Chermak - "Crime in News Media"

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.

Rafter - Introduction

The first part of the introduction, Rafter talks about film studies and Criminology, telling us that maybe one day, they will be brought together finally with the new studies going known as Cultural Criminology. Rafter explains how CC (Cultural Criminology)  actually refers to crime as a resource of information and how it influences the media in choosing images for causation and control of the crime that is going on. A fairly new area of study, it shows all the promise of extending the knowledge of the more traditional way of criminology.

My thoughts on the whole CC thing are ones that are hopeful, I think it would be more than interesting to see all the different links between crime and media to be found and affirmed. While I don't believe that watching violent movies will turn children into killers and rapists, I do think that everything teaches someone something, it's what that individual chooses to take from that film that counts.

The next part of the introduction, Rafter describes the four ways that she defines crime films. She brings in the use of boxes, which I find very useful, and how we can pretty much pick up a film, label it based on the characteristics of the film, and then throw it in the proper box.

It's hard not to agree with Rafter on this point because we constantly see film ideas being recycled over and over again, like baking a chocolate cake, you only change the ingredients when it tastes like coal in your mouth. The only question is, why do we as an audience find watching the same movie repeatedly entertaining? Are we really that simple minded?

Now we move onto crime films, ideology, and culture. The gist of what Rafter is telling us is that films provide us with a bit of cultural information that we keep in our head until it is needed sometime later. However, some of the information does factor into our beliefs and how we view the world as a whole. Which also affects how we mentally plan things to go about.

I definitely that Rafter knows her stuff when it comes to interpretation of the films and how the audience takes everything in. Instead of just telling people what she knows, she explains everything in a way to make sense.

Young

In Young's essay, we learn that images are a key point to crime in the media and Young makes the specific point that taking the images for granted is something that should not be done. Without such images, we can sometimes feel disconnected from what is really going on.  As Young points out with her example from Kill Bill, while we know she was raped in the hospital we do not actually feel that much of a connection to what has happened because no images were presented to us of the rape.

I feel that Young has assessed the use of images quite well because images are a gateway into another life. I know for a fact that I feel more sympathy for someone in a movie who has been tortured if I actually see the images of it happening but if the person is just telling the story, the impact just isn't nearly as great.

People respond to what they hear AND see,  everything is much more believable when the human eye can see what is going on. While there is the saying "have faith", it is simply human nature not to believe until the proof has been shown. Sure we gossip and such but gossip only brings about the curiosity. Once the curiosity is instilled, you don't just sit around and take it for what it is, you do what you can to confirm the story and that usually means seeing what the gossip is.

Yar

Yar is the one who introduces us to the three ways of dissecting the media.
Content Analysis- A self explanatory title, where someone takes the content of a movie/show/or any form of media and analyzes the content of it from their perspective. Recently it's been taken up by criminologists to study films that revolve around crime.
Personally I think this is the best option of the three because it allows one to get so many different perspectives of the film while at the same time allowing oneself to keep their own. While it may cause arguments amongst some, people are always pushing for individuality.
Next is the Marxist Approach-Films are either traditional or critical with no middle ground.
I think the Marxist Approach is too strict of a way to go because it allows no room for budging. You watch something and then you must decide between two options of what it is. In today's world, nothing so black and white that you have no grey area left.
Lastly, the Postmodern way of viewing films. Basically this way states it's impossible to have a clear cut view of any one thing, especially in films.
I have to agree with this one here, I also like to state that I think this goes along well with Content Analysis because it allows for several perspectives on films and the way people view them. To have more than one or two options about how you think about the media is really the only way to go because there are so many forms of it. Nothing about it is just plain black and white, not even the ink on the page anymore. We see colored pictures all the time.

Haywood

   Haywood begins the chapter by talking about images and how much more they have become a part of of our everyday lives. Now unless you live in an Amish community, I have to agree with with Haywood. The media has learned  quickly the ways to use the technology that surrounds us today. For example, on facebook, I find it impossible now to catch up on what my friends are doing without coming across some form of an ad.
   Talking about the images of the crime that are presented to us through many ways, from the video taken on a cell phone and posted on youtube to the picture of a crime scene printed in the newspaper, I feel like Haywood is not only trying to connect students studying crime and media but everyone that has dealt with technology in their life.
 

Crime in Media

Let's see on Tuesday night, I watched an episode of Bones, (A crime show about a forensic anthropologist who's partnered up with a FBI agent, based on a real person). It was about a bowler who was murdered and crammed up into where the pins are supposed to in a bowling alley.

Wednesday Morning, I did actually open my paper to read the story concerning Katy Benoit's murder, although I knew everything the paper had to say from other sources.
Thursday Morning, I again opened the paper to read more on the murder, and I would just like to point out that they have their facts wrong... Katy did not die at her place of residence, she died in the hospital. I have a friend who works there and when she left work that night, Katy was still alive.
I watched an episode of Teen Mom, it's relevant because there was some legal issues going on with one of the moms and her physically attacking the father of her child.
I have probably taken in some other media involving crime but I wasn't really paying attention to some of what I was watching due to the fact that I was doing other homework. But anyways, I still think it's amazing that crime is basically a common thing in our lives now. For instance, not a day goes by that I don't hear sirens.
People are no longer surprised at the violence that happens everyday, I mean sure they get shocked when it happens to them or someone they know simply because we chose to tell ourselves that something like that can never happen to us and then it does and we're like, what?
However, we watch it on TV all the time and are not shocked by the nature of the crimes anymore, sometimes we don't want to believe it but the shock still isn't there. We are a society that has accepted that crime will happen, hence all the punishments set into place by the legal system. Why prepare for something that won't happen?

I believe on Friday, I again watched another episode of Bones, but I didn't get too far into it because I fell asleep soon after it started. I didn't open the paper either because I was busy with getting Liam's birthday party into place.

 This morning, (Saturday) I opened the paper and again read more on the murder of Katy Benoit. I think it's ridiculous at how much the newspaper is milking this story for how much they're doing so. I understand that it's a big deal that a student was murdered but I absolutely do not like how the news is choosing to constantly remind students of the tragedy. Yes, none of us are likely to forget, but to have it shoved in our faces as much as it has been this past week is helping none of us.
I was watching Beethoven with my son, and in the beginning, the first crime appears where the two guys are stealing the puppies from the pet store.
On Sunday I kinda watched some Law and Order: SVU. What really happened is I was watching a movie on tv and then fell asleep and woke up to the show and I just left on there but I wasn't really paying too much attention to the show because I had seen the episode before.

C'est Moi!

Hey, well my name's Hannah. I'm a sophomore here at the University of Idaho, majoring in Sociology with emphasis on Criminology.

A  big part of my life involves being a mother to my two year old son William, mostly known as Liam. He's got red hair and momma's big brown eyes :) With the support of my family, I made it through High School and all the way here!! Yay!! Go me! 

I'm also a member of the Vandal Marching Band, I do colorguard, pretty much it's my job to make the band look good. Lots of fun but it doesn't come without work! I'm really thankful how helpful all the professors here at U of I are, and also how understanding everyone can be. In the past year alone, I have learned more than I thought possible and am just really glad that I don't have to be that typical teen mom who drops out of high school and never finishes her education.
Also if you notice the URL, you'll see it says sociology, that's because I set up this blog account for my soc class I took over the summer and I just deleted all of that and am now using it for this class... this is also not my gmail account, I couldn't remember my password so I used my exes.. which he is completely fine with.