Criminology Topic 2

Media And Terrorism

• Four main Aspects (Areas Of Research): 1. Firstly, the impact that Mass media has on criminal behaviour

through its portrayal of: • crime, • violence, • death and aggression. 2. The ability of the mass media and the impact when it portray certain

groups as outsiders distorting reality and unjustly stereotyping them.

3.When the mass media causes ‘moral panics’ by targeting or inflating an issue .

4. Also whether real crime and fictional crime impact the viewer in the same manner1.

1. Newburn, T.(2013) Criminology , Routledge, p85

1.Books/Magazines/Newspapers

2.TV Shows

3.TV News

4.Social networking sites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Types Of Media

• ‘Moral Panics’

• ‘Mods and Rockers’

• Stan Cohen-

‘Moral Panic is a disproportionate and hostile reaction to a condition, person or group defined as a threat to societal values, involving stereotypical media representations and leading to demands for greater social control and creating a spiral of reaction’.

Examples way muslims are portrayed

Mass Media

• Terrorism

• Knife crime

• Paedophilia

• Early release of offenders

• ‘Soft’ sentencing

• Immigration

• ASBOs

• Dangerous dogs

• Foxes

Types Of Moral Panics

Binge-drinking • Often portrayed in the media as getting

worse however actual statistics show decreasing alcohol related assaults at time

• This perception of binge drinking influenced the Licensing Act 2003 which was justified in part by received logic of reducing alcohol fuelled violence.

• The attempt was to disperse the times people would drink throughout the 24 hours of a day

Yvonne Jewkes research shows that there is a Concept of ‘Newsworthiness’. This newsworthiness influences on what news organisation’s chose to report on

- Yvonne Jewkes (2004)

-Violence – Over reporting

-Simplification – Many disasters quickly linked to terrorist activity

-Celebrity – Latest’s affairs and Scandals

-Children – Sexualisation of Children

-Spectacle – e.g.?

-Proximity – Murders in the town

-Political Diversion – Rightwing will often claim that the government are not being tough enough on sentencing

• Jewkes, Y. (2004) Media and Crime London: Sage

–‘Don’t have nightmares....’ •Is fear increased/decreased •What is more important, fear or actual crime?2

Media’s Portrayal Of Crime

The emergence of crime programming such as crimewatch have an affect the way crime is viewed, the re anactment of crime may increase fear

Legislation and media-low concordance

• Legislation and media do not always act according to current research-

• The Royal Society report-Age of criminal responsibility 'too low', experts say

Some parts of the brain are not fully mature "until at least the age of 20“

Bandura- The Bobo Doll Experiment Bandura’s experiment involved, a male model hitting a large inflatable doll in front of a child in a room. Child then had opportunity to play with a range of toys, including the doll whilst the adult was present. When kids were playing without the model they were watched through the one way mirror and the number of violent incidents noted. Results: It was found that Higher levels of aggression from participants who saw the model of same sex/ Boys performed more aggressive acts/ Comments from kids indicated their awareness of what was appropriate/ Kids who saw model punished showed lower levels of aggression than when model was rewarded./When asked to reproduce behaviour, majority were able to do so regardless of whether the model had been punished .Kids had learned the behaviour, even if they didn’t imitate it. Analysis Bandura’s results over-stressed the power of models.{Leading Actions} Kids may have thought that they had to copy behaviour when they saw the same toy after. Research shown in real life situations, with other humans, kids showed much lower levels of aggression. Ethical concerns- To conduct studies such as the imitation of aggression or effect of media in encouraging aggression with any validity it would cause ethical issues. -Teaching kids to be aggressive, How can you distinguish between aggression and play fighting ?. Research from Cumberbatch contradicts this found that kids who had not seen the inflatable doll before were 5 times more likely to imitate aggresion than kids who had played with it before. Suggests higher levels of aggression were related to novelty value of toy. Gauntlett (2008) argues that people, especially children, do not behave as naturally under laboratory conditions as they would in their everyday environment, e.g. children’s media habits are generally influenced and controlled by parents, especially when they are very young. Fails to take into account of biological factors

Media Influence

• Norris (1996), claims that media coverage of political issues can influence voting behaviour.- So therefore if a political issue such as terrorism is heavily focused on, voters will as a consequence of this vote for the political party who may be seen as having a proactive approach towards terrorism

• McCabe and Martin (2005) concluded that media violence has a disinhibition effect – it convinces children that in some social situations,

the ‘normal’ rules, involved in conflict removed. i.e. which are normally discussion and negotiation (methods to avoid violence pushed aside) in thinking that these can be replaced with violence with no repercussions/no consequences.

Firstly, the impact that Mass media has on criminal behaviour through its portrayal of:

crime, violence, death and aggression.

However-Criticisims Fesbach and Sanger (1971) found that screen violence can actually provide a safe outlet for people’s aggressive tendencies. This is known as catharsis. They suggest that watching an exciting film releases aggressive energy into safe outlets as the viewers immerse themselves in the action. Young (1981), argues that seeing the effects of violence and especially the pain and suffering that it causes to the victim and their families, may make us more aware of its consequences and so less inclined to commit violent acts. Sensitisation to certain crimes therefore may make people more aware and responsible so that they avoid getting involved in violence.

Classification System

The fear of the media’s portrayal of violence, is evident in the creation of organisations such as the British Board of Film Classification, in which age ratings are given on films, to restrict the audience. Now, the restriction of the audience conveys that the depiction of violence has an effect on behaviour and criminality. This has been extended to video games with the Video game classification system such as PEGI, Pan European Game Information. This can be criticized because certain research studies do not support that violence has an effect on human behaviour Public executions were a commonplace in England, however whether they had an serious impact on the population is arguable.

Portayal of Police

Dixon of Dock Green

• The police officer in the 1960’s portrayed as a nice, clumsy helpful gentleman

The Bill

• Police officer’s (2000)authorative and promiscuous

– P olice Interceptors

– Tough

– Equipped

– Armed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDcpSH4lzPw&feature=more_related

• Why did the officers attend?

• Why were the men arrested?

• Was the media a neutral actor in this scenario?

• Considering now the G20 footage, what does this say about the ‘surveillance society?’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ

Terrorism

• There are two approaches to this:

Absolutist Approach-In which terrorism is always viewed as deviant, regardless of the circumstance

Constructivist approach:

‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’- Dependant on the situation and context

– Consider

» Allied saboteurs in France during WWII

» American ‘minute men’ during War of Independence

» Nelson Mandela

» Martin McGuiness

• Terrorism is no longer just a local problem with the advent of globalisation, boarders are now more open, its now much easier to fly across countries, ease of access

• So the response to this could be to have either: – Traditional policing methods or extreme measures?:

• Al Queda:

– Guantanamo bay – Control orders/’Terrorism Investigation and Prevention Measures’ – ‘Waterboarding’ and other torture

• N.I. Troubles(1969 -1996 +): During the time when England were involved in the Northern Ireland disputes know as the Troubles, various strict measures were introduced

» Under Operation Demetrius, Internment without trial was introduced in which over 300 were arrested who were suspected to be involved with the IRA

» Abolition of trial by jury (certain scheduled offences )‘Diplock Courts’- consisted of one judge 1) danger of perverse acquittals, and, 2) jurors had been threatened, "of which we have had ample evidence"

» Brutal methods of interrogation were implented (won ECHR case against UK) » Shoot to kill policy was implemented (won ECHR case against UK)

Terrorism Now Global

• Wars fought semi-conventionally to avert a potential

terrorist threat – Chiefly Iraq and Afghanistan but also

• Libya?? (air only) • Mali (France)

We have met the concept of the commodification of private security but also now Military operations have been to an extent commodified and sold off.

• Private military contractors provide some armed personnel to protect • key installations and people as well as logistical and consultancy

support.

Terrorism and the ‘New Wars’

Definition Of Terrorism

• Ted Robert Gurr (Political Scientist)-“The use of unexpected violence to intimidate or coerce people in the pursuit of political or social objectives.”

Terrorism And Media

• We finish by briefly considering current representations of the so-called ‘War on Terror’ and international terrorism,

as this is perhaps the best method of illustrating some of the ways in which the globalised and complex role of the media now operates. - A number of aspects of this conflict provide vivid examples of some of the

newer characteristics of the mediatised world we now inhabit - For example, the live broadcasting of the planes crash into the World Trade

Center 9/11 - Also the use of the internet by islamic extremists to publish films of execution

of hostages, - Also the digital photographs of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib Each of these prior examples highlights and shows how central the media has become to the promulgation (promote or make widely known) of such conflict- and a world away from the moment in 1985 when the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -’democracies must find a way to starve the terrorists and hijackers of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend’

Broadcasting

Sinn Fein- Broadcasting ban, had their words spoken by an actor rather than being able to appear themselves.

Cottle 2006- 911 broadcasting- ‘a calculated act of political communication enacted on a global stage’-communicated that America is not immune from attack and also foreign policy would be violently opposed.

Also the war in Iraq was also fought, in part with the help of the media-from initial ‘Shock and Awe’ bombing campaign in Iraq which lit up the night sky-provided Dramatic Tv+ Newspaper Pictures

-Furthermore to the symbolic topping of the statues of Saddam Hussein images of his capture and execution.

Media and Wars

Although historically propaganda has always been involved in wars. Kaldor 1999- emergence of the new wars has seen role of media

transformed-With the embedding of journalists so that they worked alongside troops-providing ‘rolling news’ coverage as war unfolded in Iraq-was much different from previous conflicts-media independence questioned?

Eve of Iraq war-directive issued, no media coverage of dead military personnel. However broadcasting of beheading allowed and exploited

Brown 2003- Access to media through technology-’reduced the ability of national governments to define events for their citizens’

Vietnam war-footage of american coffins=decreased trust in President

Lyndon Johnson &war