The Analysis of the Impacts of the Mass Media, Crime, and Justice

The Analysis of the Impacts of the Mass Media, Crime, and Justice

There is a relationship that exists between the mass media, crime, and justice, and, it is a relevant issue in American society and has attracted a lot of research and speculations. The two cannot thrive well without each other. The mass media affords sources of entertainment and news, which makes it a resource for the mass media.  The mass media reach a majority of audiences, which includes policymakers and citizens, which makes it a useful resource for the criminal justice department and its attendants judicial and organizations that enforce the law. The legal system must have the authority that comes from the desires of the citizens who grants it the powers, a process that the mass media can comfortably necessitate (Guastaferro, 2013). This dependency relation between crime, justice, and the mass media has both negative and positive effects such that in a way they facilitate the process of justice and in other scenarios, they motivate Americans to involve in crimes since some of the mass media, for instance, the entertainment media promotes criminal offenses and the characters go unpunished.

Journalism is one of the most legitimate claims which influences power over the justice department, but there are also other platforms where the mass media exercise such influences. Media that offers entertainments have undergone scrutiny for changing the perceptions of the public of institutions and people that have compromising effects on the justice system. Televisions in significant ways have been victims of crimes through the comedy, drama, soap opera, docudrama, and mystery, which they offer as forms of entertainment (Gottaschalk, 2015). The way the mass media portrays violence in television movies and through songs that are recorded constitute a significant source of violence inspiration that motivates real-life criminal behaviors. The mass media exposes its audiences to violence, which is a significant mitigating factor in the guilt of offenders in the criminal justice system.

Since the 1980s, television genres which purportedly deals with important subjects and reality things have formed a large part in the entertainment world. Examples of these shows include America’s most wanted, Cops, and Mysteries. They incorporate footages of actual arrests, interviews with people who are involved in crimes, and other documentaries which have information with some dramatic elements that create a quasi-journalism that is well known but criticized by the journalist who are journalism. The show credit falls in the degree of quality that journalism presents and has effects, though not direct, on the legal framework. The mass media has content, which affects the opinion of the public in a way that frames people. The framing involves in salience and selections. It makes some aspects which are perceived more salient in the context of communication, which promotes a defined problem, its moral evaluation, and the way the problem need to be treated. For instance, visual images of black suspects as well as defendants in the police officers who are white. The television shows make us believe that blacks are more unruly and dangerous compared to the whites because the whites are less likely to be associated with such incidences. This has promoted the stereotypes of the black criminality and the authority of the whites, which is a framing concept that shows the connection between the white and black community. This has, to a more considerable extent, contributed to the race issue that affects the Americans (Gorofalo, 2018).

The mass media, however, has contributed some benefits to the justice department. The mass media gives the police unprecedented connections to the general public. The public and the police communicate through Facebook and Twitter about occurrence, events, and incidences, which has invaluable insights to the day to day activities as well as during crisis durations. The mass media is also a vital tool which assists police officers in their investigations. An example is when a CCTV footage was released via Facebook, which contained the footage of the Melbourne woman, Jill Meagher’s in her last moments, which assisted the police to do their investigations. Additionally, social media adds a lot of transparency to the proceedings of crimes, which is helpful in the road to seeking justice. The mass media fully imparts information, which is accurate, fair, and contemporaneous when it reports the legal proceedings. It has experts who are responsible for court reporting. It brings perspectives not only to the parties involved but also places the broader interests of the public in the open on behalf of them. However, as society is changing in pace, the justice system is also changing in a way that documents are filed electronically in an attempt to save time.

The mass media has a vital role in the forming of the anomic strain responsible for generating pressures that offend. It presents the Americans with images of affluent lifestyles that are responsible for generating pressures responsible for acquiring higher levels of success, which does not put into considerations of the means that are legitimately used. Also, the psychological theories that explain the motivations of offenses utilize the mass media for this process. The mass media prevents images of crimes that encourage people to imitate or develop arousal for the same (Simmons, 2017). The mass media features celebrities and wealthy people, which may help the youths to indulge in criminal offenses to acquire similar wealth. They develop the desire to have the material wealth like the politicians and celebrities without knowing where the source comes from.  The media is responsible for misleading at times, which triggers crimes.

The mass media also plays a vital role in the account of connecting and holding people and the judicial system together. It enhances communications between the police, the public, and the justice system. It ensures open justice, which involves public scrutiny of the processes of the justice system, which grants the Americans confidence in the judicial systems.  It has provided safeguarding against arbitrariness that is associated with the justice system. The public is given access to courtrooms, and the press is allowed to publish communications that go on in courtrooms. This is key in ensuring a smooth flow of operations in the judicial systems since it provides room for flexibility that fully informs the public.

The media helps the police the police with mining. They look for key words in the social media which suggests dangers. This helps them to combat crimes before they happen. Both small and big cities have made a great impact in the making investments for the justice department through the social media. Studies shows that seventy two percent of police officers utilize the mass media to get tips on crimes and an almost same percentage for intelligence gathering. Potential terrorist’s threats are able to be tracked through the social media. All these efforts and advances by the social media are helpful in assisting the American justice department.

In conclusion, the relationship between mass media crime, and justice is not easily defined. This is because both groups have different goals that they strive to achieve, which do not necessarily fit into each other. The agenda and resources played by people when they are audiences and readers are not the same as the roles they play when they are consumers, suspects, jurors, and citizens. The mass media has many effects on the judicial system, which may not be quickly attended to. Mitigating such effects as prejudicial pretrial in public is impossible if the goal that are considered paramount, for instance, the freedom of speech or desires of the prosecutor to try a case locally are not violated. However, the mass media also has positive effects such that it promotes the process of justice by exposing the people that involve in crime, a case which makes the police investigate and punishment administered to the offenders. The relationship between these aspects is a dynamic one, and it reflects changes in the political and social American environment in which the conceptions of community and justice is formed. Each of these aspects plays a vital role in commanding the allegiance of the citizens, an important issue which ensures the criminal justice system exercises legitimacy when administering criminal law and the mass media legitimate contributions to the civil society.

References

GUASTAFERRO, W. P., (2013). Crime, the Media, and Constructions of Reality: Using HBO’s The Wire as a Frame of Reference. College Student Journal, 47(2), 264–270. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=88413457&site=ehost-live

Garofalo, J., (2018). Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 18(2), 319–350. https://doi.org/10.1177/002242788101800207

Simmons, A. D. (2017). Cultivating Support for Punitive Criminal Justice Policies: News Sectors and the Moderating Effects of Audience Characteristics. Social Forces, 96(1), 299–327. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sox031

Gottschalk, P., (2015). Investigating Financial Crime : Characteristics of White-collar Criminals. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1049958&site=ehost-live