Societal Representations of Crime: The Criminality of Albanian Immigrants in Athens Press (From Images of Crime: Representations of Crime and the Criminal in Science, the Arts and the Media, P 93-130, 2001, Hans-Jorg Albrecht, Afroditi Koukoutsaki, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-192094)

• NCJ Number: 192096
• Author(s): Christina Konstantinidou
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 38 pages
• Sale Source: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

This article examines the ideological role of the mass media, the social construction of reality, and the social construction of consensus.

Abstract

The article analyzes the manufacture of a crime wave--focused on the criminality of Albanian economic immigrants--and associates it with a wider climate of "moral panic" manifest in Greek society. It attempts to determine the singularity of the representation of economic immigrants' criminality in the Athens press and how this problem can be related to the social construction of reality, the production of a social consensus, and the legitimization of the mass media's existing power and dominance relations. The article concludes that the selection of what constitutes a news story, how it is to be evaluated, classified, and rated on a daily basis is influenced by each paper's overall philosophy and social perception, which is closely interrelated to the system of representation and interpretation supplied by the dominant ideology. Notes, references