1) Does the media exaggerate crime and cause people to unnecessarily live in fear? On the contrary, how does media coverage of crime expedite crime policy initiatives, and do Americans react too quickly to media coverage to adopt new policies, or are reactions improved because of the speed at which social issues are reported? Explain your answer.
To an extent, yes, the media does exaggerate crime and report too much of it repeatedly. This repetition and exaggeration of crime by the media causes people to think that crime is on the rise and makes them unnecessarily live in fear. What we see on the media depends on a combination of factors such as profit-making motives, political pressures, as well as the thought process and moral values of the people in the media who choose the stories that will be told to the public. Having said that, I think media does play an important role in spreading awareness and evoking public interest towards crime policy initiatives. Media exaggerates and sensationalizes crime, and in one way thissends out an immediate call for action from all corners, so crime does expedite crime policy initiatives to an extent. The speed at which the media reports social issues improves reactions because it causes people to think on these issues frequently; however, public opinion is often divided over most issues, so never-ending debates usually mean that it would take months or perhaps years to alter or enact laws, so I wouldn’t say Americans on the whole react to media coverage too quickly to adopt new policies.
2. Based on your review of the Courtroom 21 Project, in what ways could technology help or impede the criminal justice process? If you were a criminal defendant, would you want your court proceedings to be recorded? What if you were the plaintiff? Explain the rationale behind your answer.
Courtroom 21 Project aims to significantly enhance courts, litigation and law practice by presenting an integrated technology demonstration site to attorneys, court administrators, judges, law professors, and other court staff. Technology in the form of multi-frame remote arraignments, visual record systems, 3-D video-conferencing, and real-time transcription systems greatly enhances the capabilities of courts in handling issues such as dwindling budgets, congested facilities, pending dockets, and over-burdened staff. Technology helps maintain high propriety and accuracy levels in court proceedings.Judges and Jurors for instance can benefit through argument, instruction, and evidence presentations that are clear, timely, and efficient. Some disadvantages include technology funding issues and camera usage rules. Automatic speech processing software for instance can create pronunciation recognition problems due to poor levels of phonetics and prosody. Such problems can distract listeners and impede message comprehension.Irrespective of whether I were a defendant or plaintiff, and unless I am guilty in a way and don’t want some facts, pointers, and informationfromprevious court proceedings to be used against me in the future, I would definitely want court proceedings to be recorded so that there can be a greater sense of accuracy and justification in dealing with clarifications, disagreements, and other events that are an integral part of court proceedings.
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