the fear factor
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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY. The Fear Factor. SOCI0067: Crime and the Media Lecture 5 Dr. L. Cho, PhD E-mail: [email protected]. Review of Earlier Lectures. Distinction. Causality. Correlation. Y comes after X and is possibly connected with it - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Fear Factor
SOCI0067: Crime and the Media Lecture 5Dr. L. Cho, PhDE-mail: [email protected]
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
Review of Earlier Lectures
Distinction
Causality X causes Y Exposure to TV violence
actually causes violent behaviour
Correlation Y comes after X and is
possibly connected with it Viewing violence on TV
can and probably does lead to violent behaviour
Trouble Proving
Strong Relationship
Example from previous lecture:Children and Media Violence
17 year study published in Science (March 29, 2002:2)
707 children from adolescence to early adulthood
Young teenagers who watch more than an hour of TV each day are nearly 4 times as likely to commit aggressive acts in later years than those who watch less than an hour
Youth and Media Violence (Note: Not Crime)
3 or more hours of TV Youths who watch 3 or
more hours of TV at age 14
Act in an aggressive manner at 16 or 20 years of age
45.2% of males and 12.7% of females acted aggressively
1 hour or less of TV 8.9% of males and 2.3%
of females acted aggressively
Many Studies, Many Conclusions
Correlation Professor L. Rowell
Huesmann, Univ of Michigan
says 50 years of evidence show “that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults later.”
No Correlation Jonathan Freeman, Univ
of Toronto “The scientific evidence
simply does not show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or desensitized them to it.”
Prior to 1970’s
Most research focused on: Connecting media to viewer aggression Note that research is usually into
aggression and violence, not into crime Aggression isn’t necessarily criminal Crime isn’t normally violent
George Gerbner and associates
Connecting media to viewer anxieties
(i.e. viewers as potential victims as oppose to potential offender)
What role do the popular media play in shaping people’s fears and anxieties about Crime?
Fear of Crime Survey
Walking in your area alone after dark is:
Very safe Fairly safe A bit unsafe Very unsafe Don’t know
United Nations International Crime Victim Survey: Crime Victimization in Hong Kong
http://www.hku.hk/socsc/news/press/2006/crime/Press%20Release_20061006.pdf
What Kind of Crimes Do You Fear Most?
Personal Crime Property Crime Consumer Fraud
United Nations International Crime Victim Survey: Crime Victimization in Hong Kong
http://www.hku.hk/socsc/news/press/2006/crime/Press%20Release_20061006.pdf
High Levels of Consumer Fraud
Do You Fear Being a Victim of Crime By:
Juveniles Ages
(ages 10-15) Young People
(ages 16-20) Mainland Illegal
Immigrants Mainland Visitors
Persons Arrested for Crime
Source: http://www.police.gov.hk/hkp-home/english/statistics/compare03.htm
What Percentage of Police Arrests are Mainland
Visitors?
Illegal Immigrants
% of Police Arrests are Mainland Visitor
0-5% 5-10% 10-15% 15-20% 25% or more
% of Police Arrests are Illegal Immigrants
0-5% 5-10% 10-15% 15-20% 25% or more
Police Arrests
Name Calling
Name 7 Chinese phrases that is associated “illegal immigrants” in HK
SCMP 1970’s Freedom-swimmers Refugee tide, flood of refugees Human cargo Intolerable strain “Break the rice bowls” of many HK workers Immigration fight to keep HK ‘clean’ Invisible illegal immigrant puzzle Soaring crime rates Vital to take firm action against illegal immigration Illegals planned career in vice Pressure on HK prison service
SCMP February 2, 1981
Exhausted, cold, hungry Depressed and weary Beggar Stiff penalties facing aider and abettors
of illegal immigrants Deportees
SCMP Dec 13, 1992
Nightmare on HK door step Human cargo Ill problem A very serious problem
SCMP June 1, 2004
Mainland prostitutes Sex workers Disgusted Grinding poverty in China Isolated Insecure Pressure
Where do our Fear of Crime come from? Personal experience Friends and family victims of
crime Politicians Perception/confidence of
Police Victimization Environment/social Disorder Subcultural diversity Social integration Mass media
Bowling for Columbine
Documentary Filmmaker Michael
Moore
Where is Columbine?
Columbine High School
Located in Littleton, Colorado
A suburb of Denver Population 40,340
(2000 census)
Bowling for Columbine
April 20, 1999 Two high school
seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
15 minute shooting spree killed 13 people and wounded 21 others
They were two weeks away from graduation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ13CZ4Hekg&feature=related
Bowling for Columbine Examines the causes of the shooting and the American ethos
that lead to it. Moore suggests that the shootings are part of a larger
American culture of fear that prompts us to act with violence He interviews:
(1) Survivors of the Columbine shooting
(2) Members of the Michigan Militia
(3) Famous and controversial rock star Marilyn Manson
(4) Dick Clark
(5) Officials at K-mart (which sold Harris and Klebold the bullets)
(6) Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association
Issues Address in Bowling for Columbine
Guns Poverty Unemployment Lack of social safety
net Violent history Racism
Violent movies Video games Rock and Roll News media Reality TV Politicians Corporations
News Media Scaring the American People
Children carrying guns, knives, nail clippers
Young people wearing baggy clothes
Crime rate going down, crime reporting going up
Infotainment reality shows like COP - blurring of news media and entertainment
Main Patterns of Crime News
Crime features prominently in the media
Often it feels like more because it is more graphic/more prominent
News value often judged by rarity
Overwhelmingly on serious violent crimes against individual
Proportion of different crimes represented is generally opposite or inverse of official stats
News Making Process
Unusualness: Man Bits Dog
Severity of Event Emotional element High Status or Celebrity Timliness: how well it fits
into news cycle Consonance: ties in with
prior news themes and established themes
Routinization
News agencies have to plan, be aware of timing, distribute resources
Balancing against unpredictable environment
Reporter’s interest Quality of information Willingness of the source
Motivating Force of Crime Stories
Individual victims Their sufferings Focus on the
criminal incident rather than analysis of crime patterns or possible causes of criminal incidents
Focus on Criminal Incidents Few details or background
material on social context Rarely put crime into larger
perspective Few analytical
comprehension of crime Lack of sustained coverage Example: Virginia Tech
Coverage – only 10 homicides annually on college campus vs 1,000 suicides
Virginia Tech Shooting April 16, 2007 Shooter Seung-Hui Cho took 33
lives, including his own Most heavily covered single story of
the year 51% of total news coverage during
week of April 15-20 One week after, from April 22-27, the
story nosedived down to 7%. By April 29-May 4, the story had
virtually disappeared from the news, generating less than 1% of the total coverage.
It never again reached more than 1% of the newshole in any week in the second quarter.
Virginia Tech Students Write: “Media Stay Away”
Exhausted by both the trauma and the press attention
Some member of the student body posted this sign
“VT stay strong. Media stay away.”
Source: http://www.journalism.org/node/7072
Assessment of U.S. News Media Crime Coverage (2007)
Over Covered Tales of missing white
women Supposed increase of
domestic violence around holiday periods
Sex offenders Drugs, prostitution
roundup, senior citizen crime victims
Under-covered ID theft White collar crime Juvenile crime and
punishment Expanding prsion
populations Non-white crime victims
Source: http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/cmcj/pdfs/CJJ_crimecoverage_2007.pdf
Gap Between Media Representation and Reality (Official Crime Stats)
Consequences and Problems
“Cultivate” Misleading View of the World (Gerbner, et al)
Exposure to television, over time, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality
Not direct effect but cumulative impact
Cultivation Analysis
Looked at how people responded to questions based on content of programmes
How much TV they watched
Cultivation Theory
Media found to exaggerate probability and severity of danger
This is said to “cultivate” image of world that is scary and mean
Leading to unnecessary anxiety about risk of violent crime
Cultivation Analysis (Gerbner)
Content analysis of US prime time TV violence compared to real world crime (official stats)
Media images found to exaggerate the probability and severity of danger
Message System Analysis
TV programmes convey certain messages by counting characteristics of crime on TV
Example: Young people
disproportionately represented as violent criminals on TV
Young people are criminals
Message: we should fear them
Cultivation Theory
Greater difference between TV portrayal and real life
Greater the cultivation potential of TV
More TV watching means more like to absorb TV’s symbolic messages
Least TV watching, least influenced
Cultivation Differential (process of social learning)
Heavy (4+hrs) and light viewers (<2 hrs) differ in how much they accept TV’s message
Heavy viewing is associated with fear of victimization
Fear of Victimization & Excessive Anxiety
Distrust of other Difficult to form
social relations Disproportionate
reaction to actual risk (e.g. not venturing out at night, hiking in parks)
Effects of Fear of Crime Ruins the sense of community Creates “no-go” areas. Rich people protecting themselves or moving from the area Lead to crime being displaced onto those already suffering. Distrust of the criminal justice system, creating sense of
helplessness Creation of vigilante groups or even lynch mobs. Change habits due to fear. Stay at home more. Avoid
“dangerous” activities: like taking public transport, walking down a certain road, being near certain “types of people” etc.
Increase Political Support for Authoritarian Solutions More police, more jails,
tougher crime laws People more fearful and
become more dependent
Easily manipulated and controlled
Susceptible to simple, tough measures to crime (e.g. Three strikes and you are out!)
Threat to Democracy
Welcome more social control and repression
Seeks to relieve anxieties and fears
Controversy Around Gerbner’s Long Term Study
Once take into account other control variables (class, race, gender, place of residence, age, actual experience with crime)
How much of the association between measures of exposure to the media and of fearfulness exists
Opposite Causal Process
Do more fearful viewers watch more TV rather than vice versa?
Locus of Control
Some researchers stress the importance of Locus of Control
Refers to the extent that the individual feels in control of his own destiny rather than pulled by some force
Other Studies: Location of Crime
Media exposure account for less in the people’s fear of crime
Greater importance given to location of crime
Location: Fear of Crime
At Home One southern US city
study Elderly black people fear
of crime at home associated with lower education achievements, loneliness, feelings neighbors to be untrustworthy and personal victimization
Media not important
Outside of Home Greater fear of crime
outside the home associated with loneliness, personally know of victims of crime, lived in high rises, watched TV a lot
Media have some influence
Other Study
Media does not cultivate fear of crime in relation to one’s immediate neighborhood
Cultivate fear of crime in society at large, distant places
Too much NYPD Blues, No NY
Study on Urban vs Neighborhood Fear Fear of crime related to
setting presented on TV Higher level of urban
fear related to watching more TV and watching more crime drama
Fear of neighborhood crime unrelated to amount and type of TV viewing
Newspapers Findings
Different pattern than TV
Public’s fear of fear higher when there is high coverage of local crime news
Local news in papers conducive to greater fear of crime
Perceived Reality of TV a Better Predictor of Cultivation Effect
Cultivation effect depends on sophistication of viewers
Those who doubt reality of TV portrayals less susceptible to cultivation effect
Susceptibility depends more on if viewers see TV as accurate representation of real life.
Are they critical of TV, identify with certain characters on TV
In Sum
Evidence show that media cultivates fear of crime
However, in minor and limited way