Media Consumption and Public Confidence In Policing

• In Event: Media, Police, and the Public

Abstract

One theoretical frame that is used to understand public confidence in policing differentiates the instrumental model and the expressive model. The instrumental model stresses that the role of the police is to curb crimes. On the other hand, the expressive model emphasizes that the responsibility of the police lies in maintaining community values. Most previous studies were conducted under the assumption that the public have objective information about the neighborhood. This information is used by the public to evaluate the police. In the new media era, the public is always exposed to various media forms that are then consumed by the public. That is, the perception about police may not be rooted in facts, but rather it comes from the depiction of the world through media. Therefore, one void that is not yet addressed involves the role of media in shaping public confidence in policing. If media affects the fear of crime and/or the perceptions of the community, this will result in an assessment of the police regardless of the reality. The current study aspires to investigate the mechanisms that link media exposure to public confidence in policing.

Author

• Jaeyong Choi, Indiana University of Pennsylvania