Social Construction of Reality: News Media and the Making of Crime Images

1. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY Social Construction of Reality: News Media and the Making of Crime Images SOCI0067: Crime and the Media Lecture 3 Dr. L. Cho, PhD E-mail: Lifcho@gmail.com

2. Copycat Suicide and Media in HK Guest Speaker: Dr. Fu King-Wa, Honorary Lecturer at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre • Researcher and executive editor of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at HKU • A columnist for Apple Daily • His research focuses on the media’s influence on suicide and on health communication, research method, and statistics in journalism. • MA in Social Sciences and an MPhil in Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, undergraduate degree in Engineering from HKU. • Journalist at the HK Economic Journal.

3. Readings for Next Week • Webpage "Suicidal Behaviour and the Media: Findings from a systematic review of the research literature " (from UK based The MediaWise Trust) http://www.mediawise.org.uk/display_page.php?id=373 • Hong Kong Journalists Association Guidelines on Coverage of Suicides http://www.hkja.org.hk/portal/Site.aspx?id=A1-458&lang=en-US • Read newspaper everyday (Oriental, Apple, Ming Pao or/and SCMP) and pick up some suicide stories. Try to identify the characteristics of these stories

4. How Does the Media Permeate Your Daily Life? See Last Week Survey Results

5. 68 Surveys Completed

6. Reading News vs Writing Your Own

7. 100% Mobility

8. Access All the Time

10. During the Week, You Spend…

11. A Comparison American youth typical day: • 3:04 hours a day watching TV • 1:44 hours a day listening to music • 1:02 hours a day using a computer • 0:49 hours a day playing video games • 0:43 hours a day reading • 0:32 hours a day watching videos, DVDs • 0:25 hours a day watching movies in a theatre • 0:14 hours a day watching prerecorded TV Total 6.7 hours using media of some form Soci0067 student typical day: • About :50 hours watching TV  • Close to 2:00 hours listening to music  • Almost 3:15 hours on the computer • Just over :10 hours playing video games • Around 1:10 hours reading • Nearly :30 hours watching DVDs • A little over :10 hours at the theatre • Literally :06 hours watching recorded TV shows Total of 8.18 hours using media of some form

12. Last Lecture Relationship Between Crime and the Media Theories About Media and Crime

13. Dichotomy No Causal RelationshipBetween Media and Crime Media Causes Crime Psychologically oriented theory Example: Direct Effect Theory Older theories within mass communications

14. Sociologists and find two views too extreme Relationship Lies Somewhere in the Middle… No Causal RelationshipBetween Media and Crime Media Causes Crime Psychologically oriented theory Example: Direct Effect Theory Older theories within mass communications

15. Distinction Causality Correlation Y comes after X and is possibly connected with it Viewing violence on TV can and probably does lead to violent behaviour • X causes Y • Exposure to TV violence actually causes violent behaviour Trouble Proving Strong Relationship

16. Growing Frustration Can’t show how or why people are influenced by the media… So, changed research direction…

17. Instead of asking …“What Does the Media Do to People?” Ask: What do people do with the media? What is the purpose of media in people’s everyday life?

18. Audience is Not Passive,but Active Agents

19. Rise of Reception Analysis Media doesn’t “control” individuals People use media as a resource Select images and meanings that relate to wider experiences

20. Studies of British & American Soap Operas… For viewers: • TV watching is functional • Escapism, tension release, enhance social interaction, personal identity…

21. Social Construction of Reality • Prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s 1966 book • Knowledge derives from and maintained by social interactions and social context • “Common sense” develops when people interact with each other • With the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related • As they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced

22. Social Construction of Reality • Common sense knowledge is negotiated by people • Knowledge is subjective, variable, socially based • Human institutions such as media organizations come to be presented as part of an objective reality

23. Social Constructionism How Do People Construct Reality?

24. Constructed Reality

25. Shared symbolically • Collectively shared through language • Others experienced is shared • What people believe to be true is largely acquired symbolically rather than actually experienced • We have limited experience, rely on media for information

26. How Do We Know They Exist?

27. Social Construction ofCrime News 1. Crime is selected from a range of social issue (e.g. pollution, unemployment, education) 2. Crime is often focused on street crime, thus white collar crimes (money laundering, embezzlement, misleading small time investors) are neglected 3. Crime is defined as a criminal justice problem – which takes the form of crime news • Political leaders and law enforcement officials often get to define what is crime and filter this through the media • Together with the media they define what is socially thinkable

28. Competing Constructions • Claims – descriptions, assertions, stereotypes about nature and extent of problem • Claimsmakers – various interest groups who make specific claims, shape problem as they see it, morally, politically and financially driven • Ownership – who owns or come to own the problem • Links – linkage of one issue to other problems • Negotiation and creation of a particular view in the press

29. Secondary Claimsmaker • Although claimmakers and groups push for their views • Ultimately it is the media that covers the story and “control” how the story gets covered.

30. Media Construction of Reality • Media is not value neutral • Media rooted in ideological beliefs • Media also must be understood in its social, political and organizational context

31. Dominant Ideology Shaping Crime News Dominant ideology: • Street crime are most costly, dangerous, and threatening • Financial losses assessed contradicts this image of crime

32. Comparing Cost of Crime Street Crime • Burglary and robbery — street crimes — costs the nation $3.8 billion a year White Collar Crime • Health care fraud alone costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year. • The savings and loan fraud cost $300 billion to $500 billion. • Lesser frauds: auto repair fraud, $40 billion a year, securities fraud, $15 billion a year FBI Estimates (2007)

33. Murder vs Job Related Deaths • 19,000 Americans are murdered every year • 56,000 Americans die every year on the job often due to occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis, hazardous working conditions FBI Estimates 2007

34. How Do the Media Determine What Gets on the News? “Newsworthy”

35. How Do Determine Newsworthiness?

36. 1. Market Model • Public interest • Reporters provide objective description of events, people, and issues

37. 2. Manipulative/Control/Agenda Setting Model • Based on interest and political agenda • Selected and constructed to convey political messages and influence readers

38. 3. Organizational Model • News agencies are corporations • Internal logic, priorities, financial considerations • Operating as a business

39. Corporation for Public Broadcasting News Hour (2007) • Study examined the program’s guestlist over a six-month period spanning October 2005 through March 2006 • The study recorded every on-air source appearing on the show, including live and taped guests • the study counted 2,433 sources featured in 606 segments. Taped sources accounted for over three-quarters of the total, at 1872 Source: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2967

40. Defining Our World:Reporting on the Middle East Source: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/ap-report.html

41. Defining Our World: Reporting on the Middle East Percentage of Deaths Reported in Headline or First Paragraph Source: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/ap-report.html

42. Don’t Be Too Like CNN • http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080417-china-tibet-CNN-criticism-propaganda

43. Anti-CNN Campaign Against Media Bias and Distortion

44. Anti-CNN Campaign • 23 year old Rao Jin • Tsinghua Graduate • Internet Entrepreneur • Protesting bias in western reporting of Tibet Riots • Hundreds of volunteers around the world

45. Media Distortion

46. Inaccurate Information

47. Crackdown in Nepal

48. Crackdown in Nepal

49. Inaccurate Portrayal

50. Globalization of Media Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd. has media holdings in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin America and Asia. It is the second largest global media conglomerate, after AOL Time Warner. This privately-owned German media conglomerate has interests in 600 companies in 53 countries It's the third largest globalmedia conglomerate. FY 2000 revenues topped $25 billion. This giant's subsidiary Universal Music Group is the number one music company in the world, with roughly 22% of the 1999 global market. The $165 billion mega-merger between AOL and Time Warner, approved by the FCC in January 2001, is the largest media merger in history. The new company promises to offer a powerhouse of integrated communication, media and entertainment across all platforms -- computer, phone, television and handheld wireless devices. Sony made its name with electronics, but it now has more than 1,000 subsidaries worldwide, many of them key media partners.