Citation

Mawby RC. Br. J. Criminol. 2010; 50(6): 1060-1076.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/azq037

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The relationship between the police and the news media is an integral part of how police forces communicate into the public sphere. Using, as a benchmark, Chibnall's influential account of English crime reporting, Law-and-Order News, and drawing on Habermas's concept of the public sphere, this paper examines the contemporary police-media relationship. It analyses the rise of police corporate communications against the apparent decline of specialist crime reporting drawing on interviews with crime reporters, police communications managers and a survey of police forces in England, Wales and Scotland. The paper concludes that 'law-and-order news' currently remains contested but the relationship is increasingly asymmetrical in favour of the police.