CRM 3317 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Rationality, Newsmakers
31 Jul 2018
School
Department
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Professor
12/01/17
1
(23) ‘Newsmaking Criminology’ (pt.2)
Criminologists as Newsmakers
• Use mass communication → interpret, inform, and alter images → crime and
justice, crime and punishment, criminals and victims.
• Shape the newsworthy.
Criminologists as Newsmakers
• Contextualizing function.
• Demystifying function.
• Facilitate dialogue → public policy.
• Develop popular vernacular/technical proficiency.
Marginality of the Discipline
• Not affecting discussion.
• Increasingly incapable of affecting public policy → public policy → public mind.
• Research ignored.
• Self-inflicted isolation. Some of this is due to the nature of the university itself.
Trees Falling in the Forest?
• Academic practices → powerful disincentives.
• Narrow view of scholarship → generate findings.
• ‘Publish or perish’.
• ‘Popularization’ a dirty word?
A Place for Emotions?
• Rationality vs. emotion.
Moving to a ‘Public Criminology’
• Knowledge = understanding and communication.
• Community as partner.
• Interdisciplinary relations.
• Advocacy organization → be active witnesses.
‘Reality TV’ as Junk?
• Social experiments?
• Deliberate vs. simplistic populism?
Document Summary
Criminologists as newsmakers: use mass communication interpret, inform, and alter images crime and justice, crime and punishment, criminals and victims, shape the newsworthy. Criminologists as newsmakers: contextualizing function, demystifying function, facilitate dialogue public policy, develop popular vernacular/technical proficiency. Increasingly incapable of affecting public policy public policy public mind: not affecting discussion, research ignored, self-inflicted isolation. Some of this is due to the nature of the university itself. Trees falling in the forest: academic practices powerful disincentives, narrow view of scholarship generate findings. A place for emotions: rationality vs. emotion. Moving to a public criminology": knowledge = understanding and communication, community as partner, advocacy organization be active witnesses.
