Marianne Colbran – författare

What do you think of when you think of the police? Bobbies on the beat? Or perhaps bleaker images of police brutality such as the murder of George Floyd by a serving police officer?For most people, the media are the main source of information about the police. For that reason, being represented positively in the media is an abiding concern for the police.This important new book looks for the first time at the stories the media tell about the police. It looks at the way in which the police have been represented historically across a variety of media, including crime news, police dramas, documentaries, social media, and podcasts. But it also breaks new ground by exploring the process as well as the product and how a variety of factors, including police/media relations, shape these narratives.Some of the key themes explored are:Impact of new digital technologies in reconfiguring relations between the police, the press, and the publicCritical examination of “the thin blue line” narrativeThe problems of the maverick cop tropeIncreasing police control over crime informationThe stigmatisation of certain communities – in particular, Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ , and Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller citizens – particularly in crime news and reality showsExamining whose stories remain untold in popular representationsRamifications of these themes for public understandingThe book will be of key interest to Professional Policing students and researchers, as well as police professionals. It will also be essential reading for students and scholars of criminology, media studies, and cultural studies, as well as for all those interested in these intersections.

What do you think of when you think of the police? Bobbies on the beat? Or perhaps bleaker images of police brutality such as the murder of George Floyd by a serving police officer?For most people, the media are the main source of information about the police. For that reason, being represented positively in the media is an abiding concern for the police.This important new book looks for the first time at the stories the media tell about the police. It looks at the way in which the police have been represented historically across a variety of media, including crime news, police dramas, documentaries, social media, and podcasts. But it also breaks new ground by exploring the process as well as the product and how a variety of factors, including police/media relations, shape these narratives.Some of the key themes explored are:Impact of new digital technologies in reconfiguring relations between the police, the press, and the publicCritical examination of “the thin blue line” narrativeThe problems of the maverick cop tropeIncreasing police control over crime informationThe stigmatisation of certain communities – in particular, Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ , and Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller citizens – particularly in crime news and reality showsExamining whose stories remain untold in popular representationsRamifications of these themes for public understandingThe book will be of key interest to Professional Policing students and researchers, as well as police professionals. It will also be essential reading for students and scholars of criminology, media studies, and cultural studies, as well as for all those interested in these intersections.

Drawing on interviews with journalists, senior police and press officers, this is the first ethnographic study of crime news reporting in the UK for over 25 years. It explores changes over the last 40 years, including the aftermath of the Leveson Report and the breakdown of relations between the Met and the mainstream media.The book argues that new investigative journalism non-profits have been slowly repairing the field of crime journalism and reporting with – and not on – stigmatised communities.Nevertheless, the police continue to control the flow of policing news to the press and the public. Despite the radical transformation of the Fourth Estate, in the case of the police it has never been so restricted in its ability to speak truth to power.