Chapter 8: Lost in the Mediascape: Embracing Uncertainties and Contradictions at the Cultural Nexus of Crime and Media

Purpose: In this chapter, the authors posit that, shadowing the etiological crises in criminology, much crime media scholarship remains “lost in the mediascape.” The authors outline why dominant positivist methodologies in crime media scholarship leave us lost and offer tools that researchers may use for better wayfinding in this complex and dynamic environment.

Methodology/approach: Drawing on the concept of liquid criminology, the authors join a growing chorus in the crime media field calling for methodological and theoretical concepts more reflective of the social dimensions of liquid modernity, that is, uncertainty, ambiguity, impermanence, precarity, etc.

Findings: The conditions of liquid modernity inform a mediascape characterized by an abundance of data, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theories resulting in collective disorientation and the inability to form coherent narratives about the past, present, or future. As such, these conditions defy positivistic conventions like representative sampling and demand new, imaginative approaches to the study of crime media. To that end, informed by the cultural criminological perspective, the authors offer two methodologies and one theoretical concept.

Research limitations: The authors believe our methodological and theoretical suggestions are best suited for analyzing themes and concepts among discourse around crime incidents that have significant legal and social implications. The authors offer no definitive answers, but hope to begin building a better toolbox for wayfinding in this digital wilderness.

Originality/value: The currently dominant methodology within crime media scholarship is a poor fit with contemporary media culture. Here, the authors begin to remedy that by proposing an orientation that fits better with the fluid, uncertain, and dynamic media environment that permeates our social world.