Youth, Crime and MediaMEP208

11. Crime Reporting: Representations and Restrictions

Do the media just report crime?

Specialist role of the court reporter Role of gatekeepers, especially police Media as a vehicle to foster public

awareness, fear and condemnation e.g. Anti Social Behaviour Orders, newsworthiness of violent crime

‘Real crime’ as media entertainment

Crime and court reporting

“a court reporter has to remember to do nothing to prejudice a fair trial. This is the basis of the strict rules of contempt of court” (Clother 1998: 205)

Three conditions: all reports must be…1. Accurate2. Balanced3. Contemporaneous

Gatekeepers as informants

Specialist court reporters are able to develop important contacts / sources

Police secrecy is favoured because reporters are more likely to secure exclusivity to a particular case (Chibnall 1981)

Defendants, prosecutors, witnesses, etc. can be interviewed but only reported on after the trial has concluded

Journalist restrictions

Crime reporters will frequently receive restriction orders on what they can report, such as:

Names and places of residence of persons involved in the trial

Certain evidence deemed inconclusive In some instances, whole cases until

verdicts have been passed

Media as public vehicle for the ‘name and shame’ culture

Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003: ‘Intimidating’ groups of two or more young

people can be dispersed Noise and graffiti are criminalised Local authorities given powers to close

noisy pubs and clubs Media allowed to name ‘anti-social’ kids

(Muncie 2004)

Consequences of ASBOs

According to Young and Matthews (2003) the public have become more intolerant of ever-widening deviant behaviour (as defined by law enforcement agencies)

Fear and loathing of young people has increased as an outcome of ASBOs

Consequences of news reporting about violent crime

Content analysis of news shows major differences between offences, victims and offenders represented by media compared to official crime statistics (Reiner 2002)

In one month of 1989, 64.5% of UK news crime stories dealt with violent crime but crime surveys found that only 6% of reported crimes were violent (Williams and Dickenson 1993: 40)

The media construction of ‘mugging’ as a crime problem justifies more punitive sentencing of offenders (Hall et al 1978)

‘Real crime’ television Crime Scene Investigations: fascination with

the ‘hidden’ activities of criminal investigators CCTV provides cheap, popular, highly ‘realist’

programming e.g. Police, Camera, Action Crimewatch and Crimestoppers: media

producers work alongside investigators to reconstruct and solve crimes

Media content and imagery may distort statistical evidence (the BBC’s Crimewatch tells its audience ‘Don’t have nightmares’) – there is disproportionate media coverage of violent crime (Marsh 1991)