In Chermak's article he explains to us the importance that media and crime have to one another and how they both fit together to explain the public's perspective of what is going on in our world. While we do not exactly choose to be exposed to so much crime in out infotainment, it is put there by those in charge of writing the stories for us to see.
He goes through the four types of stories that media list crime stories under in order to determine where in importance they lie and just how much coverage they will receive.
4. Tertiary Crime Stories - These are the types of crimes that appear in your everyday newspaper, little more than a way to fill a small empty space while allowing the media to say that they are still keeping up on crime going on in the city. Not much effort is put into them as they are viewed with very little importance.
3. Secondary Crime Stories- Basically a tertiary story with potential. The media sees these stories with the possibility of it becoming something more. More research is done though can hardly be verified and more space is given for the piece. Usually ends up nowhere, also appears in your everyday news.
2. Primary Crime Stories - These are the stories that take up the best spaces in the paper such as the front page. Not as common as secondary and tertiary stories. Ends up covered in a variety of media and can be connected to a larger community issue. Also has good visual aids to go along with it.
1.Super Primary Stories- Stories that typically involve someone of notice and can be seen in news media world wide. These stories are known for having two or more articles concerning them written up on the same day. Over time they become Primary stories.
Chermak concludes his article by stating that crime is an important thing for the media to keep track of and therefore they have determined an organizing process around it.
I find it interesting to know that most of society accepts how the media handles all types of crimes. Unless something is personally affecting you, we are more than willing to sit back and read whatever the media writes for us and in the way they write it. The media uses the concept of peer pressure in a way that garners them a profit.They decide what is most important for us to know and we blindly pick up the paper each to read the headline of the day without giving more than a second thought the rest of the stories until after we are done with the first article presented to us.
