Media, Culture and Crime
CRM 470
Module 3 Assignment
The Thread
Directions:
- Read this assignment in its entirety. Familiarize yourself with all of the requirements.
- Answer in a Microsoft Worddocument or PDF. Be sure to include your name in the title of this document.
- Review the course readings, slides, and supplemental content posted on our course Blackboard site.
- Listed below are a series of questions. Using your course readings, course slides, and the supplemental content address the following questions in a short answer (paragraph) format. You may type your responses in the spaces provided below each question. Do notmerely copy and paste your responses from the chapter or slides. Review all of the content as instructed in step three and offer a summarized response.
Assignment:
- Watch The Thread posted on our Blackboard page. The video is approximately 1 hour.
- Address the following questions using course content from Module 3. Use complete sentences and punctuation.
Questions (Use as much space in between the questions as you would like):
1.How was the concept of anticrime advertising illustrated in the film? What “targets” did these efforts focus upon?
2.Define the concept of citizen cooperation ads. How did law enforcement utilize such efforts in the film? Was it effective?
3.How was police surveillance and self-surveillance employed in the film? Do the 5 potential benefits and costs outlined in chapter 8 apply to the notion of self-surveillance and loss of privacy outlined in chapter 10?
4.Your author makes the case that the general public no longer merely consumes the media but rather actively engages in the creation of media. How is this represented of illustrated in the film?
- What forms of old (legacy) media and new media were illustrated in the film? What’s the problem with old media relying on new media as a source? How was this illustrated in the film?
- Your author discusses the continually blurred line between news and entertainment. He refers to this type of content as“infotainment.” Offer some examples of infotainment illustrated in the film.
7.Whether intentional or not, how were the events of the Boston Marathon Bombing a Performance Crime? Be sure to explain your answer.
8.Chapter 9 outlines the image of crime in the media as a trisection of wolves, sheep, sheepdogs. In the film what individuals or groups represent wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs? Are these representations in line with what typically see in the media?
9.In chapter 11 the author poses the question of whether the media may misconstrue or influence the functioning of the criminal justice system. The author offers two postulates. Offer a brief definition of these two postulates. Do both apply to the events depicted in the film? Be sure to explain your response.
- In chapter 11 your author describes two potential paths or “futures” of the manner in which the Criminal Justice System will function with regard to media. Compare and contrast how both of these two “futures” are illustrated in the film. Given what was represented in the film, which potential future is most likely to prevail?
11.At the beginning of the semester we considered the notion that media and the criminal justice system have a “forced marriage.” Offer a definition of this notion or concept. Given the content of the film, do you agree that a forced marriage exists? How does the film illustrate the potential risks and benefits of this forced marriage?
