Jen Jaree

I never seen this topic brought up in this thread, so I thought I would start one. Does the media (news oulets in particular) oversationalize things or do some people take them to litterly and end up being afraid of the world (ex someone afraid to take the subway or a plane because of a crash or a bombing. I think it's both. I don't know if it's their intention to make people afraid. Most news stories involve something bad happening but you also have to think of what is not being shown. If there is a shotting at a mall that doesn't mean it's going to happen next time you go to the mall. There would of millions of people that day who had an incident free time at the mall. I do acknowledge that there are dangerous places in the world advised unsafe for westerners (ex. Iraq, and Afganistan). But do some research before you travel.

TheAngel

Well of course it does. Murder and violent crimes make up the largest percentage of news, but the smallest number of crimes.

Indian Summer

I don't think it's necessarily a case of over sensationalizing, though. It's just... what news is. I mean, no one's going to care about the day you go to the mall and there isn't a shooting- that isn't news. Of course it's going to be the negative, out of the ordinary cases that make the news. That's what news is.

sunnykerr

I think the sensationalizaion occurs not in the content, but in the presentation. Because you're all right, in my opinion anyway: There is sensationalization, but it's also the news.

But there's a way to package the news, and we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't realize that news stations (and newspapers, and radio news programs, etc...) don't present the news in as sensational a way as they deem ethical so as to attract as many consumers as they can. Every network out there has a license to broadcast because they carry news content. So they can't just eliminate their news hour (s). But networks are corporations, too. Or, at least, part of corporations. Their job is to make money.

So they package the news in a way that will appeal to viewers, so that the most amount of people possible will watch their program, so they can charge more for their commercial slots. It's not the same as TV shows, because they can't cancel the news. But they're still going to try to make as much money as they can with that hour of programming.

TheAngel

But to distort it and make it seem like murder is the primary percentage of violent crimes that take place is an act of sensationalizing because it causes people to fear for their lives, change their actions, and it's a way for media to keep people watching. Every time there's a killing in a unique way, or a police officer or a child is killed, or someone famous, media keeps replaying it over and over and over not for the news, but for the ratings. There are less than 100,000 homicides every year and over 1 million burglaries, but if you look at the news it looks like the other way around. And those are the Uniform Crime Report statistics, they traditionally run low.

migamoo

I think it might depend on the area. When I lived in Maryland, there was always something on the news about a murder or shooting in Baltimore. Baltimore is on of the most dangerous cities in the country, so I don't think they really need to sensationalize how bad it is. People know there are parts of the city you just do not want to go.

Yes burglaries are bad, but is it really newsworthy? Sure, if there's been a string of attacks in a certain area, but I don't think overall.

elisheva

I think that's a really important point.

Jen Jaree

Another thing I noticed is that a woman being a victim of a violent crime is considered more newsworthy than a male victim. All types of violent crime (expect rape) has more male victims than female. Rape only accounts for what I heard 6% of all violent crime.

As you can tell with my screen name I am a chick

TheAngel

The majority of crime involves male. The most likely victim of violent crime is a single, young, black male living in the west or midwest who is an urban resident and is poor. The majority of men though are victimized by strangers while the majority of females are victimized by people they know. But still, there are 300,000 rapes and 6 million (sorry, my number was wrong the first time) burglaries, of course that's according to the NCVS so the number's a lot different than the UCR. But the thing is, burglary is a lot more damaging than violent crime, the same way white collar crime is a lot more damaging than violent crime but you don't hear about it because people are much more titillated by a murder than a burglary or fraud. I mean, white collar crime and corporate violence are actually responsible for more physical harm than regular, violent, street crimes, but you won't hear about that. The media has molded our perception of what crime is and they have to satisfy ratings, it's that simple, so they'll continue to show murder as one of the most popular headlining stories even though it's not one of the more prevalent crimes. This inspires a sense of fear in people. Like, in my hometown there were 47 murders. People thought it was a lot more than that because they heard so much about it, and they were afraid to go into the city because of that, even though that was a tiny percentage of the total number of homicides in the US. To me, that's still sensationalization.

Indian Summer

"Burglary is a lot more damaging than violent crime?"

Maybe I'm understanding this wrong, but I'd most definitely prefer to come home and find my door kicked in and my television missing than be raped, or assaulted, or murdered.

TheAngel

Of course, we're talking about our own moral standards and the price we've put as a society on murder, yet we kill in war, kill in self-defense, and kill in other circumstances and don't place the same price on it, so a life is not a life is not a life in our culture. I'm talking about finances, which is generally how the damage of crime is measured. And I misspoke, burglary is classified as a violent crime as well.

LittleMilkJug

Yes, they sell more copies that way, that simple.