My first piece will draw on a story written by Mark Morri, from the online Daily Telegraph, which carries the headline, ‘The harsh reality of Sydney crime - the footage the police don't want you to see’. In a nutshell, the article details the story of a young man, who was threatened by a masked robber at a pub with a sawn of shotgun and a 20cm knife, only to fight back and manage to unmask his assailant. The manager of the pub than gave the CCTV footage to the Daily Telegraph who posted it online, because the NSW police would not release the footage to the public.
"People should know there are bad guys out there running around with guns and see how frightening it is" (Morri, 2010)
According to Surette (2007, p.21) sensationalist crimes with a focus on individual, random, stranger on stranger acts of violence are heavily emphasized in today’s media, which is the exact direction Morri has applied to his article. Morri’s writing employs strong, violent and emotive language such as ‘head split open’ and ‘stabbed in the stomach’ to invoke fear in the reader. It is these buzz words which capture the reader’s attention and fuel the process of commodification, which is the packaging of media articles in a light that makes them attractive to viewers and competitive for their consumption. The purpose of media is to deliver an audience to an advertiser, which means that instead of been driven by fact, the media is driven by market considerations (Surette, 2007, p.26). The violent robbery story, is exactly what readers are thirsty for.
According to Surette (2007, p.5) the media is perceived to be a major cause of crime and violence as well as a potential remedy to crime. In relation to Morri’s article, it could be argued that the Telegraph was criminogenic in posting the CCTV footage when the police withheld the footage. Posting the video immediately after the crime shows criminals how to commit the robbery and the layout of the pub, before new security measures could be put in place by management. On the other side of the coin, by posting the video online, the Telegraph is able to reach its large audience and viewers may be able to provide assistance in the recognition of the offender, which would be of great benefit to the police. This article highlights the complexities surrounding the police/media relationship.
The last point I would like to discuss is in relation to politics and policy making. Morri’s story, represents a signal crime, yet not in isolation, but with a string of other violent crimes being reported recently in the media (overlapping with the notion of moral panic), such as the drive by shootings in Glebe (see link below for full story of Glebe shooting). According to Cohen (1972) signal crimes are responded to with decisions to do something about the prevention of crime, which represents the politics of law and order. On the same day that the violent robbery took place, Julia Gillard announced new proposed policies regarding the banning of knives and guns. In the article ‘Gillard government proposes tough new laws on weapons’, we witness a tightening of law and order policy in response to media attention (to what degree the media influences policy change is uncertain), to appease the public’s fears and anxieties that are fuelled by the aforementioned story (media). This new policy falls neatly into a pattern of reactive legislation (guided by the demand of punitive justice rather than policies advocating social inclusion) action in the criminal justice system in NSW that has developed over recent years and now seems entrenched (Tadros, 2008).
This blog has attempted to deconstruct the delicate relationship between the police and the media and demonstrated how the media plays a strong role in forming public opinion, which in turns shapes policy as politicians attempt to extinguish and assure the public’s fears (which in this case was violent robbery). I would like to finish with a quote from the lecture, which for me sums up this weeks learning and placates itself nicely, in the theme that media is a business.
‘Deviance is the quintessential element of newsworthy’
Here is a link to the CCTV footage of the armed holdup at Stella Inn.
http://player.video.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/#IaROK4h3g10T2PQx1D_PX_6T2nHLss2A
Reference Page
Christensen, N. (2010) House hit by drive by shooting after fight, (Online) http://www.news.com.au/national/house-in-drive-by-shooting-after-fight/story-e6frfkvr-1225897255605 Accessed 29th July 2010
Cohen, S (1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics, London: MacGibbon and Kee
Innes, M. (2003) ‘Signal crimes: Detective Work, Mass Media and Constructing Collective Memory’ in Mason, P. (ed.), Criminal Visions: Media Representations of Crime and Justice, Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Hudson, P. (2010) Gillard government proposes tough new laws on weapons, The Sunday Times(Online) http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/gillard-government-proposes-tough-new-laws-on-weapons/story-e6frg12c-1225898267422 Accessed 29th July 2010
Morri, P. (2010) The harsh reality of sydney crime the footage police don’t want you to see, The Daily Telegraph, (Online) http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/the-harsh-reality-of-sydney-crime-the-footage-the-police-dont-want-you-to-see/story-e6freuzi-1225898208542 Accessed 29th July 2010
Surette, R. (2007) Media, Crime and Criminal Justice 3rd ed. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth. Chapter 1. Pp 1-30.
Tadros, V. (2008) ‘Crimes and Security’, Modern Law Review, vol 71 (6) pp. 940-970
