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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTINGS

Background of the Study

The popular media is of fundamental importance in the construction of attitudes toward

criminal justice and criminal justice agents. Television is a very important medium regarding
how the public views the criminal justice system (Surette, 2007). Most citizens have very little
contact with the criminal justice system, usually limited to contacts with police. Only an
estimated 21 % of citizens in city of Dasmariñas have contact with police officers in a year, and
40 % of those contacts are merely traffic stops (PNP Statistics, 2010). Most people get their
information and perceptions about crime and the criminal justice system through various media
outlets. Those who rely on the media, however, do not always receive an accurate view of
reality. Media depictions, whether accurate or not, have very important public opinion and
policy implications. One prime example of how the media can have powerful influences on
public opinion was the focus on police misconduct in the past decade.

The Police misconducts as of 2010 caused a panic among many parents, students,
different sectors of community, who had job work, studies and daily routine. As portrayed by
the media, police misconduct was on the rise, and something had to be done. As a result of the
public outcry and continues negative impression implicates by media, public trust towards
police performance decrease. The media attention given to police misconducts seemed to
result in a widespread panic, where actual statistics and logical assessments of the threat were
replaced by emotionally charged reactions to these isolated incidents. In actuality, police
misconduct was on the decline during this time period and the rate of police brutality,
misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and conduct unbecoming decreased steadily from
2009 to 2015 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005). The majority of public knowledge about crime
and justice is derived from media consumption (Ericson, Baranek, & Chan, 1987; Graber, 1980;

Roberts & Doob, 1990; Surette, 2007). As such, the perception of victims, criminals, and
law enforcement officials is largely determined by their portrayal within the media. There was a
plethora of research studies that examined attitudes toward the police (Schafer, Huebner, &
Bynum, 2003). There were, however, relatively few studies that examined the media impact on
those attitudes (Weitzer & Tuch, 2004, 2005a, 2005b). There was even less research on media's
influence on citizens' attitudes toward police misconduct. As a result, the purpose of this
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research study was to address the gap by establishing the impact of media consumption on
public attitudes toward the police. The majority of research conducted on the police-media
relationship was centered on determining the portrayal of police within the media. Literature
on media portrayals of police revealed two contradictory observations. Some research revealed
that the police were presented favorably, while other research implied that the police were
negatively represented (Surette, 2007).

Various researchers posited that the news media engaged in negative presentations of
policing. For example, print and broadcast media characterized the police as ineffective and
incompetent, while reality police shows and news tabloid programs presented the police as
heroes who fight evil (Surette, 2007). The media offered little information to evaluate police,
and the focus was on negative events rather than positive or successful crime prevention
(Graber, 1980). Essentially, crime presented by the media was punished; however, the police
were rarely the heroes (Lichter & Lichter, 1983). Nevertheless, the majority of research
suggested that the police were favorably presented. For instance, in crime dramas, crimes were
solved and suspects were successfully arrested (Carlson, 1985; Dominick, 1973; Doyle, 2003;
Estep & MacDonald, 1984; Kooistra, Mahoney, & Westervelt, 1998; Zillman & Wakshlag, 1985).
Similarly, television news exaggerated the proportion of arrests, which portrayed the police as
more effective than official statistics exhibited (Marsh, 1991; Roshier, 1973; Sacco & Fair, 1988;
Skogan & Maxfield, 1981). Public relation strategies endorsed by police agencies might partially
explain a favorable view of the police. The presentation of proactive police activity builds the
image that the police were effective and efficient investigators of crime (Christensen, Schmidt,
& Henderson, 1982).

The media-police relationship is mutually beneficial. The police have an interest in

preserving a positive public image, while the reporters require quick, reliable, and relatively
easy sources of crime news (Ericson et al., 1987; Fishman, 1981; Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke,
& Roberts, 1978). More recent research suggested that images of policing created unrealistic
public expectations about real policing and disappointment when police did not perform like
their media portrayals (Perlmutter, 2000). Surette (2007) revealed nine police narratives within
fictional police images, which included rogue cops, corrupt cops, honest cops, buddy cops,
comedy cops, action comedy cops, female cops, and aging cops. Surette (2007) argued that
with the exception of female police narratives, hyper masculinity was the familiar pattern
within the narratives and the narratives were individualized. In addition, police reality programs
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have become highly popular in television programming and provided different images of
policing. According to Cavender and Fishman (1998), the popularity of police reality programs
was due to the social context, in which crime was viewed as a serious social problem that was
getting steadily more problematic and dangerous, while Surette (2007) reported that the
attraction of these shows was voyeuristic. The final edit of these shows was controlled by the
cooperating police department, thus any negative portrayals of the police would not be
included in the final product. Donovan (1998) suggested that reality television programs
recreated the law and order ideology and that the police were portrayed as knowledgeable,
sensitive, caring, and competent. Moreover, Doyle (2003) argued that crimes of violence and
the proportion of crimes solved were overrepresented on these shows. Other research argued
that stereotypes about racial minorities and crime were common in police reality shows
(Kooistra et al., 1998; Oliver & Armstrong, 1998). Finally, Surette (2007, p. 108) argued that the
end result was that “crime control is applauded, due process is disparaged. Individual causes of
crime, assumed guilt of suspects, and an ‘us’ versus them portrait dominates” the construction
of crime and justice. Although there were mixed views about whether the police were
negatively or positively presented by the various media types, some researchers posited that
public attitudes toward the police were influenced by exposure to media (Huang & Vaughn,
1996; Maguire, 1988).

There were very few studies, however, that tested this assumption. In one study,
viewing police reality shows and television news increased confidence in police. Racial
differences, however, existed among respondents. White viewers of “reality” police programs
were more likely to have positive attitudes toward the police, while there was no relationship
with African American viewers. Conversely, an increase in confidence towards the police was
exhibited in both African Americans and Whites after viewing the news (Eschholz, Blackwell,
Gertz, & Chiricos, 2002). Moreover, Dowler (2002) found that media consumption had a limited
impact on attitudes toward the police. Heavy television viewers with previous police contact
were more likely to have negative attitudes toward the police. In terms of police misconduct,
there were a handful of important studies that examined public attitudes toward police
transgressions. Many of these studies tested the impact of a single, publicized incident of police
corruption or misconduct on public perceptions of police. In brief, they found that news
coverage of brutality incidents or police corruption increased negative attitudes toward the
police (Kaminski & Jefferis, 1998; Sigleman, Welch, Bledsoe, & Combs, 1997; Tuch & Weitzer,
1997; Weitzer, 2002).
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To further test this relationship, Weitzer and Tuch (2004) examined the impact that
frequent exposure of separate incidents of police misconduct had on citizen attitudes toward
the police. They found that repeated media exposure to police abuse increased respondents'
beliefs in the frequency of police misconduct. This was true for Whites, African Americans, and
Hispanics, however, minorities were more strongly affected. In another study, Weitzer and Tuch
(2005b) found that exposure to media accounts of police misconduct increased perception of
police bias against minorities. Despite the importance of their findings, Weitzer and Tuch (2004,
2005b) employed a single-item self-report measure of media 194 K. Dowler, V. Zawilski /
Journal of Criminal Justice 35 (2007) 193–203 exposure. It is vital that a media exposure is
measured with a multi-measure item that explores different types of media. Therefore, the
purpose of this study was to test the impact that varying types of media consumption had on
attitudes toward police misconduct and discriminatory practices in policing.

A. Statement of the problem

The study aim to provide insubstantial depiction on how different sectors in

different barangay have a variety of opinion, point of view to police misconduct, issues by
media consumption in City of Dasmariñas.

It measures the bond/trust within the law enforcers and the community,
It also distinguish the facts about police misconduct from unreliable information given by the
source (Media).

Subject to this research are the media consumption of various sectors to

improve the information dissemination schemes of such media in effect to police misconduct,
proper, legal and rational broadcasting of news to public to protect the decency and to mitigate
such incident of prejudicial impact statements to public.

B. Significance of the Study

This study intends to measure and evaluate the effects of mass media to
police misconducts as this may construe to enforcement of police as to the attachment in the
community. The very essence of this study is to mitigate the attachment of public to some of
media’s unreliable information to police misconduct, to educate the readers as how they’re
information be formulated to such credible as the decency of organization remains intact of its
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integrity, thus, information may not originate such confusion to the relationship of law
enforcement and community.

C. Objectives of the Study

To assess the impact of media consumption to public in relation to police

misconduct, the purpose of this research study was to address the gap by testing the impact of
media consumption on public attitudes toward the police.

D. Date and Time of the Study

The Research estimated time of completion is on or about half a year

upon the time of commencement. It comprises all related studies and literature before 10
years.

E. Scope and Limitation

This study encompassing varieties of sector in City of Dasmariñas such as:

Adolescent and Pre-Adult (Single) ranging 13 to 17 y/o

Married person(s) ranging 30 to 59 y/o
NGO or Non-Government Organization whose member is ranging

21 to 60 y/o
Student(s) ranging 18 y/o to 26 y/o
Homosexual(s) ranging 21 y/o to 30 y/o
Transgender(s) ranging 21 y/o to 40 y/o only

Old Age ranging 60 and above

F. Definition of Terms

1.) Misconduct n. – Deviant, Wrong Behavior, mismanagement, Malfeasance

2.) Juxtapose v. – to place different things together in order to create an interesting

effect.
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3.) Media n. – from the voiced stops being regarded as intermediate between tenues
and aspirates

4.) Publicized v. – To cause to be known in public, to give information about something

to the public

5.) Transgression n. – infringement or violation of a law or a command, or a duty

6.) Tabloid adj. – compressed or condensed into small scope.

7.) Plethora n. – a very large amount or number: amount greater than what is necessary

8.) Contradiction n. – a different or disagreement between two things which means both
cannot be true

9.) Broadcast adj. – made public by means of radio or television

10.) Discrimination n. – the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people

differently from the other people or groups of people

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

(Cressey 2009) The textual encoding of a media presentation and the subsequent
polysemic decoding of the text by the audience generated an array of diverse interpretations by
the viewing audience (Hall, 1980). Media reception research proposed that the cultural system
of codes and conventions used by media producer and audience needed to be understood.
Fiske (1986), however, took this further, by suggesting that there were eight positions of
subjectivity that should be considered when studying an audience reaction to the media. These
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positions included: self, gender, age, group, family, class, nation, ethnicity, and sexual
orientation (Fiske, 1986). In contrast, earlier approaches to media studies such as the
hypodermic needle theory that regarded audiences as passive and heterogeneous and the two
step flow or limited effects model in which opinion leaders acted as mediators which
interpreted media texts and events for a mass audience, underestimated the intellectual
capabilities of its viewers (McQuail, 1987). Blumler and Katz (1974) proposed that while the
media essentially entertained its audience, it also served as an important tool of cultural
transmission that was employed by corporations and the state to teach individuals about the
hegemonic values of the state, interpersonal relationships, individual and collective identities,
and the identities of ‘the other(s).’ This complex process of interpreting, regulating, and
appropriating meaning from multimedia texts was an imperfect process which M. M. Bakhtin
described as heteroglossia (Maybin, 2001). Since the 1980s, reception research had focused on
heteroglossia or the meaning of television messages that were mediated by the subjectivity of
its viewers (Carragee, 1990; Fiske, 1986; Gunter, 1987; Jensen, 1990; Perse, Ferguson, &
McLeod, 1994). Multimedia viewers constructed meanings according to their social location in
society, which in turn informed and activated its meaning for them. Thus, social location
research analyzed the relationship between the subject's life circumstances, demographic
characteristics, and media presentations (Fiske, 1986). Four categories of social location
research have been identified and they included the following areas of research: the
vulnerability thesis, the substitution thesis, the resonance thesis, and the affinity thesis.
Research studies concluded that the vulnerability thesis, which stated that women and elderly
populations were generally more likely to feel at risk than younger males, had not been well
supported (Skogan & Maxfield, 1981). Conversely, there was some support for the substitution
thesis which suggested that people such as high income elderly women who have not been
exposed to criminal situations, might, after watching the news or crime shows, substitute the
reality of their lives with the idea that they will be future victims of criminal behavior (Gunter,
1987). Other studies had found substantially significant findings, which supported the
resonance theory, that male viewers from low income backgrounds exposed to criminal
situations would have greater feelings of resonance with people involved in arrests on
television than other people (Chiricos, Padgett, & Gertz, 2000; Doob & Macdonald, 1979;
Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980). Finally, the affinity thesis had been supported by
evidence that individuals that viewed a preponderance of characters with similar demographic
characteristics, that were victimized on television, subsequently would be more likely to fear
being victims of criminal behavior themselves (Chiricos, Eschholz, & Gertz, 1997; Gerbner,
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Gross, Jackson-Beeck, JeffriesFox, & Signorielli, 1978). While social location research examined
the viewer's interpretations of a media text in relation to his or herself, the mirror image of
social location research might be found within the framework of ecological theorizing. This area
of research inquiry examined the roles that social economic status, residential stability, and the
racial/ethnic/cultural composition of a neighborhood's population might have on an individual's
perceptions about crime rates and criminal activity in the area that they reside. Several studies
had concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between the percentage of
minorities in a neighborhood and the rate of police brutality and aggression. Social conflict
theory explained this social phenomenon by proposing that threats to the status quo by
minority males who pose a psychological threat to the White male dominated hegemonic state
was played out in the power relationship between police forces and subordinate groups (Kane,
2003). Other factors such as crime rates in a community, the size of the population living in a
community, and the general rental and residential turnover rates indicated that poverty
indicators in combination with police workload issues and the percentage of minorities living K.
Dowler, V. Zawilski / Journal of Criminal Justice 35 (2007) 193–203 195 in a community
contributed to the development of the minority threat hypothesis that was outwardly
manifested in the social construction of the symbolic assailant. The symbolic assailant was most
often identified by the general public as a low income African-American male who lived in a
community that had high crime rates. While Americans were confounded by a multitude of
media images of the symbolic assailant, members of this minority group might, due to
perceptions of resonance and affinity, feel antagonistic towards the police force in their
neighborhood. Essentially, they might regard the police as an occupying army. These feelings of
antagonism precipitate conflict as the authority of the police force was challenged on a
community level. Subsequently, evidence that supported the minority threat thesis and the
police response to minority threat thesis was perpetuated by the multimedia industry and
consumed by a mass audience (Jackson & Boyd 2005)

Methodology

The data were derived from the 2000 Law and Media Survey. The Law and Media Survey
was a nationally representative, random telephone survey of adults (n = 1,011) who resided in
the United States. The project was designed and conducted by the Center for Survey Research
and Analysis, and the Roper Center for Opinion Research provided the data. The purpose of the
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Law and Media Survey was to examine American attitudes toward crime and justice, exploring
issues such as courts, corrections, and police. In addition, the survey provided a comprehensive
assessment of respondents' media consumption. This was essential, as prior research on
attitudes toward police lacked a detailed measure of media consumption (Dowler, 2002).