Media Review Assignment

In Short you will need to choose one Criminal act (e.g Theft crime) and pick 4 articles that were talked about in the media and compare how the view media represents crime is different from what it actually is.
This assignment asks students to explore how crime is represented and explained in different
news media, and to examine the social meanings and ramifications of these representations
and explanations.
The assignment is twofold, first asking students to analyze how the selected issue is
represented and explained in the various news media items. Then students are asked to
examine the social meanings and implications of these representations and explanations in
light of criminological theories about crime.
Section 1, Media Critique: Students are asked to select a criminal justice-related issue other
than the legalization of marijuana (such theft, robbery, gun violence, sexual assault, sexual
harassment etc) and to find at least four news stories on the web (published since January 1,
2017) that represent the issue.
Students should consider the following. How is the crime portrayed? What was said, by whom
and how? For example, is it presented as ‘out of control’ and ‘escalating’, or as an isolated
incident? How are the criminals portrayed? How are the victims portrayed? How do race,
class and gender shape and contour the representations and explanations of crime? What
language is used in the constructions of the ‘crime story’? Was the language emotive? Were
the stories grounded in scholarly research? What aspects of the coverage do you think require
clarification? Would you challenge any of the conclusions reached in the media reports and if
so, how come?
Section 2, Social meaning of media representations: The second component of the
assignment asks students to reflect on the social meanings and implications of the media
representations and explanations of crime in light of criminological theories. How do the
media representations explain crime? How do the representations align with / fail to align
with criminological literature? Does it matter whether or not media representations align with
criminological explanations of crime and if so, how come?
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Goals of the Assignment
 The aim is to provide students with the opportunity to critically examine representations of
crime, criminals and victims in news media using course concepts, theories, and themes
related to a selected issue.
 To provide students with an opportunity to critically analyze the relationship between the
social world that they inhabit, media representations of that world, and course themes /
issues.
Assignment sources
Your paper will bring together at least four (4) media reports and three (3) academic
publications:
Media reports: The media reports can be accessed through the web and/or Ryerson Library
Catalogue. Rather than blogs (such as Facebook), microblogs (such as Twitter) or other forms
of social media, the media reports should be produced by news sources such as The Toronto
Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Sun, CBC, Global, and CTV etc. If
appropriate, you’re welcome to also look at international news reports.