Media's Representation of Crime and

the Criminal Justice System

1 INTRODUCTION
Criminologists often criticize the media for a variety of sins, notably the emotiveness, distortion,
and oversimplification that they bring to matters of crime and justice. This academic frustration
is driven by the media’s social and technical accomplishments: their perceived capacity to
create, reproduce, and deliver content in mind-boggling abundance and near instantaneity and
their putative impacts on many aspects of social and cultural life. From this perspective, these
apparently potent forms of communication subvert the work of criminology by purveying
unrealistic images of crime and criminal justice and eschewing rational reflection about them. To
analyze the media representation of crime and criminal justice system we will consider the
current situation of media representation its effects and remedies.

2 MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF CRIME

The media plays a key role in agenda setting in relation to crime and deviance. Agenda setting
refers to the media’s influence over the issues that people think about. The mass media clearly
can’t report every single criminal or deviant act that occurs, and media personnel are
necessarily very selective in the incidents that they choose either to report or ignore. Naturally
people are only able to discuss and form opinions about the crime and deviance that they have
been informed about, provided by the agenda setting media. This results in people’s
perceptions of crime and deviance in society being influenced by what media personnel choose
to include or leave out of their newspapers, television programmes, films or websites. Media
representation overwhelmingly therefore influences what people believe about crime regardless
of whether these impressions are true or not.

2.1.1 Frequent exposure to onscreen violence lead to increasing anxiety

According to a research, the findings indicate, around 376 participants out of 388 (97%)
responded regarding how anxious they feel after watching breaking news on TV. It is worth
mentioning here that breaking news in local TV channels often focus terrorist attacks, violent
crimes, disasters and shocking incidents. This finding supports the assumption that the more
frequently viewers are exposed to on-screen news of violence, the more anxious they feel that
in consequence might lead to recurrent exposure to mediated violence and growing anxiety
level among the viewers.

2.1.2 exposure to on-screen crimes and real-life violence lead to mounting depression
As the results reflect, there seems to be a significant positive relationship between depression
Findings suggest that the more time people spend watching TV, especially news, the more
depressed and sadder they feel.
2.1.3 Sensationalization of crime
During the last decade, terrorism related news has been extensively covered by Pakistani news
channels despite evidence suggesting that such coverage may cause viewers of such incidents
to suffer from trauma leading to anxiety, depression, emotional problems, and the
catastrophizing of personal worries.
For example, On December 16, 2014, the horrific terrorist attack on the Army Public school in
Peshawar shocked Pakistan and the international community. The widely viewed coverage with
gory details triggered a debate in the country about the traumatic effects of explicit media
coverage on vulnerable viewers exposed to real-life violence through their TV screens.
Altafullah observed that “the repetition of graphic presentations has a traumatizing effect on the
audience, especially children who are the very victims of the Peshawar incident.” They also
“deplored that children looking at children endlessly, seeing their misery, and identifying
themselves with them, makes the whole media exposure extremely traumatizing to the worst
limits” (Pakistan Politics Discuss Forum, 2014).

2.2 REMEDIES
2.2.1 Mutually Agreed Code of Conduct
Media all across the world is following a certain code of conduct with an effective mechanism of
laws and ethics to ensure responsible reporting. On the contrary, in Pakistan, it is completely
missing in practice despite the presence of several media laws and ordinances in writing. There
is a dire need of mutually agreed code of conduct; implemented by the leading media groups in
the country.

2.2.2 Ethical Training of Journalist

Journalists are expected to exercise their judgment call to decide whether an incident should be
reported, ignored or covered in different media interface considering public interest and
demands of quality journalism

2.2.3 Conscientious coverage of Sensitive Topics

Since Pakistan is currently going through a warlike situation confronting militants and extremists
both within and outside the country, the media has to play a conscientious and constructive role
to keep the morale of the nation high. As Osama, Senior Editor Dawn News TV (2009)
commented,” Such a sensitive time calls for sensitive judgment. Visuals inform both the sense
of horror that is publicly perceived, as well as the sense of detachment and disassociations are
irrelevant in present-day Pakistan too.” (Dawn.com.,2016)

2.2.4 Sensor on Graphic content during Live coverage

The news channels should avoid live coverage of bomb blasts, arsons, suicidal attacks and
accidents. Close shots of bullet-ridden terrorists and bloodstained bodies of both victims and
perpetrators of heinous crimes should be avoided for the sake of the public health. At the same
time, viewers should be given freedom to seek detailed information and graphic details on the
customized media such as websites and social media if they like
3 MEDIAS REPRESENTATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SYSTEM
The primary role of the media is to inform the people about their rights, obligations and how the
organs of the state respect those rights. In Pakistan, the media has also assumed a unique role
in our criminal justice system. Worldwide, the courts, prosecution service and police are
considered constituents of the criminal justice system. The police investigate the crime, the
prosecution service prosecutes offenders and the courts try and adjudicate the cases brought
before them.
The media impartially and diligently reports occurrence of crime and trial of criminals to keep the
taxpayers informed about the functioning of the criminal justice system. Here in Pakistan, the
media has taken upon itself the role of trial also. We have seen parallel trial of high-profile
persons and cases in the media, especially on the electronic media. Prosecutors, defence
lawyers, accused persons appear on TV talk shows to explain their respective cases being
adjudicated in courts. Sometimes, the court proceedings are also discussed in these talk shows.
This is a new development in the criminal justice system in Pakistan. The position of politicians
is unique; they participate in talk shows enthusiastically and also protest against the so-called
media trial.
An example can be observed when a former DG ISI was being grilled by the anchor person on a
private TV channel in Asghar Khan case. In the Hajj Corruption case, the accused minister was
pleading innocent before the anchor person in a talk show.

4 CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Media especially TV channels in Pakistan are expected to behave sensibly with high sense of
accountability to regain its credibility in masses.
As Carll (2003) said, “The news media shapes our reality and functions as the gatekeeper of our
perceptions of the world.” It is our responsibility to have that reality is a positive force in creating
beneficial social change.
Perhaps, a more difficult task for journalists is to balance responsible objective reporting with
the amount of explicitness in showing violent incidents. Rationally, it would seem that depicting
violence graphically would turn people away from violence, but that does not seem to happen.
On the contrary, graphic displays of violence on TV might reinforce perpetrators of violence to
further engage in such behavior without regard to the effects such exposure may have on the
mental health of the surviving victims, their families, and viewer.