Cop Talk and Media Use

• NCJ Number: 90245
• Author(s): M Pacanowsky; J A Anderson
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Eric Document Reproduction Service
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, 31st, May 1981, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Annotation

As part of a research project studying ways in which police 'culture' is socially constructed and displayed in police talk, six members of a research team rode on patrol with officers of a small community police department, during all three shifts, for a period of four months.

Abstract

Conversations during the rides were recorded. Analysis of the conversations revealed many references to the mass media, indirectly disclosing media use. These observations in the social context of police work revealed three expressions of media use: (1) nicknames for officers drawn from the media were used to describe the irony and conflict police officers felt about themselves and their colleagues in relation to their community and society; (2) the police officers consistently used media expressions, specifically those from police novels, as a dramatic authentication of the value of police work; and (3) negative references to television police shows occurred frequently in explanations of the 'real' world of police work. (Resources in Education (ERIC) abstract)