"Readers or listeners often want an explanation of why crimes happen. They ask: 'Could it happen to me?' They may want to know so that they can prevent a similar thing happening to themselves" (Ingram & Henshall).
This quote really stood out to me when learning why crime articles are important to everyday readers. Everyone wants to know how and why something happened. This seems to be because of how out of the ordinary the event is. Take a theft, for example, that happens within someone's neighborhood. This would scare anyone after reading or watching the information. Most people would call their friends and neighbors and tell them to make sure they lock their doors and keep everything secure. I would bet that most people would ask their neighbors to keep an eye open for any suspicious activity. Why do humans become so scared about a close to home event, but no so worried about a distant event?
Unfortunately, a more in-depth crime with a lot of terrible information will attract an audience for days. What makes horror so interesting to people? Is it the psychological realism or is it just because of how terrible the action is?
Ingram & Henshall and also stated "It is not always the major crimes which make the most interesting news." This was really interesting to me because of how true the statement is. If something terrible happens in a big city, then the news will cover it, but that will be about all. What about a terrible event that happens in a small city of less than 200 people? It will be in the paper everyday and on the news with up-dates daily. It seems to be opposite of what some people would think because a big city should attract more attention, but that doesn't seem the case.
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The fact that major crimes are seen differently depending on whether it occurs in a small town or big city interested me as well. It makes sense, though. Like how they mentioned that a theft wouldn't be as big of a deal in a big city such as New York City as it would be in a small town. It's sad not only because a theft is terrible in general, but that big cities experience it so often that they're almost immune to it.
I think we all feel scared when something happens close to us because it invades our personal and everday spaces. We know that the threat can easily find us even if it is just random.
When it's distant (like a heist in China) we don't feel threatened because we know it would take hours even days for that person to get over here and then they'd have to pick our town out of everything.
Unless the person doing the crime in Russia is stealing money and identities from across the world. Even though the cyber world is vast, we feel threatened because there is nothing we can do.