Victims of The Media

The media as we all know, has it’s own personal agenda. This is usually to provoke emotions within society as well as to sell stories. There is no doubt that the media is focusing on victims of crimes significantly more then it used to. The internet, via social networking sites has made it even easier for journalists to go deeper into the lives of people they wish to report on, providing them with more information. Despte this however, there is still a disturbing and significant amount of cases which go by completely unknown and unreported on. Of course a newspaper is not able to report on all the events that occur in one day. However it is important to consider how the media priorities what they do report on. In order to do so, it is important to consider what makes an ‘ideal victim’ within the eyes of the media.

Nils Christie (1986) considered the ‘ideal victim’. They are described as ‘a person or category of individuals who, when hit by crime, most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim.’ Elderly women and young children may be suggested as typical ‘ideal victims’ whereas young men, the homeless, those with drug problems or are existing on the margins of society, will not as easily achieve legitimate victim status.

A typical ‘ideal victim’ will having the following attributes:

·      Vulnerability or weakness

·      Were carrying out a respectably activity when the crime occurred, or minding their own business

·      Their own actions could not be blamed, innocence

·      The offender was at an advantage, typically ‘bad’

·      The offender was unknown to the victim

·      Worthy of sympathy & compassion

It is said that a ‘hierarchy of victimization’ may exist as it is portrayed and reinforced within the media. This describes almost a pecking order that portrays the differential status and categories of crime victims within the media or even official discources. Ideal victims, such as children, are at the top whereas non-deserving victims, such as drunks, are at the bottom. There are those who acquire an ‘ideal victim’ status which then attract mass levels of media attention. These people are able to generate collective mourning on a near global scale and even generate significant change to social and criminal justice policy and practice (Greer, 2004; Valier, 2004). On the other hand, there are individuals and crime victims who never acquire legitimate victim status or perceived as ‘undeserving victims’ will receive little to no media attention and therefore pass unnoticed within the wider social world.

The reason the media utilizes criteria in order to selectively report on certain situations and circumstances is because such criterion keeps a story simple. It is much easily grasped my the media as there are clear cut set of events which can only be interpreted in one way. For instance, the victim was good and did not deserve what happened to them. Whereas the offender was clearly bad or a horrible individual and there is no room for grey areas. The crimes that are hardly reported on are usually because they are not one-dimensional. The media then decides that a certain victim does not ‘appeal’ to their readership.

The attribution or reason an ideal victim status & related levels of media interest are also clearly influenced by demographic characteristics (Greer 2;23). Such charateristics include class, gender, age, sexuality, race and even ‘respectability’. There are many examples where the media has selectively reported on similar incidents however reporting more on one instead of the other or equally. This is evident during the media speculation for a missing 13 year old, Milly Dowler. When a body was found, it was suspected to be Milly however it was identified as 14 year old Hannah Williams, who had also gone missing around the same time. The news about Hannah was almost forgotten immediately. This was because she did not fit in with the concept of an ‘ideal victim’ as she came from the working class, and was raised by a single mother on low income. By contrast, Milly’s story was ongong as she was epitomized as an ‘ideal victim’. Hannah’s story generated just over 60 articles in the British National Press, mostly after she was found. This was in great contrast to Milly’s, which produced 100s (Fracassini, 2002).

Milly Dowler

These demographic characteristics may or may not determine news media interest however it is not always straightforward. ‘The influence of these demographics needs to be considered within the wider context of the news production process, the other elements of the case, and the prevailing cultural and political environment at that time’ (Greer 2;24). Therefore, in order to completely understand the complexity of which victims are picked up by the media, it is necessary to also take the concept of newsworthiness into consideration.

References:

Christie, N. 1986, In Fattah, E. (ed.) From Crime Policy to Victim Policy: Reorienting the Justice System, London: Macmillan, p.18.

Fracassini, C. 2002, ‘Missing’, Scotland on Sunday, 18 August.

Greer, C. 2004 ‘Crime, media and community: grief and virtual engagement in late modernity’,in J. Ferrell, K. Hayward, W. Morrison and M. Presdee (eds), Cultural Criminology Unleashed, London: Cavendish.

Greer C. 2007, ‘News media, victims and crime’, Sagepub, vol. 1, viewed 7 May 2014, <http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/15712_02_Greer_Ch_02.pdf>.

Phillips N. 2011, ‘The media and the ‘ideal victim’’, Forty Shades of Grey Blogspot, United Kingdom, viewed 7 May 2014, <http://fortyshadesofgrey.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/media-and-ideal-victim.html>.