The representations of the police and the media

The media’s and the police’s portrayals in today’s society are influenced by a variety of things, such as social ideals and societal shifts. There are many different media outlets, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, newspapers, and television. Every type of information is simpler to communicate thanks to the world wide web (WWW). The media outlets mentioned here have various connections to the legal system. The connection between law enforcement and the media has been perceived as tense, hostile, and adversarial for decades. (Denef, Bayerl & Kaptein, 2013). According to the description, there have been snags in how the cops work with the media. For instance, some time back the police resisted conveyance of any information that might create fear, endanger the people, and tamper with an ongoing investigation. In doing this, the media was affected since their major role was limited. However, with time various changes have occurred, which have had limitations and benefits and affected the general relationship between the police and the media.

Sources of Media

It is important to note that media is basically relied on to provide information. The different types of media relate to police in different ways. The types of media include print media, broadcast media, and social media. In general, the media can be classified as print and electronic media. Print media include books, newsletters and magazines among others ad electronic media include broadcast media and social media (Denef et al., 2013). Broadcast media include television, radio and many more while social media include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and email among others. The relationship of the police with the media has changed with time since various factors have been modified on both sides. For instance, in many nations especially the United States of America (USA), the police force has shifted from parliamentary organizational structure to a more open community service force. Such a step was inspired by the fact that the police currently understand the nature and value of the media (Van Dijck & Poell, 2013).

Media is viewed as an important resource.

Importance of a Good Relationship between the Police and the Media

Today the security agencies have seen many benefits of cooperating with the media. The media often make the public appeal in any matter that affects the people. For instance, in crime prevention, the police can now get support from the media in various ways (Van Dijck & Poell, 2013). In responding to argent issues the security agencies can use the internet to track some criminal events. To foster the good relationship between the two bodies an understanding must be reached as to how they can operate harmoniously. First, the security agency must recognize the ability of the media to affect the public opinion and reach specialized target groups. On the other hand, the media should understand that the police can hire public relations firms to regulate and monitor media campaigns. They will as well rely on the media to address the image problems and even in enhancing the recruitment process (Meijer & Thaens, 2013).

Complicated Relationship between the Police and the News Media (Limitations in the Relationship between the media and the Police)

Both the law enforcement agencies and the media have had different remarks concerning each other that can be said to have made their relationship a bit soar. The journalists across the world have had remarks on various issues including the abandonment of the practice to hold press conferences by the police. Also, the officers in charge of the media communication are always inaccessible meaning the media cannot get their grievances addressed. The media as well claim that the police are not flexible enough and are at times arrogant (Dirikx & Van den Bulck, 2013).

Communication with the security agencies is often frustrated since they view the media people as foreign mercenaries and traitors. Also, they are afraid to be seen in public articulating their personal views. On the other hand, the police’s remarks on the media include their belief that the media do not have any knowledge on criminal procedures and so they should keep away. According to them, the media tend to give more publicity to irrelevant information about the security agencies. They as well say that in making cases the legal terminologies are misused by the media. Terminologies including “criminal procedure, custody, arrest, and investigations” are always incorrectly used by the media. The security forces often advise the media not to turn their role to schooling of the criminals since there are times when the media platforms including Facebook and even articles have contents that express full details of police work techniques and criminal methodologies (Dowler, 2002).

Police and the Social Media. Law enforcement is a dangerous profession since the officers are risk while trying to disintegrate the society and the criminal elements. In the past, the police could have some protection since they could not easily be tracked and their families were safe. However, with the effects brought by social media, there has been an excessive danger to the officers and their families. The internet has been in place for a widespread public use and so the people are given too much freedom on these platforms. The users and their contents continue to be more advanced in the process (Crump, 2011). For instance, in Facebook and Wikipedia, various contents are modified using photos, commentary, and videos. Meaning the users of these sites can decide to be proactive and passionate about their interactions. Social media has now grown to be more powerful and influential. The law enforcement has recognized this influence and has always drafted and adopted policies that address the use of these platforms (Crump, 2011).

There are no sufficient constraints in social media since anyone can post anything without fear of repercussion. Such an environment always encourages the shocking and inflammatory behavior. Such effects have excessively exposed the community of the police officers. The police are always surrounded by cameras and reporters who broadcast every of their opinion and actions. The recorded pieces (Photos, videos, and messages) of the police officers are always shared in different sites especially facebook (Callanan & Rosenberger, 2011). Other platforms can be article, newspapers, and Twitter among others. It is important to note that these sites have worldwide attention meaning any content posted in them can be shared and conveyed across the globe.

The law enforcement agency can be contentious and fascinating. Its actions can involve intrigue, excitement, and drama that the society and social media find captivating. Most of these scenarios are sources of inspiration to various contents and programs in the social media. For instance, the crime dramas on the television and theaters are motivated and inspired by the actions of the law enforcement. Also, the police are viewed as controversial figures by the wrongdoers who do not require their interventions. Therefore, with the presence of social media such like people can portray the police in a bad way, for instance, they can even form malicious threats on the families of the officers. The police officers can be said to be facing lawless people in the social media sites who expose both of their public and personal lives (Pais et al., 2013).

Impacts of Social Media on Law Enforcement

The current nature of social media makes its relationship with the law enforcement frustrating. First, personal credibility is important to everyone especially the police. However, with effects of social media people in the sites including Facebook can attack a police officer’s character easily. Once, this happens the integrity of the security officer is compromised and the courtroom process and investigation that might have been going on will be put at risk (Marsden, 2015). Therefore, the social media can at times affect the security processes in place by the law enforcement agencies. The police officers can as well find erroneous information trending in social media platforms. Such kind of information is always prohibited from reaching significant audience due to fear of the security of the officers and since it puts their honor under attack (Marsden, 2015).

The officers are as well affected in process of using the media. There are cases where comments posted online by officers have led to investigations and disciplinary actions. Some of the posts might be expressing the truth and honest opinions of the police, but the agencies will investigate any information that might have a lasting impression. The other trending act is cop baiting where the questionable videos and responses of the police officers are exposed in popular sites especially YouTube. Such as becoming common that there is a crisis since the police officers are made to respond to issues that are staged, exaggerated and might not even be legitimate (Mawby, 2010).

Fostering the Relationship between the Police and the Media

In putting measures to enhance the relationship between the police and media it is important to first identify the factors that cause division between the two. The factors include unauthorized disclosure of personal data through media, breach of trust and confidence including disclosure of information obtained by the police agency and about colleagues, revealing personal information on issues such as corruption, blackmail and harassment and exposing operational tactics and materials. The factors listed above are causative issues that negatively affect the relationship between the police and the media. To prevent such for instance there should be guidelines that regulate the operations of both sides towards each other (Trottier, 2012). There is the need for general guidance since it will ensure there are same standards of behavior that would be expected to be followed by both the parties. The information placed on the internet could reach the worldwide public domain and be attained and used by someone it was not intended for. Further, the public expects the police force to act with impartiality, integrity and equal respect for all people; therefore, guidance such as the prohibition of police staff from using social media at work or relaying security matters in social media sites is necessary. Also, taking photographs and videos within the policy parameters is not allowed (Trottier, 2012).

The law enforcement agencies must maintain confidence and trust. The officers have a legal duty not to disclose information concerning security matters. Such data must therefore not be posted on the internet. Moreover, they have to treat security information with respect. Lastly, they are advised not to expose personal information including their racial or ethnic origin, political opinions religious beliefs and many more since this will put their personal security at risk. Most of the guidelines are directed towards the police since the social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, YouTube and Instagram are free from constraints which means that people can post whatever they want anyhow without fear of repercussion. However, there are cases where the social media users are called for investigations in case they conduct themselves in a manner that threatens the public security.

References

Callanan, V. J., & Rosenberger, J. S. (2011). Media and public perceptions of the police: examining the impact of race and personal experience. Policing & Society, 21(2), 167-189.

Crump, J. (2011). What are the police doing on Twitter? Social media, the police and the public. Policy & Internet, 3(4), 1-27.

Denef, S., Bayerl, P. S., & Kaptein, N. A. (2013, April). Social media and the police: tweeting practices of british police forces during the August 2011 riots. In proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 3471-3480). ACM.

Dirikx, A., & Van den Bulck, J. (2013). Media use and the process-based model for police cooperation: An integrative approach towards explaining adolescents’ intentions to cooperate with the police. British Journal of Criminology, 54(2), 344-365.

Dowler, K. (2002). Media influence on citizen attitudes toward police effectiveness. Policing and Society, 12(3), 227-238.

Marsden, J. (2015). Developing a framework for stigmergic human collaboration with technology tools: Cases in emergency response (Doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University).

Mawby, R. C. (2010). Police corporate communications, crime reporting and the shaping of policing news. Policing & Society, 20(1), 124-139.

Meijer, A., & Thaens, M. (2013). Social media strategies: Understanding the differences between North American police departments. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 343-350.

Pais, L. G., Felgueiras, S., Serra, A., Machado, H., & Pereira, H. (2013). Media perceptions on police activity in major political events: an overview of Portuguese context during 2011. The Anthology–GODIAC–Good Practice for Dialogue and Communication as Strategic Principles for Policing Political Manifestations in Europe, 205-217.

Trottier, D. (2012). Policing social media. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 49(4), 411-425.

Van Dijck, J., & Poell, T. (2013). Understanding social media logic.