
One example of a crime that was reported in Broadsheets and Tabloids is the 2017 Barcelona
terrorist attack. In the Sun (a well-known tabloid) the first page featured a flashy title “Barcelona
B*st**ds” with little information as to what happened. It simply told readers to go to pages 4,5,6,7
to fully know the story. However in The Times (a well-known broadsheet) there was a much more
reasonable title “Evil Strikes Again” with a small image instead of a whole cover image in The Sun
and there was lots of text explaining the situation and giving eye witness accounts on the first page.
This is a clear example of where broadsheets offer in depth analysis of a situation whereas tabloids
only give little snippets of information and are image based. Another example of this can be seen in
the London Bridge Terror Attack.
Tabloids also have a lot of Dramatic Fallacy where they only cover crimes that are extraordinary or
crimes that are shocking and forget that smaller crimes occur or become disinterested in smaller
crimes. This can be proven as they are known as ‘Infotainment’. Therefore tabloids do not provide a
true representation of crime.
Television
While newspapers report ‘real’ crimes, TV broadcasts both crime news and crime fiction. Crime
Fiction often portrays violence, a motive that is based on the character such as greed and typically
the offender is a psychopath or a stranger. The victims are usually vulnerable people and the
audience are encouraged to identify with the victim. An example of a crime series is ‘DAHMER’. This
is a series depicting the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. Whilst this is a real crime, making it somewhat
realistic, it shows the dramatic fallacy because it shows the most extreme behaviour. It also shows
the ingenuity fallacy because a very popular actor plays Dahmer, possibly making people more
sympathetic to him. Crime news is local or national coverage reporting a crime that happened. It
typically focuses on reporting violent crime and offenders and victims are mostly portrayed as older
or middle class vulnerable people. They can sometimes show class fallacy and age fallacy.
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