Media and its role in deviance
Media is the fourth pillar of Democracy. In the era of post-truth, media plays a very crucial role in society making and mind mapping of the people. So, the intention and the agenda of the media is very important to understand social psychology. Because, nowadays, the role of media has been shifted from news provider to storyteller. How? Let’s discuss that.
What is Deviance: Social Definition
Talking about ‘Deviance’ is a hard thing as it is hard to define what ‘Deviance’ actually is. Usually, an action that creates a negative pole of attraction in order to the administration of that time and space but not a crime, is called Deviance. In simple words, any unexpected activity that causes a disturbance can be termed as deviance, if it doesn't break any law or attempts an action that comes under Criminology. As an example, during a very important meeting, if someone begins to sneeze or starts itching awkwardly, it can be called a Deviance. Because, the action distracts the attention of the people there, from the main discourse of the meeting.
Deviance And Crime: The Little Gap
Crime is an action that comes under Criminology, and that breaks one or more acts defined by the administration. Because, the administration finds it harmful to an individual or the society, at all. And there are specified punishments for these kinds of actions. But, for Deviance, there is no harm nor any law to resist that. So, there is no scope of punishment as well.
Media As A Deviator
In the early ages, the media used to provide information about real incidents and neutral analysis of events. But, day by day, it vandalized its neutral position and honesty towards the truth, and in most cases, it became a player of empowerment and began to create deviances for people. To scripture those deviances, they drew the focus to the deviate incidents rather than the criminal offenses. Even in the cases of talking about crimes, the media houses used to drag the focus towards something that can deviate people from the core crime and talk more about the cases where poor people are identified as criminals.
So, to set deviance in the society, to use deviances to surpass the crimes and to identify an event as deviance, media plays the most important role in recent times.
