Symbiosis or vassalage? The media and the law enforcers ‐ the case of Avon and Somerset police

Abstract

Within the U.K. police authorities recognise the importance of information management as a function of good public relations and the detection of crime. The immediate recipients of this information management, the news media, recognise the police as a valuable and constant source of raw materials for news message. Seeking to question the myth of “independent” media wherein “objective” journalism flourishes, and focusing on a particular police authority, this paper examines: firstly, the contextual environments of crime news gathering, why police information on crime is so heavily included in the media; secondly, evidence of police influence on the numbers and contents of messages contained in the media; thirdly, the attitudes of journalists to news nformation derived from police press offices; and concludes finally, that the police/press interface will continue and flourish, mitigating against objective journalism, whence public perceptions of crime and policing may be largely incomplete or inaccurate.