Sweeping statement. Maybe.

I always wonder if its a chicken-egg thing.

Eg. “knife crime up, children carrying knives for protection” …… children then think they need to carry a knife for protection or to look cool.

eg. “Gangs posting youtube vids posing with weapons” … queue a large increase in the number of youtube vids with weapons and gangs involved…

Obviously I dont think the media is the root cause of these things, they’ll always be there, but they do glamourise and advertise it by saying its something that shouldnt be done. They seem to forget that kids watch the news too.

I’m off back to work, just wanted to pose the question to see what people think.

Correct.

Did you realise that crime is significantly down over the last ten years? It is without a doubt. Murders remain relativly stable in numbers and stranger danger to kids is very rare.

Its known as a moral panic.
http://www.mediaknowall.com/violence/moralpanicnotes.html

I agree,

influencing the minds of the easily influenced tracksuited majority.

or something like that.

“If it bleeds, it leads”?

To certain extent, yes journalism will push the agenda, but I don’t think Society’s ills can be laid totally at it’s door…

Its known as a moral panic.

it’s known as the Daily Mail

I’m not keen on the fact that when anything happens, e.g. a murder in a family, the members of that family are then axpected to come out in front of the media world and in full grief, talk about their situation.
The media then seem to need to know the ages, job descriptions, what the family had for breakfast, shoe size etc. Arrgg

Please leave them alone to come to terms with their dreadful situation.

I didnt say society’s ills were completely on their door, only that they exacerbate (sp?) the situation. Maybe some of our crime fighting money should be spent on restricting the free press? I’m not one for censorship in general, im not overly lefty or righty, but it just seems like a stupid cash-fueled situation thats not helping anyone.

Prince Harry, prince charles, credit crunch, Gaza, princess Diana. Yes! They are dreadful and make matters far worse.

Tandem Jeremy, you said: “Correct. Did you realise that crime is significantly down over the last ten years?…”

So how is journalism making society worse exactly then?

I agree with your points btw, just think you should have said “Wrong. Did you realise crime is…”

Coffeeking, I don’t think restricting the freedom of the press is really going to help make society a safer place. Look at Zimbabwe.

I never said stopping. Discouraging. And the world isnt black and white!

Chapaking.

A couple of examples – because of the fear of stranger danger kids are not allowed to play out any more – giving rise to couch potato kids and young adults with no streetwise. Same with the school run – when I was a kid no one was driven to school – we all walked – now the school run makes life more dangerous for the rest of us. The worst road rage incidents I have had are from school run mums.

A friend of mine, who is a youth worker, said that the sensationalist reporting of ‘Happy Slapping’ incidents had only made the situation much worse, as the ‘craze’ was so well publicised. He reckons, if the media had ignored it, then most kids would never have learned about it, and wanted to copy.

Recently, the horrific and tragic death of that poor little baby, ‘P’, led to people losing their jobs. Rightly or wrongly, the media hysteria has meant that everyone knows the identity of those workers in Harringey Social Services, who were involved in the case. I would hazard a guess that hose people have been subject to public hate, abuse and possible attacks. Certainly, their subsequent efforts to find work will have been severely compromised.

Yes, people were guilty of serious mistakes. yes, they should have done things differently.

But, they were not the people responsible for that poor little innocent child’s sickening murder. Those evil scum have thankfully been locked away, hopefully for ever.

Indeed, many who have committed murder, are afforded anonymity, on their release from sentence. and whilst i agree that people should face the consequences of their incompetency, the media response and ensuing ‘witch-hunt’ has been totally disproportionate. Yes, they deserved to lose their jobs,and be made to reflect on their own failings, but is making them a figure of public hate, and possibly the effect on their families and friends, really going to resolve anything? No. Just makes things even worse, imo. Discipline them, move them on, let them get on with their lives. I’m sure they have suffered enough, just with the knowledge of their own mistakes. They have to live with that, for the rest of their lives. To seek to ‘punish’ them further, via public humiliation, is just morally wrong, imo.

’twas ever thus, alas.

I’m guessing T.J that we are the same age.
Not only was walking to school something that all the children did, but we all played out after, even in the dark scary woods!

Bunnyhop, TJ, yourself and I seem to share the same thoughts on those things – but I’m fairly sure I’m from a different generation!

Rupert Murdoch

why does no-one get assasinated anymore?

QED

I am 47

Very close T.J. (just a couple of years out).

There is no doubt that the medias desire to provide 24 hr TV and on line coverage means that more non-news stories and churned out and get a profile they don’t deserve.

I’m still not sure if the media has dumbed down so that people can understand it or that people dumbed down so the media had to lower itself to keep up – chicken and egg.

Either way, most journalists are lazy scum.

[Waits to see what dirt the News of the World can dig up on me by Saturdays deadline]

I have sometimes wondered whether the media hysteria about paedos might actually encourage paedophilia – ie people might have never thought about children in a sexual way before, but the constant creepy voyeuristic coverage of stuff like Maddy etc might make them think about it. Not talking about me or anything obviously. 😳

Maybe there should be a law that all newspapers/programmes must lead with a ‘positive’ story (assuming there are any… I do somethimes wonder…).

How about ‘tractor production up by X%’ or something?

Oh….

RudeBoy, you’re not related to CFH by any chance, are you?

What I would like to know, and if truthful the gov wouldnt like us to know is how our knife crime / violent crime rates pro rata with out Euro cousins ?? What is wrong with GB ? we hate success and applaud failure, We desert the victim and protect the perpotrator, Judges are not aligned to the law of the land – handing down soft deterents all because some do-gooders claim the defendent is a victim of society – the society the defendent is destroying ..blah, blah – I have grandchildren and I actually am worried about the danger that lies before them – just going to school..

neverfastenuff – I worry too based on media reports, but I’m not sure how accurate they are in reflecting the true nature of our current society. Let’s face it, sensation sells newspapers…

Steelfreak, I think the truth , the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about just what the gov know about the state of our streets would be orgasmic sensationalism to a journalist –

neverfastenuff – research has shown that in fact sentences are largely in line with what most people think they should be, but people’s perception is that sentences are lenient based on a few isolated cases highlighted in the Mail etc. You live in a very safe country compared to the vast majority of people in the world.

Hello Grumm, I realise that, we could be living with Mugabi etc.