A Brief Discussion on Media Influence
This paper aims to describe the impact of the media on crime prevention by providing an integrative approach for exploring the multiple roles of the media. National and independent studies continue to maintain that the media holds an important position for communication, and information sharing and dissemination in society: “people rely on images of trends and prevalence made available by the experts and official sources” (Sacco 2000, p.208). However, due to the complexity and multi-dimensional framework, which encloses the impact of the media, its interactions and links, these roles remain largely undefined. Therefore, the impact is more complex than a causal link or simply media conforming to dominant news values. In the end, through an inclusive, interactive and democratic relationship with a variety of media sources, there is space for positive results in terms of crime prevention, and thus for preventing media misuse, misconceptions and stigmatization, and for promoting successful strategies and policies.