Abstract: The mass media feature deviance as entertainment. It is as though deviance has become part of our popular culture and everyday lives. There are many reports about prostitution, pornography, gay rights – including marriage and having families – legalizing drugs such as marijuana, gang‐member initiation rites, and polygamy. Mass media reports about deviance and crime comprise a large portion of television and popular culture entertainment (Winick 1978). Most media messages rely on audience stereotypes about “weird behavior” and simply play back many of the moral messages in order to attract even larger audiences. Audiences learn to play with deviance by, on the one hand, sharing in stereotypes, being repulsed by certain conduct, and cheering on authorities who seek to eliminate deviance, while, on the other hand, celebrating deviance for its innovations and resistance to convention, and in many instances emulating deviant lifestyles. However, the mass media coverage of deviance, especially crime, has changed over the last 40 years.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-02-15
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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