Percieved increase in violent crime - link to media sensationalism?

A report on national crime figures for England and Wales published today shows an overall reduction in the amount of crime, including violent crime - and an increase in public belief that crime has gone up.

Apparently this reduction in crime rates is part of the longest sustained reduction in crime recorded - 48% since 1995, and the chances of being a victim of crime have fallen from 24 to 22%, the lowest recorded since 1981.

So why do 65% of people think the level of crime has gone up nationally?

Could it be linked to media sensationalism, 24 hour news and the tabloidisation of news programmes? Drama, violence and even fear sell papers and engage viewers. From my own observations today's news seems to be more about speculation than reporting. And stirring people up.

The amount of news coverage we receive today could also be a factor - we're never far away from the latest breaking story - radio news, terrestrial tv news, 24 hour news channels, interactive news on tv, newspapers, web based news sites, blogs - all of these outlets will essentially be running the same stories for a given day - but the glut of them surely gives the impression that a whole lot is going on.

I don't much like the local news here because it seems to be knife crime after knife crime after shooting every day. Apparently though Nottingham - a place widely considered to be the East's home of violent crime - is not even in the top 5 areas for knife crime in the country.