Katie's Blog CRIM2027: MY consumption of crime and media news!

Media news about crime and issues around the world can now be accessed 24/7 through a variety of media forms such as facebook, Internet search engines, television, smart phones, channel websites, the newspaper, magazines, blogs, twitter etc. We now have the ability to receive this information easier and quicker, with the click of a button we can get the latest updates on crime stories any time on the day, wherever we are in the world and can now choose what stories we want to be informed about. It is no wonder then, that with all this expansion of media news and the diverse ways in which we can access this information, that growing public fascination with crime and justice in on the rise.

Marsh and Melville (2009) state that 3/4 of the public form their opinions about crime from what they hear, see or read in the news. My dear mum is forever telling me (after watching an episode that is aired on one of those awful current affairs shows or in the news) about these 'supposed' new cases of dangerous cab drivers, or parks which have had the most sexual assaults happen late at night, she then follows this with a 'please be careful' conveniently just before I head out for the night. This is a clear sign that my Mum is highly influenced by media stories on crime (although i realise these stories do have some accurate facts and genuine truths), it still shows that showcasing these sorts of stories puts the fear of death into my mum and can be very persuasive causing a 'moral panic' over some areas.

In reflecting on my own consumption of crime and media news I would not say that I am some sort of 'crime-alcholic' when it comes to viewing crime in the media but I do enjoy watching a variety of crime shows and news in the media. I watch the news to hear about the daily events, or if an ongoing/ unsolved event in present in the media such as Kiesha Abrahams case or Arthur Freeman case and I do watch some crime shows on television. My selection of crime shows is not that wide as I do not have foxtel (which is extremely unfortunate) but on my free to air TV I am a viewer of criminal minds (sometimes not soley for its context but for the eye candy of one of the male actors with really nice eyes), CSI occasionally, I really enjoyed the first Underbelly series, Crime Investigation Australia with its presenter Steve Liebmann who makes the crime stories more scary with his serious voice, missing persons unit, and RBT because I think its amusing to watch peoples reactions to getting breath tested and the suspense whether or not their over the limit. The crime shows I can not stand and do not really enjoy is law and order, border security, and recruits.

The shows that I often enjoy the most are reenactments of events that are 'based' on real life crime events that have happened in Australia, such as Under Belly (crimes in Melbourne), Golden Mile (based on Kings Cross' cop corruption in period of 1988-1999) and Crime Investigation Australia. These shows particularly appeal to me as they were about actual events that happened (not however fully accurate). Some of these shows caused outrage for the misrepresentation of events and people. Dylan Welch of the Sydney Morning Herald made note of its casual relationship with the truth and Justice James wood of Wood Royal Commission blasted the show for glamorising gangsters, a police detective threatened to seek legal action over her portrayal and questions emerged over involvement in the scritpitng process of main subject Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim (Mathews). Shows like Underbelly and CIA are reality based crime shows, these shows entertain by sensationalizing real stories about crime and justice, they employ dramatizations of actual crimes interspersed with police narrative and interviews or actual video footage that features police officers investigating crimes and making arrests (Surette 2007 p. 23).

Surette (2007 p. 26) sums up that an individual today can experience crime and criminal justice through the media and come away with the sensation of actual experience, in my own experience of media I do take into consideration that most crime shows on TV are not reality and I do just watch them for fun. However I do see how people can be manipulated and have a blurred concept of what is real and what is fiction, as some shows like Underbelly can be so entertaining that you get stuck in and can start to believe all the events and facts being presented.