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Chibnall Revisited: Crime Reporters, the Police and 'Law-and-Order News'

NCJ Number
232987
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 50 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2010 Pages: 1060-1076
Author(s)
Rob C. Mawby
Date Published
November 2010
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper charts the current rise of police corporate communications and examines the case for the decline of crime reporting by considering the relationships that exist between crime reporters and their police sources. It explores the everyday practices of news-gathering and the tensions that flow as crime and policing news is negotiated.
Abstract
The relationship between the police and the news media is an integral part of how police forces communicate into the public sphere. Using, as a benchmark, Chibnall's influential account of English crime reporting, Law-and-Order News, and drawing on Habermas's concept of the public sphere, this paper examines the contemporary police-media relationship. It analyzes the rise of police corporate communications against the apparent decline of special crime reporting drawing on interviews with crime reporters, police communications managers and a survey of police forces in England, Wales, and Scotland. The paper concludes that 'law-and-order news' currently remains contested but the relationship is increasingly asymmetrical in favor of the police. (Published Abstract) References

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