The True culture of fear - Thoughts on crime and the media.
By Mike Lee.

If we were to believe all of the reports in the media over recent years, we would imagine the UK as a desperate and broken society where feral hoards of lawless teenagers roam the streets looking for their next victim to terrorise and kill. Every street corner would be inhabited by gangs of ‘Hoodies’ intent on destruction, fuelled by alcohol and drugs, armed to the teeth.

If we think about our every day lives, our trip to work or the local high street it quickly becomes clear that this is not quite true. Of course, there are areas where there are severe problems with anti-social crime and it would be foolish to argue that there is not a problem with crime in our society. There is a greater prevalence of violence from younger and younger people - but - it is still a far cry from the Armageddon the media would have us believe is about to befall the law abiding citizen in this country.

So, why then are we faced with almost daily banner headlines of such crimes? Why, when figures show violent crime is on the decline is the common perception is that it is not only rising but attaining epidemic proportions?

And why do many people believe this is a modern day phenomenon?

The reality is - fear sells.

As well as the problems caused by social depravation, poor education, lack of prospects and a general loss of national identity, there is nothing the media like more than whipping up storm and fury among it’s trusting readership whether the facts bear out the story or not.

Incidents which, several years ago would have got only a passing mention, are not given top priority and pushed to the fore. Reports are spiced up with lurid detail and sensationalised beyond the facts of the case purely to give it that right amount of bite - purely to get the consumer buying and reading. A case in point is a recent article about a stabbing, thankfully non-fatal, where the report went on to decry the rampant knife culture sweeping the nation - accompanying this article was an image of a young boy killed several years previously in an unrelated attack. Now what is wrong with that you may ask? The problem lies in the fact that the stabbing involved a pair of scissors and the picture used to illustrate the story was of a person killed when attacked with a bottle. Neither case involved a knife of any kind but this did not seem to matter - a fact which seem irrelevant to a reporter seeking to ‘sex up’ a story far beyond the accurate reporting of a sickening event. It is unfortunate that the article in question cannot be represented here, copyright and legal issues forbid it, but it is certain that we have all, at some time been exposed to reports which breach the boundaries of honest and factual reporting and descend into the gutter. What does it say about our society when an act of violence itself is not considered shocking enough and needs to be ‘spiced up’?

Analogous to this is the media reporting of attacks on children by dogs. In the late summer of 2007 there were a ‘spate’ of dog attacks reported - of varying severity. Suddenly it seemed man’s best friend had turned on his owner en-masse with reports on almost a daily basis of yet another attack. We are left to wonder whether there was some temporary mass-psychosis affecting dogs across the country - or could it be true that, for a few weeks, dog attack stories were ‘hot property’ and incidents that previously would only have been reported locally if at all are suddenly propelled to the front pages?

It was only several months ago we were all on the verge of destruction where a plague of Bird-Flu was going to sweep across Europe leaving scenes of devastation reminiscent of the Flu epidemic of 1918? A worldwide panic-buying of the drug Tamiflu was prompted by this doomsday scenario - spurred on in the belief that it would be a safeguard for their families when (not if) the impending plague arrives. Then all of a sudden, it went quiet as bit by bit the facts trickled through and the realisation came that maybe, just maybe things are not quite as bad as reported?

The saddest part of this trend when applied to cases of crime is the total disrespect it shows to the victims of these crimes. To have intimate detail of injuries and suffering plastered over page after page, to see the picture of a poor victim dragged up again and again purely to add a little impact and shock value to a story - whether it be connected or not, the real tragedy beyond the crime itself is that these poor victims are never allowed to rest, their families have to endure the the prospect of being faced with images of their lost relative without warning, years after the event, while trying to heal.

Another unfortunate by-product of this sensationalism is the effect it has on the impressionable and vulnerable youngsters in our society today. If a fearful young person sees this carnage on every front page, is told that everyone has a knife or screwdriver or baseball bat and is not afraid to use it - how long will it be before that youngster decides they need to arm themselves? Studies show that the vast majority of young people who carry a knife do so for ‘protection’ Why have these young people become so fearful? Could it be that the media that decry a rising ‘knife culture’ are actually compounding the problem - that the sensationalism regarding knife crime can actually succeed in exacerbating the very problem it reports? Studies have shown there is a very real and tangible effect of these reporting practices and their derogatory influence on young people, as soon as copyright permission is granted, these studies will be available here.

A comparison could be drawn from the tragic events in Bridgeend where an increasing spate of teenage suicides has been widely blamed on the media coverage of earlier deaths, where the exact method of suicide was given almost forensic examination and every grisly detail was poured over time and time again with a lurid and sickening zeal.

Most everyday people are intelligent enough to know that anything you read should be taken with a pinch of salt - that of course stories are blown up out of proportion. But the deep and powerful effect the media have on our collective sub-conscious cannot be ignored - and as more and more government policy is dictated by the media we find ourselves subject to legislation and regulation based on unsubstantiated reports, bias and fear. This is not a healthy situation for any democracy.

While this climate of fear is allowed to pervade our senses how can we ever hope to resolve the issues facing us today - when news of an attack is reported, why is so much time and effort dedicated to reporting what the criminal used to commit a crime and nothing is mentioned about why he or she committed the crime? Should we not be more concerned about why people attack each other instead of what they use to commit the act? A dangerous effect of this misguided focus is that the implement itself becomes demonised - that people truly believe restricting the availability of knives will actually solve the problem? If the determined criminal of frightened youth wants to arm themselves - the first port of call is usually the kitchen drawer. And if a knife is not available, would not a chisel, screwdriver or similar everyday tool make just as effective an alternative? Is it not possible to use a pencil to devastating effect?

When considering bans we only need to look at the 10 year old ban on handguns or much longer standing ban on class A drugs to see the effectiveness of this approach when taken as an all encompassing solution.

Of course, sensationalism is certainly nothing new - ever since the early days of Fleet Street we have had the media frenzy, the furore of the scandal and the baying for blood of those who have failed in their duties. Also, fears about youth and knives is nothing new - in 1958 Flick knives were banned due to fears very much the same as those reported today. The collective memory of the media seems to be very stunted in this respect - again, another comparable situation is the current furore regarding ‘Binge drinking’ and alcohol abuse - again very much touted as a modern day plague. Was it not the case that the famous advertisements featuring Hofmeister bear ‘George’ was banned over 20 years ago because it was believed the character promoted the excess drinking of ‘Lager Louts’? Just as every new generation of teenagers think they invented sex and music - so to are we led to believe that the problems facing society are a new and previously unheard of situation. While this belief persists, can we really hope to even start to address them let alone hope to solve them?

If there is one thing the national and international media love it;s a crisis. In the 50’s Rock and Roll was going to bring down western civilization - it didn’t. In the 80’s Heavy Metal was going to turn our youth into Devil worshippers - it didn’t.
These days, with a glut of publications dedicated to mediocrity, celebrity and scandal - where every story has to leap off the page and every column must be packed with tragic real life heartache and suffering - especially of those in the limelight - the old concepts of fact, context, accuracy and respect have become victims themselves.

Maybe concepts were all they ever were?



© Mike Lee. 2008

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