Media Coverage Of Crime

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The general public hears about crime on a day to day basis, whether it is broadcasted on radio or television or published in newspapers and books. The Victorian Crime Act 1958 states that there are numerous legal definitions of crime which can fall under categories such as assault, drug related offences and theft. Crime behaviours listed under these categories have been committed by biker gangs like the Comancheros, who have recently been creating a stir in the Australian media. On the 30th of January 2012, twenty-two year old Comanchero bikie member Giovanni Focarelli was gunned down in front of his father — Vince — in Adelaide’s northern suburbs (Conlin & Pedley, 2012). Each online media website and newspaper published the news of Giovanni Focarelli’s death differently, despite the similarities between the ways they broadcast the stories to the public. Adelaide Now writers Conlin & Pedley (2012) posted an article shortly after they got the news of Focarelli’s death with the title ‘Residents terrified after bikie shot dead on street’. This title is highly dramatised as it wants to capture the reader’s attention quickly, making them feel unsafe and threatened in the comforts of their own home and surroundings. They have made this seem dramatised by using certain descriptive words such as residents and dead on street. When comparing this to an article written by an unknown author based on the same incident, posted on the ABC News website, the title ‘Top bikie’s son shot dead after double shooting’ (ABC News, 2012) was simplified, giving enough detail as to what happened but not enough to make the reader scroll past. The unknown author used eye catching words like shot dead and double shooting to entice the reader, making them want to know which top bikie and\which other person got shot, as described in double shooting. Bikie gangs are becoming more

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