Effects Of Crime Reporting In The Media

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Crime Reporting: crime appeared in the media in the mid-1600s. Crime had been only shown as entertainment. Crime had taken over to media to an extent to where it was asked, how much does media have on the perception of crime, or how real was the stuff that was put out in the media that the media showed. “In the 1950s, studies were conducted to determine whether there was any correlation between the frequency with which crime was reported by the media, and actual official crime statistics. These studies revealed disturbing results. There was no relationship between official crime statistics and crime as reported in the media’ and also the public’s perception of crime depended almost exclusively what was read in the newspaper (David, F.J. (1952). …show more content…

Dixon and Linz (2002) found that African-Americans defendants were twice as likely as White-American defendants to have negative pretrial publicity aired about them on news programs when their victims were White Americans. These studies, as well as a number of others all argue that African-Americans are portrayed as perpetrators of crime while White-Americans are portrayed as victims of crimes in crime news. Stereotypes “Stereotypes are pictures in our heads about a category of people (Lippmann 1922).More specifically, stereotypes are positive or negative sets of beliefs held by an individual about the characteristics of a group. These beliefs vary in their accuracy. For example, a common stereotype about Hispanics is that they are uneducated. Indeed, only about II percent of Hispanics over twenty-five years of age have college degrees, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. In the Black-Brown survey sample, the median educational level of Hispanics is ten years compared to twelve years for African Americans. In general, the educational attainment level of Hispanics is amongst the lowest of any group in the United States. Not all of that is true only a percentage of Hispanics are not educated, but mostly are and have a

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