MEDIA consultant/producer Dennis Howard has lambasted the media, saying its coverage focused too heavily on murders and not enough on other crimes such as rape.

“We don’t hear a lot about that (rape) in the media. And we don’t hear enough about that from some of the organisations representing females and representing human rights in this society,” he remarked.

Howard’s comments came at a seminar, held earlier this month, which examined “Ways to End the Wave of Crime and violence in Jamaica,” at the Ashanti Oasis Restaurant, Hope Gardens.

He told the seminar, which was part of the memorial of the late journalist Eric “Macko” McNish, that the media took an economic decision to focus on sensationalism in terms of crime and violence in Jamaica, and have taken that route to highlight murders.

“I’m a media person. I’ve worked with several outfits for a number of years, and my experience is that after the start of CVM TV, journalism took a nose-dive in terms of output. It (journalism) became more sensational; it is about shocking people.

We’ve dehumanised a set of Jamaicans and desensitised them in terms of the images that we show on television,” Howard added.

The former Observer columnist and radio disc jockey said it was a major mistake when the media was privatised. “I see dead bodies, I see blood every night on my television. Because somebody decided that it will sell,” Howard continued.

He said there are people who refuse to watch the news on television because killing is the main focus. “White-collar crime is a major issue – corruption at the highest level in this country. The media don’t focus on it, and one of the reasons they don’t focus on it is because they are dependent upon the same people who are robbing everybody in this country,” Howard said, to loud applause.