ABSTRACT
In the 1970s and 1980s, the stories of gangs in newspapers, magazines, television talk shows, docu-dramas, and the movies became the public’s primary source of information about gangs. The media became a key actor in the gang phenomenon. It was then that Martín Sanchez-Jankowski (1991) initiated an examination of the media’s role and its relationship to gangs. In Islands in the Streets he analyzes the various media that nonetheless assume “one of three formats: reporting, understanding or entertaining” (p. 285). Reviewing the routine of journalist reporting, he analyzes the restrictions of time and space. Since this arrangement shapes the events’ newsworthy-ness, the format consequently sensationalizes all stories, as it works on assumed images. Forced to fit the audiovisual bite, the emphasis is on featuring gang-relatedviolence and therefore resists an explanation because it must operate on stereotype. Sanchez-Jankowski further notes that even when the various media attempt to format understanding, the narrative structure of documentary begins with a recent event and then weaves information about gangs around the core event. Thus, the focus of a specific city with particular gangs undermines the development of understanding different types of gangs, and different types of gang members. This flattening effect occurs within the larger topic of fear and crime, revealing that the story is not merely about gangs, but the personal and subjective response of the viewer.
