In this lesson students develop an awareness of the ways in which public perceptions regarding young people have been affected by media portrayals of youth violence and youth crime.

In this lesson students explore the commercial and ethical issues surrounding the reporting of crime in televised newscasts.

“Scripting a Crime Drama” is intended to follow lesson two of the Crime Drama unit: “Viewing a Crime Drama.” In this lesson, students will tackle the scripting of a television crime drama by looking at the plot formulas and structures that underpin this genre. Students begin by studying a script from an actual television series and then they script and produce their own crime dramas.

In this lesson students develop awareness of the ways in which public perceptions of law enforcement have been both reflected in and influenced by film and television depictions of police over the past eighty years.