Diverse Applications of Sociological Imagination: A Qualitative Study of Service-Learning Mentoring

This project expands discussions regarding critical ways that students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences intertwine with service-learning and social justice. Educators need to empower the next generation to explore their views, apply their skills, and engage with social issues. The research intersects with complex conversations about students’ perspectives regarding media representations, justice system responses, and views of at-risk youth. The project spanned four semesters of a sociology of media and crime course with service-learning mentoring. Qualitative reflection data drawn from 104 participating student mentors provided insights into how service-learners’ unique personal histories and sociological imaginations inform their views of youth, the mentoring experience, and social justice. The findings focus attention upon diversity within classrooms and expand the conversation about social justice praxis and service-learning pedagogy. Through reflexivity, the researchers consider their own social justice and service-learning practices, and add to the call for greater reflexivity within community-engaged sociology classrooms.

New Media and Crime among Adolescents in Anaocha LGA of Anambra Nigeria

New media use has been recently understood as an important issue to be looked into among adolescents, parents and others who deal with adolescents. This study sought to examine the new media and crime among adolescents in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State. The study employed the cross-sectional descriptive design method involving a quantitative approach which included a survey of 224 adolescents between the ages of 13-19 years selected by cluster and simple random sampling techniques from five communities in the LGA. The instrument for data collection was interviewer-administered questionnaire while the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in analyzing the data. Findings revealed that phones were the most prevalent new media in use among adolescents particularly the male ones. Also, majority expressed negative view about the influence of the new media on adolescents, with sexting and cyber-bullying as the most common crimes associated with new media. Furthermore, psychological trauma was identified as the major effect of cyber-bullying on adolescent victims. This study recommended enlightenment of adolescents and other stakeholders in order to curtail the level of crimes committed through the new media. Parents and significant others are advised to keep a close watch on their adolescent children and wards while they are browsing the internet, and this will hopefully control criminal activities associated with new media use among adolescents in Anaocha LGA in particular and Nigeria in general.

Smart Crime Tourism as Multilayered Cultural Encounters: Exploring Aarhus via Locative Media and Crime Narratives

This article investigates the trend of smartphone-enabled screen tourism based on the findings from practice-based research carried out during the development and testing of the locative screen tourism experience ‘DETECt Aarhus’. This work shows how smart screen tourism can facilitate multilayered cultural encounters because it can provide a multifaceted perspective on locations and can motivate people to explore local culture. App-guided tours enable the embodied and emotional experiences of traditional screen tourism, but in a more flexible way that eases the crossing of thresholds between the material space and fictional places of crime stories. The testing of the DETECt Aarhus app’s pilot version further highlighted that popular crime narratives and smart tourism technology can address a broader group beyond fans of specific crime media. In addition, visitors with no previous connection to (local) crime stories can use apps to encounter the destination as a material space, fictional place and site of cultural production.

Media and Crime Perceptions: Evidence from Mexico

This article examines whether individuals’ crime perceptions and crime avoidance behavior respond to changes in crime news coverage. I use data from Mexico, where major media groups agreed to reduce coverage of violence in March 2011. Using a unique dataset on national news content and machine learning techniques, I document that after the Agreement, crime news coverage on television, radio, and newspapers decreases relative to the national homicide rate. Using survey data, I find robust evidence that crime perceptions respond to this change in content. After the Agreement, individuals with higher media exposure are less likely to report that they feel insecure and that their country, state, or municipality is insecure, relative to individuals with lower media exposure. Finally, I show that smaller changes on conspicuous consumption and food consumed outside the home accompany these changes in crime perceptions; while I do not find effects on stated crime avoidance behavior. (JEL: D83, K42, L82).

Media and Crime: Influence of Food Crime Investigations on Consumer Perception

The current study is an examination of increasing coverage of food crimes on media and its influence on the public. There are number of broadcasts, commentaries, articles and investigations that have surfaced on public platforms regarding the heinous individual and organized food crimes in Pakistan, literature about the food safety standards in Pakistan has also confirmed that the increasing safety violations have created an impact on public health. These investigative initiatives have created an impact on the audience about reevaluating their choices and decisions about the procurement of common to specialized food items and supplies. This study assesses a range of concepts related to food risk and safety perception amongst the audience with reference to the role and effectiveness of media. The media’s function is assessed in the broader framework of public service and social responsibility theories.