As mentioned in item a “In late modern society, the mass media are at the centre of culture, and the media are obsessed with crime”. Crime and deviance make up a substantial proportion of news coverage. We live today in a media saturated society. The media are obsessed with crime. Crime is the central theme of media output, both fiction and non-fiction. In item a it is mentioned that the media creates “unrealistic fears of crime”. They do this by exaggerating the amount of violent and unusual crime, and they exaggerate the risks of certain groups of people becoming its victims, such as young women and old people. Therefore, there is concern that the media may be disorting the publics impression of crime which they described in item a as “a disorted picture”This leads to an unrealistic fear of crime. Research evidence supports the view that there is a link between media use and fear of crime. For example, in the USA, Gerbner et al found that heavy users of television (over 4 hours a day) had higher levels of the fear of crime. Similarly, Schlesinger and Tumber found a correlation between media consumption and fear of crime, with tabloid readers and heavy users of tv expressing greater fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attack and mugging. However, the existence of such correlations doesn’t prove that media viewing causes fear. For example, it may be that those who are already afraid of going out at night watch more TV just because they stay in more. Finally, as Greer and Reiner note, much “effects2 research on the media as a cause of crime and fear of crime ignores the meanings that viewers give to media violence. For example, they may give different meanings to violence in cartoons, horror films and bulletins. This criticism reflects the interprevists view that if we want to
