Publics Fear of Crime and Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Publics Fear of Crime and Media - Essay Example Common media refer televisions, radios, telephones and newspapers. The media are powerful way of getting messages across to citizens, and some 95% of it is reportedly the prime source for all types of information ("Fear of Crime, " John Howard Society, 1999). Media are always involved with audience participation, hence they have various effects on the public viewers (Krippendorff, 1986). Channels and forms. Media are regarded as channels of communication through which messages flow. They are a form of communication produced by a few people for the consumption of many people (Mass Literacy, 1996). In mass media, there are two main categories: print media and electronic media. Their content may overlap, but they differ in their delivery method and the subject area they cover (Krippendorff, 1986). Print media disseminate printed matter. Examples are newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books, newsletters, advertising, memos, and business forms ("Print media," APT, 2007). Public press are the ones responsible for the gathering and publishing in newspaper forms or magazines ("Print media," Farlex, 2007). Electronic media, on the other hand, include television, radio, internet, CD-ROMs, DVD, and other mediums of information transmission not printed in papers. They are most found in the data management, communication networks, Internet and World Wide Web subjects ("Electronic media," Business Dictionary.Com, 2007). Comparing these two media, print media are more likely to be described as factual, while electronic media are more on visual aids to convey information. One of the forms where people get direct news information in electronic media is through television and radio news reporting. In print media, the news information is readily made available () Newsreporting and its Nature News is often reported by various mediums, such as newspapers, television, radio programs, and now in modern practice, in wires services and the websites (Stephens, 2007). Commonly these days, people get their information about crime from the major source which is the media, particularly more on news reporting. Carole Rich, author of Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method (2000) cited five traditional categories generally employed for news reporting. These are: understanding the news, collecting information, constructing stories, understanding media issues, and applying the techniques. Without any of these, a failure to convey news information might take place. Societies seemingly revolve around news information. This is usually what set people's mood upon their daily routine, as means of awareness to the happenings around them for their security (Stephens, 2007). Commonly, news must contain the answers for who, what, when, where, why, and how question of a certain news that people rely on media people to provide them updates on issues within their area, even to international concerns (Fuller, 1996). This suggests that for any possible perception of the viewers to the news information, media people inevitably partake in it. Evidences Shaping Public's Fear of Crime Media companies' interest comes first before viewers' security. Some psychological studies conducted had formulated the theory that mass media affect how their audiences think and behave (Potter 1999). This is because