Is the media lying to you?
Almost everyone watches reads and hears about current news; what if someone told you most of what you hear is not even the full story? For many decades, the media has always been a valuable resource to inform people about current events and the latest news from around the world, most would say it is a very reliable source, but today I’m here to tell you that it is not.
The media often has a very bias opinion that is not fair and doesn’t explain both sides of a story. I have most commonly found this in news articles/stories about offenders who have served time in jail. Christian Perrin is a criminal psychologist and has worked very closely with criminal and sex offenders. During his talk, he mentioned how the media portrays offenders in a very negative way whereas he explained to us that not all the offenders he has worked with are bad people.
Whenever the media writes or tells a story about an offender they always use very harsh language to describe the offenders. This vocabulary includes words like evil, gruesome, or monsters who have no heart. I can prove that is not true for everyone because there are several offenders who have turned their lives around for the better. Offenders such as Derek Jones, Duane Jackson and Jermaine Morrison are principal examples of people being able to change. For example, Derek Jones. He became a repeat offender during his 30s, turned his whole life around by starting a business offering Prison Technology services at a whopping six-figure sum.
Christian Perrin has worked with many offenders who have been able to change, but that doesn’t mean all offenders can change. He has also worked with offenders who will never change. As he said during his Writer’s Fortnight talk “some people might never change but we can try to help them.” That’s what he tries to do in his line of work, trying to help offenders change their way of thinking and reacting in different situations. The media puts offenders into only one category which is viewing them as awful people who will never change. The media is using very strong words such as ‘never’ which makes people believe that offenders will stay with the same traits/characteristics for their whole life. I know that not everyone can change but that doesn’t mean we can’t help them, and many criminal psychology programs have helped offenders make a positive change within themselves.
The media also doesn’t fully understand how badly they portray offenders. For example, let’s say an offender has served their time in prison and has shown that they have matured as a person. The media has been saying all these horrible things about what every single offender is supposedly like. This shapes the public’s mind on what every offender is like and it can really ruin their lives. Yes, offenders may have made a very bad decision in their past but that doesn’t mean they can’t grow as a person and learn to not make those mistakes again. This can affect their relationships, their jobs and even their family life. Essentially the media is brainwashing the way the public thinks of offenders.
Criminal psychologists are truly able to see the growth and development of an offender through the programs that they go through whereas the public sees none of what happens behind the scenes and only sees their past mistakes and therefore make them out to be an evil monster.
In this news article from Chanel News Asia stated “In a news release, the prison service said the overall recidivism rate for the 2015 cohort of inmates was 25.9 per cent, lower than the 26.5 per cent for the 2014 cohort and the same as the 2013 cohort. It attributed this to SPS working closely with community partners for the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, strong community support and help for ex-offenders to secure stable and gainful employment.” This is proof that ex-offenders in Singapore are less likely to re-offend because of the different services offered to help them change and grow. The Singapore Prison Service declared that “The number of former prison inmates who break the law again within two years of their release has remained low and stable,” which is once again showing how ex-offenders can develop and learn from their mistakes.
During our talk with Christian Perrin, someone asked the question “Does society treat ex-offenders right?” and he answered, “The media shapes societies response to offenders.” Generally speaking, that statement is true because most of society has a negative view upon offender’s which is formed in a result of the media.
(Examples of articles that portray offenders in a harsh way.)
Through this very insightful talk from Christian Perrin, I was able to create my own opinion on offenders and how media is portraying them. Somebody might view the negative lights upon offenders as a tool to help generate fear from the public. Fear to not commit horrible crimes which is a good strategy for teaching society what is wrong and what is right. I don’t think it is necessary to neglect all offenders because of crimes they committed in the past because it can ruin their life once they have recovered and finished their sentence. Now I want to ask you a question, do you think offenders/ ex-offenders are able to change, grow and develop as people? And once offenders are out of prison should society view them in a negative manner?
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