Naslov
Media portrayal of the purposes and development of probation in Croatia

Autori
Sučić, Ines

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, ostalo

Skup
14th Annual Conference of European Society of Criminology

Mjesto i datum
Prag, Češka Republika, 10.09.2014. - 13.09.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
Media portrayal; probation; newspapers; media analysis; supervision

Sažetak
Government attitudes to, understandings of and policy surrounding probation develop from a variety of sources including the mass media which have significant impact and effect on public awareness and perceptions of important social issues. The study goal was to explore and provide a deeper understanding of the probation purposes and probation service development in Croatia from the perspective of the newspaper articles coverage/discourse over the five year period (2009 – 2013). Over this period, in 533 newspaper articles in national and local newspapers and magazines term probation was mentioned. Out of the total number, 390 articles were identified to be suitable for analysis, and they were mostly published in daily newspapers (82, 5%). The highest number of articles on probation was published in 2009 (26%) and 2012 (24%), and the lowest in 2011 (13%). Related to the creation and definition of public image of contemporary probation service and its’ purposes in the media it should be mentioned that over the five-year period, in only 13, 6% cases probation emerged on the newspapers’ cover pages, and in only 38, 5% articles probation was the main topic. Thus preliminary analyses suggest that probation has relatively low visibility. Moreover, in 81% of analysed articles issues surrounding probation were superficially elaborated. The majority of the coverage of probation was either positive (41%) or neutral (24%) in tone, but in 2011 and 2012 a negative tone also became more pronounced. In about quarter of analysed articles following broad theme were mentioned: expectations from inducing probation service, collaboration of probation officers with other professionals, types of instruments and technologies officers use in practice. In newspaper articles introduction of probation service was the most commonly promoted by stressing the reduction of prisons’ overcrowding, reduction of financial costs, and offenders' resocialisation. However, over the years accent given to potential benefits of probation slightly shifted. Thus recently probation was more attached to offenders’ resocialisation than to reduction of prisons’ overcrowding in media discourse. During the five-year period raised the number of newspaper articles in which expectation from probation and collaboration with other professionals were mentioned, and in which specific experiences from practice were described. These changes certainly have important implications for the visibility and public perception of probation. Also, it will be discussed how political and organisational changes influenced presentation of probation service in the media, how discrepancies between official (legislative) and achieved goals (practice) were portrayed over the time, as well as how different professionals understand, interpret and assess development and achievements of probation service.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija

POVEZANOST RADA