MEDIAs ROLE IN PROMOTING CRIMES

1. WHAT IS MEDIA?
As little as 10 years ago, when you talked about media there were really only
three possible things being discussed: television, print (newspapers and
magazines) and radio. Nowadays, we use that media definition in a much
broader, looser context, and things that would have never been considered
media in the past.
So, what actually IS media? Today, media is everything. A host of ever changing
ever developing interfaces, impacting the world around us. There are countless
blogs, email newsletters, Facebook updates, tweets, websites, iPhone app alerts,
text messages from friends and organizations, Movies, Games, Advertisements...
and the list goes on and on.
So, we can define it as:

Media (the singular form of which is medium) is the

collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and
deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or
the specialized mass media communication businesses such as: print
media and the press, photography, advertising,
Entertainment, broadcasting (radio and television) and publishing.

MEDIA
Out Door
Print Media The Press Entertainment Broadcasting Publication
Media

Books Journalism Billboards Movies Television Literature

Editorial
Magazines Signs Gaming Radio
Columns

Comics Placards Internet Books

Computer &
AR Libel
Pamphlet Advertisement
Mobile
statements
Devices

MEIDA sOURCE INFORMATION

M HAIDER HUSSAIN LLB III (QLC OKARA) 1

2- MEDIAs ROLE IN PROMOTING CRIMES
The Media serves as the primary source of the crime information. The exaggeration of
both the nature and extent of crime in reporting enlarges the size of this problem and the
public is left alarmed about public order and safety. Because the popular media is the
most consumed source of information. Sensational crime reporting remains a staple for
newspapers because it is guaranteed to boost ratings. After all, rating mean profits and
crime sells. It has been observed that society has become more violent since the advent
of the modern media industry. The arrival and growth of film, television and, latterly,
computer technologies, have served to intensify public anxieties.
The news media are not mirrors, simply reflecting events in society.
i. Promoting White Collar Crimes:
White-collar crime refers to financially motivated nonviolent crime committed
by business and government professionals.
"a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the
course of his occupation".
Typical white-collar crimes include fraud, bribery, Ponzi-schemes, insider
trading, labor-racketeering, embezzlement, income tax invasion, stock
manipulation, cybercrime, copyright-infringement, money laundering, identity
theft, corporate crimes and forgery.
- Ponzi Scheme:
A fraudulent investment operation where the operator, and individual of
organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the
operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned through
legitimate sources. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new
investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of
short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.
Example:
The scheme named after Charles Ponzi who became notorious for
using the technique in 1920. The idea , present in novels (Charles Dickens
1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit and 1857 novel Little Dorrit each described
such a scheme), was actually performed in real life by Ponzi.
- Cheque Washing:
It is the process of erasing details from cheques to allow them to be rewritten
usually for criminal purposes such as fraudulent withdrawal from the victims
bank account.
For example the cheques can be washed by basic solvents but the polarity
of the ink should match with the polarity of solvents used. For example a
polar dye made ink can be washed by Nail polish remover (acetone or
isopropanol- rubbing alcohol).
Case Law: PLJ 2004 SC 685
Offences fell within ambit of "white collar crime", distinct from ordinary
crimes, having its salient features. Accused were appointed as different
posts in the P.T.C.L., so accused were collectively responsible for offence.
Their duties were inter-connected and could not be separated. Accused had
played their active role in illegal installation of telephones. No illegality was
found in impugned judgment. Conviction and sentence were upheld & leave
refused. PLJ 2004 SC 685.

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 ii. Inadvertently Promotes Violence:
Violence begets violence. We gain sense through media that how to do
violence. The media made our habit to watch violence without any guilt and
conscience.
- Batman the dark knight
- Childs play
- The Scream
- Special 26

iii. Bad Effect on Human Psyche:

The media made us sadist.
- Desensitization: Numb
- Arousal: through viewing imagery violence many psychopaths do the same
thing. Media intrigues them to do it.
Example:
A Texas father beat and suffocated his 2-year-old daughter to death after
she interrupted him while he played computer games, police said.
Anthony Michael Sanders, 31, was charged Friday with capital murder in
the December death of Ellie Sanders, who was found unresponsive on her
parents bed after spending the day with her father and older brother.
- Epilepsy
- Bank robbery in GTA V

iv. Introduces New Ways of Crimes:

we get new ways and tactics from media to crime. Media transmits knowledge
of criminal techniques.

v. New Media, New Crimes:

New media leads to new crime. The internet now offers us content from all of
these forms of media and mobile devices give us access wherever and
whenever.
- Cyber Violence:
Bullying by text, threatening e-mails, cyber stalking.

vi. Penetration of Protocols of the Zionist Elders:

is an anti-Semitic fabricated text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global
domination. The forgery was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into
multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the
20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers,
the Protocols are the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting where Jewish
leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the
morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world's economies.
- Protocol No. 4: Destruction of Religion by Materialism
- Protocol No. 13: Turning Public Thoughts From Essential to Non-essentials

vii. Promoting Social Evils:

Facebook, Whatsapp, Cheap rates of mobile networks.

M HAIDER HUSSAIN LLB III (QLC OKARA) 3

 INFERENCE
The distorted picture of crime painted by the news media reflects the fact that news is a
social construction. News is not discovered but manufactured. Some stories selected,
while others are rejected. There is a criterion by which journalists and editors decide
whether a story is newsworthy or not. The news media are not mirrors, simply reflecting
events in society.
- Everywhere you look there is a screen, some big some small, availability Is
24/7/365.
- We are all connected
- Everyone is a reporter, a journalist, a photographer, a film maker
- Everyone has something to say, a story to tell.
- Everyone is an expert
- So, what is my story,
- Who is my audience,
- Who do you think I am?
- Who do I want you to think I am?
So who decide what is fact of fiction?

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