An investigation into the representation of females as perpetrators of violent crime in British newspapers.

Abstract

Introduction (part): Newspapers not only deliver the news, but also guide the ideological stance of the reader. According to Reah (1998) newspapers act to persuade its target audience to adopt the ways of thinking of its author and reinforce the sense of ourselves as 'normal' imembers of society, by presenting the information in a way that leads the readers take a certain ideological position. Crime reporting is so influential as to merit comprehensive research, yet the integration of gender and crime reporting has received relatively little attention (Pollak and Kubrin 2007). Consequently, Reah (1998) argued that because there are different types of newspapers, they address different groups of readers, which is why the divergence of reporting in various types of newspapers were expected, even if the same events were covered. According to Conboy (2006) tabloid reporting focused on sensational stories and popular entertainment using casual, concise and sensationalist tone and language, emotive content, catchy titles, dynamic layouts and were easily consumed. In contrast to this, the broadsheet newspapers were more factual, informing the public, using serious language and tones, as well as formally written articles. This point highlights the value that this study brings by means of comparison, determining if there is a difference between broadsheet and tabloid portrayals, in this case, reporting on female perpetrators of violent crime.