CRIME AND MEDIA 

RESEARCH PROJECT

PRESENTATION – 40 POINTS

INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION – 20 points total

Style of presentation – 8 points

3 – articulate, intonation, enunciation, speaking clearly, volume, pace

2 – manner, professional attitude, enthusiasm

3 – speaking to class with good eye contact with audience and with minimal reading, if reading then paraphrasing afterwards and looking up at audience as reading

Content of presentation – 12 points

4 – demonstrating understanding of material

3 - relevancy of information presented

3 – comprehensiveness of material presented

2 – organization of material presented

GROUP ASSESSMENT – 20 points total content and style

Content & style

6 – demonstration of understanding of material presented, demonstration of research of topic, comprehensiveness of material presented

2 – relevance of material presented

4 – activities – having undertaken activities, creativity, initiative, relevance to topic, usefulness in conveying material and understanding to the class, and engaging the class

4 – coordination, logical flow of material presented, fair distribution of presentation amongst team members

2 – additional materials used, e.g. powerpoint, video clips – relevant, useful

2 – expression/articulation of material presented

NOTE:  Additional submission required  when final report is submitted - PEER EVALUATION & PERSONAL REFLECTION

Peer evaluation:  Each individual group member will be required to submit individually a detailed commentary on the division of workload and describing what were their responsibilities and what were the other group member responsibilities, e.g. how many meetings were organized, who attended, who was responsible for what material, etc.. 

Personal reflection:  What did you learn about yourself in undertaking this project, and what stood out for you in terms of what you learned about the topic under investigation and why. 

Both these parts are written and submitted individually. 

NOTE:  In the final submission, all of the drafts of submissions of each part which I will have seen and provided comment must be appended to the final report.

NOTE:  The project is still worth 100 points. Part 4 is now worth 40 points, to compensate for the fact that part 1 is worth no points as it is the same as your journal #1 - worth 20 points in terms of journal assessment component. 

During the first weeks of class, in groups of five, you will undertake research, producing a research report and presentation.  

For the written component, draft submissions are due for parts 2, 3 & 4, see course outline.  These will be returned with comments one week after submission.  The final report with reworked drafts and part 5 as well as the individual component is due April 4^th – NO EXTENSIONS.  Word length:  approximately 3000.  One group paper is to be submitted for this project. 

However, each individual group member will be required to submit individually:

i) A commentary on the division of workload and describing what were their responsibilities and what were the other group member responsibilities, e.g. how many meetings were organized, who attended, who was responsible for what material, etc.. 

ii) A personal reflection:  What did you learn about yourself in undertaking this project, and what stood out for you in terms of what you learned about the topic under investigation and why, comparison with your part 1.

The assessment will consist of points for the presentation with both a group and individual component and written report.  The presentation is to be approximately 40 minutes.  Creativity in presentation will be required and evaluated.  Consider using props, role play, games, music, photos, etc… in order to present your findings, and to include active class participation.  There is no need to present all components of the project, only those which you consider to be most pertinent.  See me for ideas if unsure. 

Some class time will be provided for groups to meet. 

Specifically your team will be required to undertake the following:

Part 1: Your Current Understanding of Crime and Criminal Justice – 20 – Journal 1 – this part is an individual component part of the project. 

Part 2: Description of Media Coverage of Crime - 20

Due Date: February 7th

In this part the goal is to report on how a specific media source covers crime.  

i)  First your group needs to choose a media source.  These may include the following: 

-  television news broadcasts; network news shows (CTV, CBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc…);

-  a newspaper (local, regional, or national) or news magazine (i.e. MacLeans, Canadian edition of TIME);

-  a primetime crime drama currently being broadcast or in syndication;

-  TV crime documentaries (i.e. "72 hours: True Crime”, “America's Most Wanted," "Cops"),

-  a series of crime movies that deal with a particular theme (i.e. juvenile delinquency, organized crime, police corruption, deviance in women's prisons, , etc.);

-  talk radio programs;

-  or crime literature (magazines, comics, short stories, or novels).

Many of these sources now have Internet sites. The number of media sources you must cite will vary depending on the topic and the medium selected for analysis, however, you must obtain a representative sample. In general, 10 days media coverage, 10 movies, 10 episodes of a crime-related TV show (each must be listed separately on the references page and cited within the paper using an appropriate academic referencing format), 10 issues of a magazine, etc., is needed to have enough material to complete the assignment. These are minimums. 

If you are reviewing a daily news source(s) you should include a full listing of the number of crimes covered by category (e.g. murder, robbery, rape, property crimes, white-collar crime, computer crime, government deviance, etc.), specific details on "high profile" stories, and criminological explanations offered.

For fictional sources, you might want to choose a theme or crime type, then pick examples of the media source that features it. For example, serial crime, white-collar crime, street crime, drug crime, crime inside prisons, police deviance, sex crimes, psychopathology, war-related crime, terrorism, computer crime, hacking, family violence, school crime, etc. would make good topics. If your media source is movies, then locate a set of films that all focus on that type of crime.

ii)  You must choose a major topic for this part and 5 subtopics. These should be of criminological significance such as demographic characteristics of depicted individuals, criminological motivations offered, patterns or techniques, etc.

Your subtopics serve as the major issues you are to investigate. Your paper should use the subtopics as major headers and use the media sources as descriptive data for discussion, categorization, and comparison. Tables or charts summarizing your findings can be included. You are not looking for comprehensive plot lines or story lines per se; these should be included when they are essential to discussing the subtopics. However, facts and direct quotes from your media sources are what get used to illustrate your main points. 

Helpful Hints:

-  Do not compare your media data to scholarly or factual sources

-  Keep personal opinions out of the paper.

-  Do not mix fiction and nonfiction media sources. This will force you to write your paper as a comparison, when it should be descriptive. Better to pair movies with novels, and newspapers with local TV news, etc.

-  All references must be cited within the paper (at least once) using appropriate academic format citations.

-  The first paragraph of any writing assignment is the most important. In effect, the first paragraph should serve as an outline or abstract of your paper. The major theme or topic of your paper should be stated in the very first sentence. Each following sentence or section in the first paragraph should introduce the various subtopics of the paper in sequential order. The second paragraph should then introduce your first subtopic, and so on.

Part 3: Description of Media Coverage of the Criminal Justice System - 20

Due Date: February 21^st via email

This is similar to topic 2; however, the goal will be to report on how a specific media source covers an aspect of the criminal justice system.

You may choose to discuss (1) law enforcement, (2) the criminal courts and criminal law, or (3) sentencing and corrections. As these are complex, choose a topic that covers an aspect of law enforcement, courts, or corrections. For example, police stories may be tales of crime fighting activities, police deviance, social work functions, or bureaucratic activities, among others. Courts stories could focus on role players such as prosecutors, defense attorneys, or judges; or processes such as trials, plea bargaining, or jury deliberation.  Look for criminological explanations offered by the media for the behavior of criminal justice agents. For example, is police deviance depicted as the result of stress, peer group pressure, racial bias, personal abnormality, etc.  

i)  As in Part 2, your group must choose a media source.  All that is written in Part 2 item i) applies here. 

NOTE:  In both parts 2 and 3, you can either choose to first choose a media source or first choose your topic(s).  It is advisable that before choosing your media source, spend enough time reviewing possible sources so you have a good idea of what types of issues are covered. You can then use these issues as your subtopics.

Part 4: Comparing Media Images to Criminological Research – 40

Draft Due Date:  March 7th

Using the main topic of part 2 and its subtopics and part 3, your group will be undertaking a comparison of media images of these topics covered in the earlier paper to what is currently known about these topics from sociological and criminological research.  This is where you will explore how your media sources reflect or do not reflect “the truth”. The primary focus is on research and statistical articles on the subtopics themselves not in terms of media, but you may also wish to present other criminologists' commentaries on the media source as well. The goal is not to find one sentence or two in a source that matches the media image(s). Your analysis must stand on its own as a discussion of the scholarly literature.

Only scholarly journal books and articles (the latter may be found online) should be consulted as sociological and criminological sources. A minimum of 10 scholarly sources must be included.

Part 5: Improving Media Coverage of Crime and the Criminal Justice System - 20

Due Date: April 4^th as part of the final submission with reworked drafts of earlier parts

You have just been hired as consultants for a local TV station/Radio Station/Newspaper. Management has informed you that they want a more "honest" portrayal of local crime and the Canadian/provincial criminal justice system, focusing on the topics and subtopics you have discussed in parts 2 & 3, and your findings of part 4.  Detail the steps you would take to carry out this directive.  These steps should be justified based upon the readings and lectures you have been exposed to in this course. A clear understanding of the impediments to carrying out more complete coverage must be discussed, along with how you will overcome these.

Search the Web for pages that discuss news sources that have attempted to change their crime coverage to be less sensationalistic.  Check out alternative media sources, e.g. indymedia, media watch organizations