Brendan Devine
									February 24, 1997


The Media and the Fear of Victimization
Tonight's presenter spoke on the images of crime that are presented on television and the media and how they affect the public perception on being victimized. She gave examples of how the media has the tendency to often blow up a situation so as to make it appear as if the nation is in some great peril. For example if someone does  a study on juvenile crime you can expect the media to focus on juvenile crime and incidents that may be occurring across the nation. Though the crime they are reporting is a portion of the normal crime that goes on everyday and almost unnoticed for the most part but because of the attention it is getting and the media's tendency to sensationalize events  Americans all of a sudden feel threatened by juvenile crime and demand that something be done. Americans in other words are getting a false representation of the real situation. Politicians who are eager to win votes however take advantage of the situation by pushing punitive measures even though the reality is that crime figures do not agree with the reports. She also commented on the fact that the media loves to report crimes (34%) of victimization when the victim is a white woman and her is assailant is black. The reality is however that blacks are more often victimized by blacks. The rate of black on white crime is now where near 34%. This predisposes white women to the fear that they will be victimized by a black person, thus creating a bias towards blacks.
	In regards to the candidate as a professor I feel that she didn't involve the students enough. As a result of this I found her presentation boring despite having an interesting topic. She failed to properly deliver her presentation. She read from her notes entirely too much. She seemed very reserved and almost shy at times, not what I expect from  a professor.