Policing and the Media

This title provides an account of the relationship between policing and the media. It focuses on the interplay between policing realities, public perception and media reflections, with particular emphasis on debates such as news management and the implications for the police.

Policing and the Media provides an up-to-date overview of the changing dynamics and dimensions of the relationships that exist on the British police-media nexus. Factual, fictional and factional representations of policing in the media are the major - and for a great many citizens probably the sole - influence in shaping their perceptions and opinions about crime, law and order, community safety, police efficiency and integrity, not to mention the efficacy of criminal justice and penal policy. This book deals with all three representations, noting the lines between such clear divisions are increasingly blurred and the concepts of reality, realism and representation, slippery and complex.