Summary

Why is the representation of the police on television programmes such as 'Road Wars' and 'Police, Camera, Action!' over-sensationalised?

Me, Kiran, Mandeep and Raghav worked together. We discussed the question and gave our opinions; we agreed that the police are represented in an over-sensationalised manner. This is purely due to the power and authority they hold within the community. The stereotypical manner police are represented is that they are always there to help anyone in trouble, they're always helping the local community with any crime going on amongst the area and they never do anything wrong. However, not everything is shown on T.V, behind the seen footage and the true opinions aren't unfolded of the police, audiences have this blind fold around their eyes, picturing the police to only be seen in a positive manner. This stereotypical representation may exist due to the audience having high expectations of the police, and for the community to feel safe around where they live as of the high authority the police hold, so they believe the police keep a protected cage around them. An alternative representation would be showing what happens behind the scenes. T.V shows actually showing different types of police, as they're not always all helpful, as some do hit innocent people or even raid into peoples homes without a warrant, and leave their belongings in a mess. The key media concepts and theories which could be covered in this critical investigation is Propps character roles, police being hero's and people being villians. Also, Levi Strauss: binary opposition of different police members and Barthes: enigma codes to build suspense for the audience. The production which could be linked to this could be a new report or documentary