Abstract
Police forces in England and Wales in recent years have attempted to improve the ways in which they communicate. This results from a number of converging pressures that include technological media developments and government and public pressures to provide reassuring policing services. The same media developments have had consequences for news organisations and their processes and practices of news gathering. In this context, the paper examines recent developments in police non-operational communications, explores the current dynamics of the relationship between crime reporters and their police sources and considers the implications for the ‘shaping’ of policing and crime news. Although the paper provides an examination of contemporary police–media relations, it also looks back to the work of Steve Chibnall whose 1970s research benchmarked police–media relations. Drawing on a national survey of police forces, together with data gathered from interviews with crime reporters and police communications managers, the paper concludes that although the police–media relationship is asymmetric in favour of the police, the practical dynamics of newsgathering ensure that police–media relations remain in a healthy tension; the shaping of policing news continues to be contested and negotiated.
Highlights
This paper explores the shaping of policing news by examining recent developments in police corporate communications and the relationship between crime reporters and their police sources
It draws on data from a study of police-media relations that included a survey of police forces in England, Wales and Scotland and interviews with police communications managers and crime reporters1
Professionalization Previously it has been argued that non-operational communications and police media relations forms part of ‘police image work’ which has developed through stages of increasing formalisation and professionalization (Mawby 2002a; see Leishman and Mason 2003: ch3)
Summary
This paper explores the shaping of policing news by examining recent developments in police corporate communications and the relationship between crime reporters and their police sources. First it sets out the background of converging policing pressures and changes in the media industry that make police-media relations a significant area of study. It identifies dominant trends in the continuing professionalization of police communications and, fourth, it reflects on the implications of these developments for the dynamics of gathering, selecting and presenting policing news. It considers the consequences of these findings for the balance of power in the police-media relationship, concluding that the relationship is symbiotic and asymmetrical, but the shaping of policing news remains negotiated, contested and dynamic
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