Impact of Media of Crime
Impact of Media of Crime
Introduction
It is worth mentioning that the media is a vital resource that allows for the dissemination of information on safety and crime to the public. In this case, it is important that the news coverage provides accurate and unbiased facts about a crime that would be beneficial to crime control. However, research reveals that the media has contributed to poor diagnosis of crime related issues and more so, inappropriate and ineffective formulation of prevention strategies. The essay presents findings on the impact of the media of crime. Furthermore, it offers a discussion on the proposals for controlling media precipitation of the offense. In essence, the media has hampered the crime prevention strategies through the inadequate dissemination of information on crime-related issues.
The media may hinder the crime prevention policies during collection and broadcasting of information about offenses. Notably, the media’s representation of crime-related issues may negatively influence people’s perceptions about the vices, which would then interfere with the development and implementation of the policies and prevention strategies (Capobianco, 2008). In essence, the news coverage of crime may be biased or inaccurate, thus causing inappropriate formulation of solutions to the offenses. In this case, the key concern is that the key attributes of the media may not always provide useful knowledge and information for crime prevention.
In most cases, the processing of information through the media of often fast-paced, short-term, and provides surface level research. In this case, this limits the kind of knowledge and may disregard critical issues about crime. For instance, news reports on criminal offenses often focus on the scene of the offense, the victim, and the offender. More so, little attention is devoted in-depth knowledge of the context of how victimization or offending occurs (Capobianco, 2008). For this reason, the rapid assessment and analysis of crime outcomes and trends hinder firm diagnosis of the offense and more so prevent the formulation of long-term strategies to crime control and prevention.
What are some proposals for controlling media precipitation of crime?
In essence, government, media, and community partnership may build an effective communication policy that would help control the media precipitation of crime. In essence, by working together through a democratic system, the government would involve the journalists in a local coalition to stimulate civic journalism that would contribute to crime prevention (Capobianco, 2008). In this case, the authority would partner with the leading media personalities and use them as a tool to report accurate information about crime relate issues. In this case, broad diagnosis to offenses would be enabled and reliable information communicated through the media thus enabling formulation of appropriate prevention measures.
The media would be used as a tool that contributes to broadcasting material on safety and self-protection techniques against crime. For instance, the platform would be used to foster campaigns on residential burglary and teach the public on prevention measures (Werner, 2015). In this case, the media would be a useful platform that covers on various types of residential crime and how the public can participate in the control and prevention of such vices.
Conclusion
The media has hampered the crime prevention strategies through the inadequate dissemination of information on crime-related issues. Through inaccurate and biased sharing of knowledge about the vice, the authority may formulate inappropriate and ineffective policies to crime prevention. Also, the faced paced and shallow research on various offenses hinders formulation and implementation of stable and long-term measures to crime control. Proposals for managing media precipitation on criminality suggests that the government, the media, and the community should work together to form a solid communication policy that would promote civic journalism. In this case, the public would receive accurate information on crime and the government would formulate reliable strategies to crime prevention.
References
Capobianco, L. (2008). The media, crime prevention and urban safety: A brief discussion on media influence and areas for further exploration. Compared Analysis Report, 1-14.
Werner, E. (2015). Media effects on attitudes towards the criminal justice system. East Tennessee State University, 1-29.