Working with the Media 

The public will gain most of their knowledge of crime and justice from the media. The public’s perception of criminals, victims and criminal justice agencies and their officials is largely determined by how they are portrayed by the media. According to a study of Fear of Crime by John Howard Society of Alberta in 1999, the media play a substantial role in determining the amount of fear that people hold. This comes from the fact that the media extensively cover crime stories. This leads people to believe that there is more crime that there actually is and believing that a great amount of crime exists in society leads people to fear.

Finding good news stories to counter-act this is not difficult, what could be difficult is getting the media to print them. Headline grabbing sensationalist articles about crime will always appeal to a journalist (and perhaps the public) more that an article about how crime is going down in the local area.

You need to build a relationship with the media to gain trust between the two parties. Local media are more likely to produce a balanced article on crime and what is happening in the area. You could invite them to your meetings to discuss the problems that you are facing in the community. Ask them for any ideas, as they are also out and about in the community reporting on local issues, so they may have a good idea about what is happening already. Get them involved and make your issues their issues.