Is the media showing too much knife-crime?
We all know recently knife-crime has been in the news a lot and especially in London and high populated cities. But is this a good idea?
In society nowadays, many people rely on news to get their dose of the daily happenings in the country and recently we have all been hit with the brute reality of these knife crimes. But this could influence people. By this I mean having knife-crime on national news all the time can be risky.
This may be due to the negative influence social media can have on people. With things on social media influencing people, the same can be said for things that happen on the news.
Let me know what you think?
Comments (92)
Well done for starting a great new discussion thread. I've given this star for curiosity.
What are some of the other consequences of the media focusing heavily on knife-crime?
Beverley St Nicholas Primary School 11 Jan 2019
I don’t agree because if someones seen it but the police haven’t the police can see it and if the FBI need to be there they can then go.
Beverley St Nicholas Primary School 11 Jan 2019
This has truly opened my eyes! You are totally correct about the risks of showing knife crime on national news. I truly admire your courage of writing a full post about it. It was an amazing risk and it payed off spectacularly!
Hi intellectual_apple,
Do you mean if someone were to use something like to alert people to what is going on at that moment? This is a good point to bring up. Does sharing information like this make us safer?
Hi ambitious_opportunity,
Do you agree with what is said in this post? Can you explain what 'opened your eyes' and how this might inform the way you think about the issue.
Birchwood C of E Primary School 11 Jan 2019
I see your meanings of media and knife crime. My idea is, sometimes they don't go together. It's meant to show what not to do but sometimes the opposite can occur. The media might be another reason why violent crime is increasing! I am sure you have inspired others to think because you have to me!
entertaining_strawberry
Beverley St Nicholas Primary School 11 Jan 2019 in reply to Tiff @ the BNC's comment
I think less knife crime should be shown on the news.
The Ruth Gorse Academy 13 Jan 2019
There is one way to prove that the media shows too much knife crime. It is really easy too. If you go on to 'The Discussion' then you will see that almost every post is centered around knife crime. When I first looked at the discussion page, I was shocked to see that the vast majority of the posts where about knife crime. I would like to see posts on other types of crime as knife crime is one of the many crimes that we, Burnet News Club, could talk about.
Notley Green Primary School B 13 Jan 2019
I personally think it is
it is because facebook is always showing others about what is happening and its showing people too much info about it if they want to know whats going on just look at the news
Faringdon Community College 14 Jan 2019
Thanks, allowing_huckleberry, your post really got me thinking about knife crime in the news an the problems with it but also why it might be an important thing to have featured in the news.
I think there is an argument for and against reporting on knife crime in the news.
It is good for it to be in the news because it makes people aware of the threat of knife crime and how it is something to be aware of. The articles in newspapers about knife crime do not paint the criminals in a positive light and shows how it affects others in such an awful way. By showing the harsh realities, it deters others to get involved in knife/violent crime or to even carry a knife, which is a positive thing for everyone as it means less people are armed with knives in public. Showing the realities is important as there, unfortunately seem to be a trend of kids carrying knives with the Guardian reporting that ‘Ministry of Justice figures showed there were 4,439 knife crimes where the perpetrator was aged from 10 to 17 in the year to September 2017, up from 3,811 the year before.’. I don’t exactly know why these kids carry knives whether it is peer pressure, that they think it is ‘cool’ or ‘grown up’ or they think it will give them protection but by reporting on knife crime and showing the harsh realities of it and the consequences of carrying knives for yourself and others will hopefully make people and youths think twice before carrying a knife with them. And the less people with knives, the less people who are seriously injured or killed from knife crime.
However, I think there are reasons that knife crime shouldn’t be reported in on the news too often. Firstly, I think that some people can be especially sensitive to stories of violence like this. Especially for children or teens, graphic stories of violent crime can terrify them and so have future negative affects like anxiety or just generally making them worried, scared or stressed. Everyone reacts to information differently, a story might terrify one person might only slightly unsettle, if worry at all, another so it is really difficult to decide what details to show because there is always someone who is going to be unsettled by a story.
The fact of the matter is, reporting on knife crime is important and necessary to show the realities and how important it is to not get involved in activities like it. Bringing awareness to knife crime is necessary but there is a balance between sharing the facts and going into gory, unnecessary detail which will just stress and worry a lot of people.
So what do I think?
I think that knife crime and other violent crime should still of course be reported on in the news but I think there should be a few rules. I think that coverage of violent, possibly triggering crime should have a better warning before it is reported so that young people or people sensitive to subjects like this don’t see it. I also think that reports should not go into gory, unnecessary detail when they don’t need to and carefully think about how graphic and possibly triggering the story could be to people. I also think that it is sometimes reported on too often. I get that it is becoming a more common occurrence and violent crime statistics are rising but sometimes it feels like most news is focused on violence, rather then focusing on all the positive, interesting and sometimes more relevant things they could be focusing on.
So in conclusion, I think that knife crime should be featured in the news to help raise awareness to the problem and deterring others to be armed with a knife or partake in violent crime but I think it should be reported on slightly less often, not have an unnecessary amount of gory details in it and should have better and more frequent warnings for it so people who are sensitive to subjects like it can choose to avoid the story.
Sources:
• https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/14/number-children-penalised-knife-possession-rises-16-england-wales
John Ruskin 15 Jan 2019 in reply to ambitious_opportunity's comment
I also think that less knife crime being shown on the news/ media would be better because people could get interested in gangs, but certainly, everyone will feel different.
Birchwood C of E Primary School 15 Jan 2019
In my opinion,I don't think that they want knife crime to end I think this because they want to show people what knife crime looks like
Morley Newlands Academy 16 Jan 2019
I agree because young children could see the news of knife crime on the television and not know that it is a bad thing so they might think that is what they want to do when they grow up because they are only young so they don't understand it isn't a good thing to do.
Birchwood C of E Primary School 16 Jan 2019
I disagree with you affable weaver because media; actually not showing enough knife crime I think this because more knife crime more money for the media
Bruche Primary School 17 Jan 2019 in reply to Tiff @ the BNC's comment
I agree 😛
Notley Green Primary School 18 Jan 2019
I agree because social media gives away to much information about knife crimes because buying knifes online is a dangerous stupid because there is no age limit
Beverley St Nicholas Primary School 18 Jan 2019 in reply to careful_apricot's comment
Good point
Beverley St Nicholas Primary School 18 Jan 2019
yes because it has happened in different countries and county’s like wales but about 20 years it didn’t happen as much then
Highdown School 21 Jan 2019
I think that having all this on the news cetrainly does influence knife crime: people might think it is fun or cool, and go ahead with it even if it is wrong.
Boutcher C of E Primary School 21 Jan 2019 in reply to ambitious_opportunity's comment
Ambitious opportunity
I really like your comment because it shows how much you really care about the environment and how much it has opened your eyes and I like this because it also shows how much you pay attention. What your comment has done to me is it has helped me realise how much knife crime is actually online
Ben Jonson Primary School 21 Jan 2019
I agree because it goes like this: One person does something, the other people get influenced and then they start doing it too. It needs to STOP. People have been suffering from knife crime a lot due to this sequence. One person starts threatening and then others join. It goes on and on and on. People don’t care what the risk is. They just do it. It costs a lot of fear, threat, and lives.
John Ruskin 22 Jan 2019
The media is certainly giving away too much knife crime because the people that are doing this crime may target people that think there safe
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think there has been to much people showing knife crime which is not a good a good idea because it might encorouge people to do it
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think is bad idea to show in TV because some people may think it is good to have knifes.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that some children/teenagers who see violent/knife crime will see how people kill others and will be frightened or worried in the future, if that will happen to them too.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I agree that knife crime should not be on the news.This is because people could copy knife crime and also people could get nightmares.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I believe showing knife crime on media is bad because it encourages people to do crime as they will be infamous.However I believe it is good because it shows them it is bad to do knife crime and the effect it has on people and the way it changes peoples lives.Let me know what you think?
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
People might often bring knives on to the street, because they might often think that people might hurt them, so that's why people might bring knives onto the street
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crime should not be shown so much in the media. Some people might think it is a good thing to carry a knife to protect themselves.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think you are correct for many reasons. One of my reasons is that people will get really worried and over protective. My second reason is that people might take a knife them self to protect them self from these people. My final point is that it will stop people wanting to come to the country because of the horrible crime.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I believe that the media showing a lot of knife-crime is not a great idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, teens, adults and kids would be encouraged to do the same thing. So more and more people want to do it. Now the number of deaths are increasing very quickly
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that putting crime on the media is wrong for the following reasons.
First of all, some people are mostly going to stay at home because they will think it will be dangerous.
Secondly, people will get INFLUENCED by this. This will make people act all big and cool.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think, the media showing lots of knife crime is good and bad for many reasons. It's bad because people will post it on social media which can make it viral so people may think it's okay because if it's everywhere. Also, people may do it to be 'cool'. If it's everywhere then people won't care. Also, police can't do anything about it if there's so much and people will get scared. People will have different reactions it may make people scared and do bad things (possibly knife crimes). People may carry weapons so they think they're 'safe'.
It's good so people are aware and will take caution.
In conclusion, I think it's fine to have a bit of violent crime on media but not to much.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my opinion, the media is not showing too much knife crime. This is because some people are prevented from carrying a knife by the media's alerting news. However, some people are encouraged to carry a knife by this and end up as criminals. Due to this, maybe the media should cut off the amount of knife crime shown on the news.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my opinion the media is showing too much knife crime.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that the media should not put knife -crime because they might think it is a good thing. Or they might think people do this so they can defend them self. People might not know that it is illegal so they just do knife-crime.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I belive that knife crime is good sometimes and bad sometimes for some following reasons, such as..
If news constantly mentions the problem of knife crime and more people will get influenced as it keeps on happening and as it gets more tense, people will want to try get involved more and more. This may be one of the reasons knife crime is increasing in not only the UK but many other reasons. If the tension between others keeps on getting on the news people will know more about it they may start to get to the point where things between others wont just stop.
However, on the other side if it keeps on getting on the news people will know to be careful and more.This means there are lots of people who actually understand it and lots of these people know what to do. I think some people can change this by restricting these television shows to adults so children do not get influenced to do it in the future
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that showing knife crimes is bad for adults to show kids knifes crimes because they will think its cool and the adults gets payed for killing people .Thats why people join gangs
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think the media is showing too much knife crime.
A reason for this is that it may inspire knife crime and might make people scared of going onto the street. It would also be uncomfortable for some as well such, such as the easily scared or sensitive people would not like to read gory details.
A reason against is that people should keep up to date with what is happening and if they find out the someone has died then they would be more aware.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I believe that the media showing knife crime will have negative results in the future for a number of reasons. Once or twice a week you may turn on the news and see a detailed recount of recent violent crimes.This can be extremely stressful for those sensitive to this. This could also be scary and a constant worry to some people. Not only this, but it could encourage young people to commit certain crimes, resulting in more knife crime being shown in the news.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that the media could be a good idea and bad idea at the same time.
It's a good idea because it tell's the people to be careful and safe.
It could also be a bad idea because some people find it 'cool' and see the people on the news get popular and want to do it.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think the media is showing a lot of knife crime 's for several reasons.
The first reason why the media should stop showing knife crimes because it is inspiring people to carry knives.Showing knife crimes can make people worried and scared when they are on the streets.Knife crime can also make people think its a good thing or a bad thing .A reason against it is that people would always see it and wont read it any more.
Well done to Millbank Academy! There's lots of open-mindedness being shown here where you have clearly thought about both sides of the argument. It's also great to see people adding to the comments. Now, have a go at replying to each other and asking some questions about the other person's comment, to find out more.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
We need to stop posting things like people being assassinated because it might make people become more violent.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my view I think that the social media is trying to say 'It is time we deal with this vindictive and sad news' I think after time it could make other people immune and they would not care about others precious lives.Why would they always be in social media,why not in private.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to resourceful_eagle's comment
I agree with you because it is true that when the children or teenager gets too worried, they cannot concentrate on other things.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
When it comes to this matter, I get the sense of supporting the idea, but at the same time, I get the sense of not supporting the idea. Here's why:
Why I don't support the idea:
The constant news of the knife crime almost every day does make the topic quite boring, but this raises awareness for what is happening, and since this is on the news a lot of the time, the topic gets such attention, especially for the newcomers to high populated areas, such as London.
Why I support the idea:
The constant broadcasting of this issue can make sensitive viewers, such as kids, very upset at the horrific truth of this. Also, the more the problem is discussed, it can almost seem boring in a way. You have to think about it twice, before realising how devastating the occurrence is.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I am for and against about the knife-crime being shown on the news as much as it is already.
For:
I am for this idea because it raises awareness to people that don't care or don't look twice at the horrible tragedies knife-crime is causing. Everyone is sometimes thinking that carrying a knife can be normal but it's not. Almost everyone getting reckless, careless about this serious issue. News are making sure that people know the dangers of knife-crime.
Against:
I'm also against because if, for example, a kid or a young person is watching the news they will probably get really frightened that knife-crime is happening everywhere. What I'm saying is that people can get scared because of this alert. Adults, aren't easily scared but it can be quite a sensitive subject for them, regardless of age. Media, for example, is another way for people to get scared.
I'd love to hear your opinion.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to eager_plantain's comment
I agree because that could force people to kill.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to precious_cheetah's comment
I would agree, but if you see someone carrying a knife, you wouldn't just do it. Instead, you would think twice about that and the very harsh punishment that comes with getting caught.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my opinion , I agree but I also disagree . I disagree because people need to know what is happening otherwise people will be unconscious and will not know what is happening in England.I also agree because having knife crime on the news all the time because it can scare lot of people and get scared to go outside.Overall I think that knife crime should not always be on the news because people need to go outside for fresh air and get way too scared.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to precious_cheetah's comment
I agree I am with you.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that knife crimes should be in every day news reports and papers. Since maybe people wouldn't be caring if the news wouldn't be warning them every day. Therefore if knife crimes weren't in the news every day maybe people wouldn't even know what is happening in their country because it wouldn't be in the news.
I also agree on the other hand because hearing the exact same thing in the news might make you want to even stop completely reading the news.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I believe knife crime on media is bad because it makes people unemotional to it which could also make people thinking,"If I have a knife I'll be on the news."Which is how people spread the crime around or even they may stab someone just to be on news maybe they planed that? How knows it may be anything.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my opinion I disagree with this because we need knife-crimes on social media for us to be aware of what is happening and what our country is turning into. I also agree because children and others are getting scared. It is encouraging people to carry knives around and think that it is ok .People may also think to join a gang or even start a fight in public.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that knife crime should not be on the news that much because it will be really petrifying when they know what is happening.The reason is that the people will maybe join gangs and carry lots of weapons, they might torture people that are innocent with their knifes.
Your final point about people finding it boring is really interesting. You're right that the more we see things, the more we become desensitised to them. What do you think the risks would be around NOT reporting things, because we don't want people to become bored by them?
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crimes should be on the news because then people can realise how bad it is and how it is making people's life very dangerous. Then the people which are taking knifes around places will realise how it is affecting many people around the earth. The people which are taking knifes around will be scared that they might get captured by the police so they will stop carrying knifes around places. These knife crimes tells people to be safe and look out for people carrying knifes.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that knife crime should be more on the news for people to actually know what is happening and how many tragedies are happening. It also shows how loads of people are worried and scared and this is a very bad thing for people to be scared of knife crimes. Since knife crime came in nearly everybody got scared also knife crime is bad because people are loosing their lives for basically nothing.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my view, I think that the violent crime is in the media not so much and sometimes isn't. Violent crime is on the media a lot because people don't really care about it and people don't really see how important it is. Violent crime is not so much on the media because people think it is consistent to see people stabbed.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I believe that knife crime is good to be in the media as much as it is. I think it is good because if people think about how much knife crime is happening, they will learn to be more aware. It also might make people think twice before they use knives. This also means on a daily basis they will understand why it is so dangerous.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to lively_parrot's comment
Thish is a very great post keep up the work and good luck.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crime shall rarely be shown on media so people do not get used to it because knife crime deserved to be handled with.Also to much knife crime shown to media might make the killers do more bad things because he knows everyone is used to killing.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think there should be no more knife crimes because people are dying because of this. This is a very serious matter to all the people. If this keeps on happening people will not care about this anymore since this is happening all the time, and other people will start to join/make these crimes even more!
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crime shouldn't be in the media because it's worrying and scaring lots of people.However we need to know knife crime is happening so we can do something about it because it,s serious.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crime in the media is bad because the media are almost glorifying it ; everyday we hear in the news that has happened so we are almost immune to the fact that someone has been stabbed and it can be quite sensitive so children hear these atrocities.
It can be good though as it will make us aware that someone in our area has been stabbed so we will be aware of it.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
In my view, I think we should always put violent crimes on the news because we need to learn what we can do to stop them. Some people may find violent crimes frightening because it's about violence but I think we should know what's happening around so we could all find a way to stop crimes and gangs. Crimes are common around the Earth. In fact, it is so common that people doesn't even care about crimes now when they see it in the news because of how much times they see it now. But, people will always care about crimes now only if they've been in that situation or if they saw it themselves. We all need to be alerted when we go outside because you can always find a gang doing something illegal. So you need to be very cautious and always tell the police if they are doing something they are not supposed to do.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think knife crimes shouldn't be in the media because it is serious and dangerous, knife crimes are mostly on the streets or at your house, another reason that knife crimes shouldn't be in the media because they might be babies or children. My third reason that knife crimes shouldn't be in the media because nearly every day people are murdered by knife crimes and are violent.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
Too much knife crime on the news is dreadful because people are less aware if crime is happening near them it is bad for kids to watch and will give a bad influence for kids adults too because adults might think it is not that bad because it is happening a lot around the whole world . This is going to increase the amount of crime around the world and will bring a lot of emotions out , it is heart breaking for the relatives/friends of the victim and could want people to get payback and make other people will start doing knife crime and increase the amount of knife crime rapidly.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
When it comes to knife crime, the first thing that comes to mind is the news and stabbing. Some people have different ideas, mostly because of the news.
I believe that the media is talking too much about knife crime. There are two things this can do to people. The first one is that people like children or young teenagers can become scared, threatened or worried about the subject. They might be worried if someone in their family will be stabbed, or them.
Another way people can have different opinions on knife crime if the media talks to much about it, is people might not care about it anymore and not take it seriously. So, if they don't care, and some stabbing happens near them, they won't mind and not be worried. This can be good in a way, but it shouldn't be since they won't be aware about what's happening.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think there are two opinions for this because knife crime should be on the media because if it was not on the media then people would not even care if someone got stabbed, and it should not be on the media because there is so much knife in the news and the media that people might get scared and more people might start caring knifes because they might think that someone will stab them.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I disagree with knife crime because knife crime is atrocious and more people are going into knife crime and the more people that go into knife crime is causing more gangs to happen and a lot of more stabbing to be caused.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think it should be on the news because it warns people to not get involved in any crimes. and it should not be on the news because it can scare people.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to easygoing_saxophone's comment
You are doing very good keep it up the work.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
This a interesting question, I think that knife crime should be on the news but not ever time someone is stabbed because after a while people will not care.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think it is good to post about knife crime because you can understand how bad knife crime is.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019
I think that knife crimes should stop on the news because it is bad and it will make people bad and make them bad instead of good people.And we should stop putting it on the news.
Graveney School 23 Jan 2019
I think you should write more ,however I like your post.
Millbank Academy 23 Jan 2019 in reply to enchanted_lake's comment
But this might make people scared or worried. Social media should not send thing that are personnel to the people who are in news.Why should they be in social media.
Well it is hard for some people to understand the meaning of the crimes so they should more should not see whats happening in the open world.
For:
I also agree to your statement because it advises other people to be careful and cautious.This will mean that other people would not fall into a gangs state.If in a strong reason people would fall into this state because if are struggling to do something for example,trying to pay the loan back to the bank.
Michael Faraday School 23 Jan 2019
The other consequences of the media focusing heavily on knife crime is:
• It makes people alarmed about their surroundings
• Makes the minority of young people do the wrong decision in their future
• Makes the majority of young people make the right decision in their future
The news, Social media, technology sources and newspapers exaggerate the news about murder and knife
crime, especially the headlines at the front page:
1) Man stabbed to death on Surrey train in front of 14-year-old son
2) Jaden Moodie killed in attack that lasted 30 seconds, say police
3) London stabbings: Two people knifed to death in first six hours of 2019
4) Edmonton stabbing: Four men attacked in north London brawl
These headlines and the other headlines sound frightening because it wants you to read further on therefore, to make them sell their newspapers. They extend their headlines with appauling information such as a father who was stabbed in front of his son, a boy killed in 30 seconds, two adults killed by knife in the New Year and four men attacked in England’s capital. This (as well as making you curious to read more of what has been happening) can have a negative impact because these frightening headlines will make people who are reading the news scared. It could also make them terrified of even stepping out of their doors into the city streets and this negative impact could spread everywhere in the whole of the UK and affect the people reading them.
The news on violent crime can also have a negative impact on the minority of young people. They could look at crime in the news, could mis-understand the news of violent crime, become influenced and instead could join with gangs and attempt crime and murder with a knife or a sharp instrument. The news could have a negative impact on young people who read the news and this way, more people will join gangs and the knife crime will rise annually and soon will be more knife crime than how it used to be a few decades ago.
This can also be a positive impact on young people. My reasons behind this is since (the majority of young people who read the news) will hear about the terrible knife crime and how it affects people’s lives, it will then teach them to not to commit knife crime and murder. This will make a decrease in the number of deaths in the UK and this will be a positive change for the UK and could be a solution to stopping it.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/stabbings-in-london-knife-crime-murder-rate-crime-gangs-mile-end-grove-road-social-media
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/knifecrime
https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/knife-crime
Well done for being open-minded here and thinking about what the positives might be too. I wonder there is a way to ensure the press sticks to the facts and doesn't exaggerate?
St Barnabas C of E Primary School 25 Jan 2019
committing crimes is very bad so if you thinking about committing a crime you should stop right now all there will be consequences if you want to commit the crime which is very bad because you will go to jail
Highdown School 27 Jan 2019
People may want to commit crimes to do things like restoring wealth or getting revenge on people, so they might think it was a good idea
Highdown School 28 Jan 2019
I agree that it isn't a very good idea that knife crime is being shown on media and on tv. People are more interested to read or watch negative news, because it is more of a story. Children, teens or maybe even adults who watch the news might be influenced which is exactly what we don't want.
John Ruskin 29 Jan 2019
The media has certainly been showing to much knife crime ,but maybe other people might want to find out more about why and how this is happening. I am wondering, why should the news be all about crimes, murders and knife crimes when there are sometimes lots of other things to to talk about? Like thieves and fires?
There is also a lot of news that isn't related to crime. For example, a lot of UK news is focused on Brexit at the moment. Can you look at a few news websites or papers and decide what makes something newsworthy?
Graveney School 29 Jan 2019 in reply to Tiff @ the BNC's comment
I think that too much knife crime is being shown in the media, as there is much crime other than that done with knives, which I believe is equally newsworthy. I think that this could have negative consequences for the general public, but positive consequences for the media platforms. I think that showing so much news on knife crime can have a bad effect on the public because it may make them scared and more paranoid about knife crime that they should be. The amount of knife crime and homicides is hugely disproportionate when represented by the media, in relation to other crime. The media presents knife crime as a majority of crime, whereas in reality, it makes up only 1% of total crime in England and Wales. As well as this, although the number of homicides is rising, it is still 31% lower than in 2003-4, when it was at its peak. In fact, England and Wales have been deemed one of the safest places to live, according the UN's violent crime reports, with knife crime and homicide rates much lower than global and European averages. This irrational fear can actually have a negative effect on knife crime rates, as many who are scared of knife crime feel that they should carry around a knife for protection. A research has shown that if somebody carries a knife, they are much more likely to be harmed with one (usually their own), than if they do not. Therefore, this paranoia provoked by the media as exremely negative effects on poele's lives and can even end in more harm. However, this amount of publicity about knife crime may benefit the media platforms as fear may keep people buying the newspaper, as they would want to know what is happening, and may be fascinated, even f they are scared. Also, if they are scared, then they would probably want to have more information so that they can be more safe. In this way, the media benefits form showing lots of knife crime and scaring people.
Despite the benefit for the media, I believe that they should cut own on the amount of knife crime which they show, as it can have a disastrous effect on people's lives, which stems form a fear which is unprecedented, all brought to fore by the media.
Thanks for your comment and the excellent reasoning shown. It sounds like this problem is a bit circular. More fear = more knives = more media attention = more fear.
Do you think there is a way to break the cycle?
Graveney School 30 Jan 2019 in reply to Olivia @ the BNC's comment
I think that there may be a way to break this cycle if we publicise articles in the media showing that knife crime is not something to be too scared of, and back that up with statistics and other facts. This would show people that there is no reason to be so scared of knife crime and that it is incredibly rare. If this did not work, it would still be incredibly beneficial to stalling the cycle to publicise articles about why it is counterproductive and dangerous to carry knives for protection. It could also suggest how they could protect themselves against knife crime without carrying knives themselves. I think the this would hugely discourage people from carrying knives, even if it did not stop them fearing knife crime. Also, if the media stopped showing so much life crime on their platforms, then there would not be so much fear, meaning that there would not be so many knives, and there would be less knife crime, so less publicity, so less fear, and it would be a cycle, but opposite to the one already in place from the excess publicity of knife crime.
Noel Park Primary School 01 Feb 2019
I think that there should be a reason to be scared of criminals and gangs because in my opinion I believe that the ganglary`s are violent!
Millbank Academy 08 Feb 2019 in reply to crafty_seagull's comment
thanks for replying to my comment crafy_seagull your really nice and kind :D :)
Millbank Academy 08 Feb 2019 in reply to crafty_seagull's comment
you are so nice even though your from MILLBANK ACADEMY [ i forgot who u were] as me so a big thank you :) :D
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