Crime is often portrayed in mass media because of the steady supply of events (1), the ease of gathering information (2) and the inherent interest among readers and viewers (3). Mass media does not accurately reflect crime in a country or in a region because some crimes are more likely to be reported on than other crimes.
There are five factors that make events more newsworthy:
- Events that are personalized rather than abstract (i.e. the news is often about the actor than the content).
- Events that have drama and conflict.
- Events that contain action.
- Events that are novel and deviating (i.e. the more novel or uncommon an event is, the more newsworthy it is).
- Events that are linked to an ongoing theme (e.g. a crimewave).
There are subfactors that determine when an event receives coverage:
- Events that are inoffensive (i.e. events that do not outrage a lot of people).
- Events that are credible (i.e. credible sources are more likely to receive news coverage).
- Events that can be packaged as sound bites (e.g. slogans and nicknames).
- Events that have a local hook (i.e. crime that involves a person from a certain area is more likely to be reported in the area the person is from).
These factors are related to psychological processes as people attend more to things that have personal relevance (1), things that are vivid (2), things that contain action and conflict (3) and things that are novel or unexpected (4).
The consequences of this selection is that mundane events are underreported (1), violent crimes are reported more than property crimes (2) and crimes committed by strangers are reported on more (3).
Television news is often more about the visual impact of a crime than objective seriousness of the event. Fictional crimes on television are not representative for actual crimes as they grossly miscalculate how often certain crimes occur.
There is a downward trend of newspapers being published (1) and readership among adults (2). There are fewer local reports beyond what is easily available from police blotters and there are fewer in-depth investigative reports. There are also changing trends in how and what people view on television.
The Internet has the ability to remove the professional editor, publisher or producer from the information stream and make available a world-wide audience to anyone who cares to post a video, comment or analysis. This open access can also lead to fake news.
There are several relevant theories for media portrayals of crime:
- Hypodermic-needle model / Magic bullet theory / Direct effects model
This model states that the media has great power which can serve as a needle and inject ideas in the population. - Minimal effects theory / Selective processes
This model emphasizes the roles of selective exposure and selective retention in determining the effects of media messages. It states that pre-existing attitudes of the viewer guides what is attended to and what is retained. This means that media messages serve to reinforce pre-existing ideas and attitudes. - Use and gratification theory
This theory states that the viewer selects media messages to serve pre-determined purposes. - Agenda setting
This theory states that media messages set the agenda as people are not influenced by what the media says but the media does determine what people think about and thus sets the agenda. - Cultivation hypothesis
This theory states that media messages cultivate views of the world (i.e. media influences thoughts about statistics and stereotypes).
Media primarily influences people who do not already have an opinion (1), are poor (2) and have little education (3).
Media coverage of actual crimes can influence perceptions of crime prevalence and details (1) and increase fear of crime among subsets of the audience (2). Media can also emphasize crime relative to other problems leading people to believe crime is the most important issue. Media users appear to use social comparison to process crime reports (e.g. a lot of reporting of non-local crimes will make the local scene seem safer).
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