1771876024 - Op, Yu How media influence public perception about crime PDF

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How media influence public perception about crime Student name Institutional name Course name Professors name Date

Abstract Most of the media coverage tends to develop distorted perceptions about crimes in the public domain. Other media tend to exaggerate the threat of the crimes and unreasonably raise the public fear of crime. In most instances, the reported issue is exaggerated and may lead to moral panic among the public This study focuses on how media coverage of crimes affects the public perception. It seeks to answer the following questions: (1) Does the public's perception of crime is influenced by what they see and listen to from media? (2) Does the public's perception of crime is varied because of different media coverage about crime news? (3) Does the public's attitudes toward police's efficiency on releasing crime information being affected by media they read or listened to or seen the crimes? This research study is a quasi-study that aims to provide a cause and effect association between an independent variable and the dependent variables. It will investigate the association between the reporting of mass media which is a d independent variable with public perception about the crime which is a dependent variable on how media portrays crimes. This research will involve the random sampling design which will entail 500 participants out of a population of 250,000. This study will target American citizens between the age of 20 to 55 and a sample size of 500 respondents will be involved in the study. This research would help change the policies in criminal justice that would require professionalism in media reporting about crimes.

Introduction

Media coverage about crimes changes the perception of the public about the crimes being discussed. Most of the media coverage tends to develop distorted perceptions about crimes in the public domain. Other media tend to exaggerate the threat of the crimes and unreasonably raise the public fear of crime (Doyle, 2006). In most instances, the reported issue is exaggerated and may lead to moral panic among the public. This study focuses on how media coverage of crimes affects public perception. This study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Does the public's perception of crime is influenced by what they see and listen to from media? 2. Does the public's perception of crime being varied because of different media coverage about crime news? 3. Does the public's attitude toward police's efficiency on releasing crime information being affected by media they read or listened to or seen the crimes? Media misinterpretations create partisan perceptions of crime among majority members of the public. In most instances, media tends to change the way people take about certain crimes through their reporting where the public is most informed about the happening of the crime how it happened, how serious the crime is, and the outcomes of the crime Pfeiffer et al., 2005). This study is significant as it will help to understand the importance of media in crime prevention if the reporting is done professionally without any biasness. Also, this study will help determine why the members of the public have certain attitudes to certain crimes. Moreover, this topic will be significant to understand how media creates moral panic about society about various crimes. Finally, this research would help to formulate the role of media in the criminal and justice system. This study will first begin with analyzing the literature review about various researchers about media influence on public perceptions about crime. Secondly, this research paper will

evaluate the hypothetical section that will include the target population, sampling design, and data collection. Literature Review The current research proposal focuses on the topic of how media affects the public perception of crimes. As such this literature review is designated to focus on the previous studies and the government and media statistics about this topic. This study about how media influence crimes and the public perception about crimes has been a topic of international interest which has seen many scholars conduct research to determine how media influences the public perception about crime. This literature review will involve the examination of peer-reviewed journals and articles that have been conducted to examine how media influences the public perception about various crimes as per the reporting by the media. The topic within the peer-reviewed journal article: (1) media creates distorted perception about public crimes; (2) media increases the public fear through exaggerating crimes, (3) insights people to engage in such crimes. Furthermore through reviewing the governmental and media statistics about the influences of the media impact on coverage of crimes to the public and how media change the public perception about crimes. The methodology and findings are briefly reviewed in the studies, media, and government publications that focus entirely or partly on this topic. However, at least one methodological strength and weakness will be identified and also support why the current topic of this research proposal is necessary to conduct further research and expand on this topic Study 1: Public Perception of Crime and Attitudes toward Police: Examining the Effects of Media News This study involves the examination of how the newspapers and journals reporting of crime influence public perception. The research involved two stages namely the first stage and

the second. In the first stage, the research examines the amount of space and eminence given to crime, and it majorly focuses on sexual violence crimes and the violent crimes in Hong Kong of their most circulated daily newspaper. The second stage of this study involved a research questionnaire survey of determining the association between the newspapers reporting of crime and the fear of crimes among the public. Also, it investigates the newspaper reporting of crime and attitudes of the public towards the police competency on realizing crimes details to the public (Chan & Chan, 2012). Disputes among the content of the newspaper where the newspaper is categorized as non-sensational. There was steady reporting that the results of the study showed that the dramatic newspaper was inclined to influence public perception of fear of crime and attitude towards police negatively than the non-dramatic type of newspapers. The methodology of this research that was involved was the quantitative research methods and data was collected through surveys. Content analysis was used to investigate the variation between the reporting styles in numerous newspapers and thus the content analysis was effective in the study to ascertain the uniqueness of the different types of newspaper and newspaper presentation to assess how the presentation had an impact on the readers on fear about crimes (Chan & Chan, 2012). The results showed a connection between the media presentation about crimes and how the various newspapers reported about various crimes where the sensational was found to have more impact on the fear of the public about crimes. This methodology helps to determine the connection between how media can influence the public perception of crimes. However, the content analysis may give accurate data about the changes in people's thoughts. Study 2: The public perception of crime prevalence, newspaper readership and ‘mean world’ attitudes

This study investigated the relationship between the newspaper influence on the crimes and how they affect individual perceptions. The research proposal involved the studying of the Irish population and the research involved 623 participants who were to give their views on the seriousness of suitable penalties for 10 crimes scenarios. The study assessed the participant's risk perceptions of crime by asking for estimates of the occurrence of the same 10 offenses scenarios as compared to five years previously reported by the newspapers. In the study experience of crime victimization and socio-demographic data were also collected (O'Connell & Whelan, 1996). The results of the study relived that the beliefs about crimes occurrence were found to be independent of official crime rates, personal experience of victimization, and sociodemographical categories. Most of the aspects found to have a connection with the crime beliefs were sex, age, and newspaper readership which were found to be the strongest forecaster of crime prevalence estimates. Moreover, support for the role of the media was proposed by the clustering of the number of cruel world views toward crime. The methodological method used in this study was the quantitative data analysis which was used to determine the association of media influence on public beliefs about crimes. The data was collected from interviewing process and involved 623 participants who were to give their views about the best suitable punishment that would be efficient for certain crimes (O'Connell & Whelan, 1996). Data were analyzed in quantitative methods and qualitative methods which showed that age, gender, and media affected people's perception of crime. This methodology is significant as it helps to analyze data through considerations of various factors and how they affect the individual perception of crime. However, some participants may give their thoughts based on other factors away from media influence. Study 3: Media’s Influence on the Perception of Criminal Justice

This article examines the mass media's influence on the criminal justice system. The article investigates how the media impacts the public perception of the criminal justice system by examining the previous studies on the topic to lure their conclusions (Surette, 1998). The article examines the prime-time television and print media explanations about the public perception of the criminal justice system in the 1980s. The results of the study were that media portrayals of the justices system have changed over the years. also, it was evident that mass media plays a major role in the coverage of the correction process through the news and prime-time TV shows which affects the public perception about crimes through distorting the line of fiction and reality moreover, the result of the study showed that news media and entertainment media support each other to promote the idea that crime is instant and a public threat. The study concluded that the media directors play a major role in determining the perception of the public about the crimes and thus the criminal justice professionals should examine how the director's act in the criminal justice system. The research methodology used in this study is the qualitative methodology and data was collected from secondary sources namely the existing studies and newspapers. Data was then analyzed in qualitative analyses to determine the themes that were evident in this study and how each affects the public perception about the crimes and the entire criminal justice system (Surette, 1998). The methodology helps to analyze the already existing data and thus the inference made is accurate. However, it does not take into account the current issues in media reporting and their effects on the public.

Study 4: News media and crime perceptions: Evidence from a natural experiment

According to these studies democracies' voters rely on the media channels to learn about politically prominent issues. The study tries to answer the question about how media can affect public perceptions about crimes. The study investigates how the introduction of the digital TV signal in Italy affects the public perception about crimes and the effects of media persuasion on the perceptions that individuals hold about crimes the study focuses on the crime perceptions that the viewers generate from the viewing of data and content generated from channels and shows showing a high level of crime which tend to reduce individual concerns about crime (Mastrorocco & Minale, 2018). The study involved participants at age of fifty and above who are more exposed to television and rarely use other sources of information often. Finally, it examines the evidence about the effect of digital introduction on public policies are connected to crime perception and the voting behavior The study methodology of this research proposal used was the quantitative research methods which were used to research how the old perceive crimes through the watching of television. The data was analyzed through a quantitative method where crime perception was correlated to the rate of television watching the news and shows that are related to crime and how they changed the perception of the viewers (Mastrorocco & Minale, 2018). The strength of this study method is that it collected the exact information as most of the people in this age group view television for most of their time. The weakness of this study methodology is the involvement of just the old in the study group and also limiting media with just television. Study 5: Picturing immigration: how the media criminalizes immigrant This study examines how the media criminalizes immigrants. It shows how the media can trigger fear more so in immigrants. This study examines the images of immigrants, borders, and lawfulness in the media coverage of immigration. The study collected a dataset of photos that

were appearing on three main national news newspapers articles about immigration in the United States between 2000 and 2010. The study coded the images based on whether the images include the visual representations of the border and immigration implementation whether unlawful and criminal conduct is shown or implied and the actions in which the immigrants are involved (Farris et al., 2018). The results of the study showed that the media usually portrayed immigrants as undocumented, showing images of the border and immigrants being arrested and detained. Also, when the immigrants were working they were presented to be involved in unskilled or low skilled activities. That it was evident that the media tends to frame immigrants in a negative portrait as framed as a threat to national security which is wrong as compared it immigrant record. The finding of this research is significant as they establish how this portrayal by media changes the public perception about immigrants and contribute to a more hostile attitude about immigration in the United States and how it backs the penal immigration policies among the whites. The methodology of that study is the qualitative analysis which was used to investigate how newspapers and magazines change the public perception about immigrants by terming it as a crime that results in violence. They analyze the images by coding to determine the information that the images hold about the immigrants (Farris et al., 2018). This methodology is significant as it portrays how media can influence even non-criminal aspects to be termed as criminal by the public. However, this study fails to critically show how the media influences the readers to have a negative attitude about immigrants. Hypothetical Method Section This research study is a quasi-study that aims to provide a cause and effect association between an independent variable and the dependent variables (Eliopoulos et al., 2005). It will

investigate the association between the reporting of mass media which is a d independent variable with public perception about the crime which is a dependent variable on how media portrays crimes. Then the study will utilize mixed methods on data as data will involve both qualitative and quantitative methods to categorize and analyze data. Target population The target population will be residents of Miami city. The results of this study will be generalized to Miami city residents and the United States residents who will be covered in the study. It will entail the target of the youth aged and the elderly in the Miami city society. This study will involve 500 participants from a population of 250,000. Sampling design This research will involve the random sampling design which will entail 500 participants out of a population of 250,000. This study will target American citizens between the age of 20 to 55 and a sample size of 500 respondents will be involved in the study (Higginbottom, 2004). The results of this study will be generalized to United States citizens. In terms of gender 200 will be females and 300 will be male. Among the population the African Americans will be 250, white Americans will be 150, Asian 200. The target population will be 250,000 residents of Miami. The study will be conducted in the Miami city hall which will provide a conducive environment for the study and can hold the anticipated participants in this study. The participant will be issued with consent forms and their data will be confidential as each will be collected independently. On the secondary sources, this study is going to use multiple sites to get the inference of the study. Data collection Data will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. On the secondary sources, data will be collected from various sites and journals that have already collected data

about media influence on public perception about crime. On the primary source, data will be collected from the interviewing methods where each other the participants will be interviewed about how media changed their perception about crime. Also, through the online platforms, the participants will be required to fill out a simple questionnaire that will involve depth questions about the participant’s interaction with media and how it influenced their perception of crime (Baker,2003). Finally, data would be collected by surveying the participants on the topic. The research will consider all the ethical considerations such as obtaining consent, ensuring data collected is private and confidential, and by the end of the research to update the participants will the findings and issue them with participation certificate. Conclusion This research proposal involves the assessment of how media affects public perceptions about crime. The media tends to develop distorted perceptions about crimes in the public domain. Other media tend to exaggerate the threat of the crimes and unreasonably raise the public fear of crime. In most instances, the reported issue is exaggerated and may lead to moral panic among the public. This essay focuses on how media coverage of crimes affects public perception. This research would be useful to understand the importance of media in crime prevention if the reporting is done professionally without any biasness. Also, it would help determine why the members of the public have a certain attitude to certain crimes. Finally, this research would help to formulate the role of media in the criminal and justice system. This research would help change the policies in criminal justice that would require professionalism in media reporting about crimes. Also, it will hold the directors of various shows and reports responsible for the effects they cause in the public domain. Thus, media affects how the public perceives crimes as they ridge on which crimes to report.

References Baker, M. J. (2003). Data collection–questionnaire design. The marketing review, 3(3), 343-370. Chan, A. K. P., & Chan, V. M. S. (2012). Public perception of crime and attitudes toward police: Examining the effects of media news. Doyle, A. (2006). How not to think about crime in the media. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 48(6), 867-885. Eliopoulos, G. M., Harris, A. D., Lautenbach, E., & Perencevich, E. (2005). A systematic review of quasi-experimental study designs in the fields of infection control and antibiotic resistance. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 41(1), 77-82. Farris, E. M., & Silber Mohamed, H. (2018). Picturing immigration: How the media criminalizes immigrants. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 6(4), 814-824. Higginbottom, G. M. A. (2004). Sampling issues in qualitative research. Nurse Researcher (through 2013), 12(1), 7. Mastrorocco, N., & Minale, L. (2018). News media and crime perceptions: Evidence from a natural experiment. Journal of Public Economics, 165, 230-255. O'Connell, M., & Whelan...