Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Wilkins' Media Amplification Spiral

The media amplification spiral is a theory that suggests that mass media take issues out of context, and therefore cause a long chain of events from the one exaggerated story, for example knife crime.

  • A small group of people commit a crime.
  • The media’s values pick up on an ‘interesting story’ and a ‘problem group’ is identified. 
  • The media produce headlines, stories and photographs to interest readers and viewers. 
  • To maintain readers’ interest, the crime is taken out of context through exaggerated reporting.
  • People become scared of the people committing the crime, so join the people committing crime. 
  • A moral panic develops. Public concern is aroused at the real or imaginary ‘threat’ to society; the media campaign for ‘action’ to be taken against this perceived threat. 
  • More social control – politicians, police and magistrates respond to public demand as shown in the media, and law-and-order campaigns are begun to stamp down hard with deviants. 
  • More crime happens as people are scared of it, so more people carry knives etc to protect themselves, and the process repeats.

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