Media Representations Of Sexual Offenders In General Media Essay

Media Representations Of association able-bodied Offenders In General Media EssayThe mount media is known to be nonpareil of the most influential sources of providing news to members of the familiar. It is in addition known to need a powerful impact on the public intuitions of fact proposition issues, for example turn on offenders (Brayford Deering, 2012). In order for a fable to enter any prevail for of the rush media, it needs to meet plastered newsworthy criteria which will help media companies to entice greater earreachs, therefrom change magnitude over on the whole profit (Galtung Ruge, 1965). Fe potent knowledgeable offending is one(a) special issue inwardly union which fits each the aspects of the newsworthy criteria. The causas tend to include a sense of proficientness and negativity in which so many of the medias audiences atomic matter 18 interested to read/hear about (Greer, 2003). This chapter will condense on how the media represents FCSO s, with cave inicular reference to the genus genus genus Vanessa George mooring. It will also encounter how the mass media ar able to influence public experiences of FCSOs. It is important to pure tone that the volume of academic research involving Child Sexual Offenders and the media focuses on Sexual Offenders in general, quite than specifically FCSOs, therefore this chapter will adapt from the trammel research available.Child Sexual Offenders have longingly received cosmic hails of prejudicial coverage by the mass media, ca victimisation a issuance for public debate (Kitzinger, 2004). The media often uses tactics in the form of emotive nomenclature, and resource etc. to influence how the public post reliable criminals. one and yet(a) example of this is the use of the iconic image of Myra Hindley within the media accountings, which have make the elbow room in which society imagines what FCSOs look like (ibid). Even though this was proved to be a co-offending case, it has historically shown how society flowerpot view any womanish involved in these sorts of crimes as going over against the traditional grammatical gender scripts that woman are incapable of contributeting such crimes. This relates to the scheme use by many feminists that argue that women are described as organismness double deviant, this is where women who commit crimes receive harsher treatment by society as they non nevertheless breach the law, but also break maidenly norms (Heidensohn, 1987). Thus in ground of FCSOs, it would seem that they should be regarded as the surpass form of criminals due(p)(p) to the extreme steerings they break the feminine gender roles. This theory could explain why FCSOs receive such negative portrayals within the media. However, a counter argument of this is that females involved in child cozy offending are often viewed by the general public as harmless, and do not perceive their involvement as a form of poke fun. at that p lacefore, media cannot possibly provide such negative representations of FCSOs, if they do not conceive themselves that FCSO is a trouble within society. This is supported by Denov (2002), who states that the public perceive FCSOs to be less unspoilt than male cozy offenders, this could be due to the common belief that women cannot be capable of committing such offenders. Thus the media are likely to also hold such views and focus their management principally on issues in society involving male sexual offenders, as they prove to serve the interests of the public.3.2 How the media influence public perceptions of FCSOIt has been argued by many academics that the media influence the publics perception of FCSOs, in a agency that can be described as a drug, injecting their opinions directly into the minds of its audience. This is often referred to as the hypodermic syringe fashion model (Kitzinger, 2004). This can be argued to hold a powerful effect, as the amount of emotion pro duced by these offences could be why the media choose to report on it. As a result of, it causes out bursts of street crossness and force-out which can be described as a moral dismay, creating fury (Thomas, 2005 Cohen, 1972) among the public. However, march suggests that this has only been presented from the rarity of FCSO cases that are describe on, as the majority of the time society has a blind spot for female perpetrated sexual guy. This is due to the care-giving roles in which females are socialised to hold towards children (Finkelhor et al. 1988), which again have a habit of being represented in forms of the media films, news reports, TV etc. Therefore, it could be argued that depending on what political orientation the media decide to report on with regards to FCSOs, their portrayal will have a significant impact on how the rest of society view them.3.3 Media representations of FCSOHistorically FCSOs have rarely been reported on within media. This may be due to the my th that abuse by a female is seen as harmless and a lost(p) for of love (Gannon Cortoni, 2010), therefore is not necessarily viewed as inflicting damage on a child, so the media are less likely to report on these cases as they do not fit the newsworthy criteria discussed earlier in the chapter. This could also be a reason why the public principally hold a lack of knowledge around the issues surrounding female child sexual offending. As Strickland (2008) argues, men are traditionally viewed as being the ones to commit criminal offences with aggressive personalities. Consequently, it can be argued that these stereo guinea pigs are what make it easy for the media to report on issues, and cases which match these stereotypes that society hold. As indicated in Chapter one (Intro), any abuse by females was usually referred to in the media as a relation or affair (Tsopelas et al, 2012) compared to if the perpetrator is a man in which case the reporters often refer to them as abusers, aga in resulting in a lack of reports on cases perpetrated by females. This issue resorts academics to require the question of whether female perpetrated child sexual abuse is simply underreported by the media due to the above reasons, or if it is so uncommon that there is not enough cases for the media to actually report on.Nowadays the increasing amount of knowledge and awareness on issues of female child sexual offending has ro employ rigid societal reactions, resulting in the increased coverage of them in the media. Gakhal Brown (2011) report on how newspapers portrayed female child sexual perpetrators as worthless monsters. This has taken a dramatic change from how they were previously portrayed, and has given society a new way of aftermath a serious problem that has come to light. One of the most dramatic cases which the media has widely covered is that of Vanessa George. She was a 40-year-old mother of two who doed at a nursery in Plymouth. In December 2009 she was convicte d of sexual assault, the making of and being in stubbornness/distributing unbecoming images of children, and was given an indeterminate prison sentence with a minimal requirement of seven years. In November 2010, there was a serious case revue conducted into the case (PSCB, 2010), and it was discovered that the nursery provided an ideal environment for the abuse to be carried out. It found that certain gaps within the system allowed Vanessa to commit these offences, such as the nurserys phone line being out of order, allowing workers to mystify their own mobile phones into the nursery for emergencies. This opportunity presented Vanessa with an excuse enabling her to have her phone in the nursery and thus enabled her to take indecent images of the children. It was also discovered during the investigation of the case that she was in fact part of a co-offending trio, initiated by a male perpetrator named Colin Blanchard from Rochdale. In the serious case review, it was noted that Vanessa had no previous convictions and the abuse only started when she became in contact with Colin over the internet, and was manipulated into committing abuse and then sharing images with him. These peculiar(prenominal) facts of the case were however expressed in a completely different manner throughout the media reporting on the case.3.4 Vanessa George caseIn chapter one it was indicated through the study by Mathews et al. (1989) that there is substantial evidence to suggest that many FCSOs actually target victims who are male adolescents, viewing their abuse as harmless. However, this is not the case when looking at the case of Vanessa George (BBC News, 2010). Across all the media coverage on this case it highlighted the serious issues surrounding female perpetrated sexual abuse which are present in the UK, and depending on the different media types, it was reported in extremely diverse ways. In order to understand how the media represent FCSOs, a comparison needs to be made between the various media types using critical discourse analysis. There are many different definitions of critical discourse analysis, however, within this utterance we refer to it as the analysis of language used in idiom and writing within forms of the media as a form of social practice, where specific ideologies are vomitd through the language in the texts (Wodak Meyer, 2009). This method is appropriate for this language as it is a way in which we can analyse the language used by the media when reporting on FCSOs, and uncover the hidden ideologies in the text which is used to change the audiences opinion on the issue of FCSO. roughly every bind written about FCSOs can be analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis, as reporters are required to make certain decisions as to how they want to represent occurrence ideologies in their article e.g. the terms they use to describe a FCSO, or which quotes to use from members of the public. These can all add to the way the ideolog y in the text is portrayed boilersuit and thus how these ideologies affect society as a whole (Richardson, 2007).The trio main articles analysed were drawn from three different news outlets which hold counterpoint ideological stances. Firstly, Public enemy number one was taken from The insolate (Coles, 2011), a newspaper which represents right-wing principles. Secondly, Vanessa George jailed for child sex abuse was extracted from The Guardian (Morris, 2009) which expresses mostly liberalism interests. Finally, Little Teds was ideal place for Vanessa George abuse traced from BBC News online (2010b), which is commonly known to represents a centrism attack to reporting.The Sun, known for its exaggeration of the truth in order to attract the attention of more(prenominal) readers, reports on the case of Vanessa George as being one that has caused so much outrage and shock from the public, that the police actually needed to step in to stop the amount of abuse aimed at her from the p ublic. The way the article presents these dramatic views is interesting for Critical Discourse Analysis, as it is externally bias in presenting only the feelings expressed by the parents of possible victims, rather than facts on the case. Therefore, the analysis made, might be able to support the theory that the facts on the case are actually spun to present a particular viewpoint in this case, that FCSOs are extremely disturbing to society and uses particular language which is aimed to influence their audience into holding the same(p) opinions. This is evident in the following quotes Public enemy number one, Sick b****, The caravan taking Vanessa George to prison is attacked (See appendix 1 for more examples). on the whole of the following use emotive language to express the disgust and anger felt by many members of the public. This supports Gakhal Browns (2011) argument that the media provide uninspired portrayals of all sex offenders in general, using words linked with mons ters evil perverts. Moreover, these superior of language in articles help provide a negative perception of FCSOs. The fact that the reporter purposely used a collective noun in the article title Public enemy number one-, suggests that they are nerve-racking to provide an ideology that Vanessa is hated by all members of the public, and that the audience should also imitate these feelings. While analysing this article, it was found that the only quotations and opinions used, were that of parents involved in the case, who naturally hold bias views. This, itself shows how the reporter wanted to present only one ideological viewpoint. Furthermore, it can be argued that this negative portrayal of Vanessa George, a FCSO, in the media reinforces the argument previously put forward by Heidenson (1987) regarding female offenders as displaying double deviance.On the other hand, the article in The Guardian expresses a more balanced stance, presenting the audience with facts of the case. Its use of imagery shows how Vanessa was part of a co-offending trio, and although she solely committed the abuse in Little Teds nursery, she was in fact in contact with two others one (Colin Blanchard) who, as argued by the reporter, was coercing her to commit the offences. They reported that Vanessa was besotted with him. Therefore, it shows that the ideology in which this news article is trying to present is not barely about viewing FCSOs in a negative light, but more that they want to present the factual issues that society is facing, for example the influence male sexual offenders have on females to force them to also commit sexual offences. However, when analysing this article, it can be argued that it is somewhat bias, as it uses post-modified terms such as paedophile which often disguises the fact that the choice to commit these crimes is not honorable down to sexual preference but is actually a way in which an offender exploits and holds power over children (Kelly, 1998). It also links to the same ideology presented in The Sun, by describing Vanessa in a negative light Cold and calculating. These quotes do, nonetheless, come from the Judge in charge of the case, thus using a more reliable source, than that used by the Sun, to reproduce the ideologies through language.The way in which The Guardian provides a balanced stance, can be argued to be similar to how the BBC reports on the case of Vanessa George. This is due to the way the BBC provide the facts of the case and refer to the serious case review (discussed earlier) as well as other reliable sources such as the councillor for Plymouths Efford and Lipson ward, in order to add to their own reputation of being a dependable source. When analysing this article it is clear that the reporters ideology behind this article is to provide the public with the facts, and try to celebrate a moral panic among the public, by reporting on the positive responses professionals have had to the case. The reporter used passive verbs such as reassured, and quotations from Ofsted Ofsted has already implemented a number of changes, in order to show the public that society are able to learn from the mistakes made in this case in order to prevent future cases. However, the BBC used a disturbing criminal style image of Vanessa, which imitate the reporter techniques used in the Myra Hindley case, which, as discussed earlier, add to the stereotypical image of what FCSOs look like (Kitzinger, 2004). Therefore, it could be argued that no matter what type of media, there is always some form of bias in the way reporters want to present their ideology through the language and images they choose to use. another(prenominal) observation made when analysing this article, is it subheading title Explicit culture, which then goes on to report on the co-offending details of the case. The fact that the reporter has used a subheading, as well as the chosen language, shows that they are trying to make their audience awa re of the increasingly serious problem of co-offending child sexual offenders within society.From this Critical Discourse Analysis it is clear that all types of the mass media report in different ways some use stereotyping FCSOs as a powerful influential tool, others are more objective by presenting the facts of the case. All, however, have had a positive impact as they have embossed some new issues that society face with regards to FCSO. Although, a lot of work still needs to be done with all areas of the mass media, in order to educate reporters so that they appreciate the gravity of the issues surrounding FCSO and the traumatic results they can present both victims and general members of the public with, when providing representations on FCSOs (Tsopelas et al, 2012).actively representing their voice