Bias and Crime in Media
Begin by showing the Policeman PSA video to the whole class or have students view it in the student chapter Policeman PSA.
(Click “CC” to turn on closed captioning.)
You can either have students answer the questions in the interactive activity first, or simply ask the class to discuss them:
- What is this public service announcement’s message?
- What stereotypes and assumptions is it based on and how does it counter them?
- Is it effective in delivering its message?
- Why or why not?
- Is its message still relevant?
- Why or why not?
The important points that should come out of this discussion are that we often make assumptions about people and these assumptions are often based on things such as race, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and so on.
Introduce the key media literacy concept that media are constructions that re-present reality.
If you believe your students need a more thorough explanation of this concept, you can show them this video:
Ask students:
- What representation of reality is this PSA is responding to? (Answer: The identification of Black men as criminals)
If students respond that they don’t believe stereotyping is still a problem, you can make them aware a 2018 study that found news coverage of Black people and crime in Toronto represented them primarily as perpetrators, while Black people in Canada are in fact considerably more likely than most other groups to be victims of crime.[1]
Tell students that persons with mental illness are another group routinely depicted as being violent and dangerous (when in fact they are more likely to be victims of violence).
Ask students:
- Can they think of any examples of this stereotype in film, TV or games?
Point out that because media are constructions, their content is influenced by the biases, prejudices and assumptions of their creators.
Ask students:
- How might seeing an over-representation of African-Americans or persons with mental illness in crime news reporting (which we expect to be an accurate reflection of reality) influence the writers or producers of a movie or dramatic series about crime?
Tell students that media communicate values and messages (even if these are just the creator’s unquestioned assumptions) and have social implications (because we base our view of the world in part on the media we consume).
Prompt students:
- How might we see the world differently as a result of media stereotypes relating to crime?
- How might seeing these stereotypes make members of particular groups feel about themselves.
In his book Mass Media and Popular Culture, Barry Duncan uses the term “dangerous other” to describe our perceptions of certain individuals in society.
Ask students:
- How do we come to view certain groups as more likely to be criminals or to be violent?
- To what extent do we all, consciously or unconsciously, engage in prejudging other people as being dangerous?
- Can you identify groups of people who might be stereotyped as “dangerous” – not necessarily violent, but likely to cause trouble? (A note: This list might include immigrants, teenagers, persons with mental illness, motorcyclists and First Nations peoples.)
- From where do we get these perceptions? (Friends, family and the media all play a role in moulding these attitudes.)
- Is it possible to perceive members of other groups without bias and stereotypes coming into play?
(The purpose of these questions is not necessarily to arrive at any conclusive answer. Instead, this line of questioning engages students critical thinking, self-reflection, and awareness of the social issues at the center of this lesson.)
- Crichlow, W., & Lauricella, S. (2018). An Analysis of Anti-Black Crime Reporting in Toronto: Evidence from News Frames and Critical Race Theory. In Springer eBooks (pp. 301–316). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71776-0_15 ↵