Analysis of the Theory of Media Representation of Crime in News and News Reports

According to the new approach to representation and reliance on the theory of media constructivism, the mass media, both visual and auditory, do not reflect social reality. Rather, these facts are produced and constructed in the form of their narrative structure. The new theory of representation does not deny the existence of reality. Rather, it claims that reality is not obtained directly; reality emerges through meaning, and meaning is constructed in a social process. In this way, the media do not always act on the basis of what has happened in reality; they often select specific types of crimes, frame criminal phenomena, images of parties involved in crime, and criminal justice officials. This view in the representation of crime can be accompanied by exaggeration and magnification, in the sense that the risk of criminals and the extent of harm suffered by victims of crime, in terms of quantity and quality, is overstated. On the other hand, the media, in representing a number of other crimes, does the exact opposite of what has been described, in the sense that despite the significant damage caused by these crimes, they are not given much attention in the news coverage, and most news and reports are ignored. This research has been conducted by qualitative content analysis method and focusing on the content of media news, and intends to form a realistic view of crime in society by examining news reports and exposing the dual representation and mostly distorted image of crime in the media.