The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Media in Prison Films

Abstract

Generally, people have low levels of exposure to prisons through personal experience and therefore the media plays an important role in informing beliefs and actions. In particular prison films are an important and extensive form of media depiction. However, media depiction of crime and imprisonment has been criticised on ethical, political and social grounds. This article explores how prison films have depicted the relationship between the media, crime and punishment. It argues that this is a significant and integrated part of the prison film genre. It also argues that these representations are important both as a narrative device and in making the media a focus of pressure for reform.

Depictions of correctional officers in newspaper media: an ethnographic content analysis

“…A growing body of literature has explored media depictions of correctional institutions and the people who work and live within their confines (Bennett, 2006;Bennett & Satre, 2000;Cecil & Leitner, 2009;Cheliotis, 2010;Fiddler, 2007;Levan et al, 2011;Mason, 2006). Most of this research explores the portrayal of corrections in Hollywood movies (O'Sullivan, 2001;Zanner, 1989), often focusing on the perspective of inmates.…”

“…In short, media provide the framework for the social construction of reality (Gamson, Croteau, Hoynes, & Sasson, 1992;Surette, 2007). Because correctional institutions and their actors are generally sheltered from public view (Cheliotis, 2010;Wilson & O'Sullivan, 2005), public attitudes and beliefs concerning institutional corrections come largely from media depictions of them (Bennett, 2006;Cecil & Leitner, 2009;Freeman, 1998;Levan, Polzer, & Downing, 2011;Levenson, 2001;Meiners, 2007). Sensationalized or grossly inaccurate media depictions, especially in the absence of alternate sources of factual information, can lead the public to hold distorted views of both roles of correctional officers and the institutions in which they work.…”

“…Correctional officers often are portrayed in the media as uneducated, violent brutes (Finn, 1998;Johnson, 2002), especially in film (Bennett, 2006;Bennett & Satre, 2000;Freeman, 1998;Kantrowitz, 1996;Zanner, 1989). In contrast, very little scholarly attention has examined the depiction of correctional officers within the news media.…”

Crime, History, and Hollywood: Learning Criminal Justice History through Major Motion Pictures

“…A number of these publications have addressed the topic of crime films rather broadly (Rafter 2006;Reiner, Livingstone, and Allen 2000;Rockell 2009), while others have focused on specific types of crimes such as serial killers (Jarvis 2007), psychopaths (Rafter 2005), gangsters (Munby 1999), prostitutes (Campbell 2005), and sex crimes (Rafter 2007). Many of the articles have also focused on a specific component of the criminal justice system, including law enforcement (Crawford 1999;King 1999;Leishman and Mason 2003;Mawby 2003), lawyers (Denvir 1996;Greenfield and Osborn 2003), courts (Bergman and Asimow 2006;Chase 2002;Kuzina 2001), and prisons (Bennett 2006;Bordt and Lawler 2005;Hesse and Przemieniecki 2009;Wilson and O'Sullivan 2005). Moreover, some articles have focused on either a specific agency in film, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Herzberg 2007), or a specific area of justice research in film, such as peacemaking (Braswell 2003).…”

Show me the prison! The development of prison tourism in the UK

“…Criminology has embraced the study of the representation of the prison through various forms of media, for example news reportage (Ryan, 2006), film (Bennett, 2006a;Mason, 2003Mason, , 2006aO'Sullivan, 2001), TV drama (Chibnall, 2006;Jarvis, 2006;Jewkes, 2006) and documentary (Bennett, 2006b and. However, one form of mediated representation has received comparatively little attention, in the UK at least.…”