Blue Lies Matter: Are Police TV Shows 'Copaganda'?

What if your favourite cop show was really a recruitment ad in disguise? This week, Rich introduces Ben to the world of on-screen ‘copaganda’. From Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Wire through to TikTok lip-syncs and even Paw Patrol, is it a problem that TV cops are always so brave, so funny, and so good at breaking the rules for the ‘right’ reasons? What do these stories quietly teach us about crime, justice and law enforcement? Is the badge a prop... or a PR strategy?

Show Notes:

Bayley, David H. (1994) Police for the Future. Oxford University Press.

[Video] Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2018) “Jake Makes the Criminals Sing I Want It That Way | Brooklyn Nine Nine”, YouTube, 12th April.

Color of Change and USC Annenberg Normal Lear Center (2020) “Normalizing Injustice: The Dangerous Misrepresentations That Define Television’s Scripted Crime Genre”, January.

Davis, Elizabeth, and Anthony Whyde (2018) “Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2015”, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. October.

Herman, Edward S., and Noam Chomsky (1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media. Penguin.

Karakatsanis, Alec (2019) The Punishment Bureaucracy: How to Think About 'Criminal Justice Reform’. Yale Law Journal, 128, 28th March.

Karakatsanis, Alec (2025) Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. The New Press.

Karakatsanis, Alec (2025) “How to Sniff Out ‘Copaganda’: When the Police and the Media Manipulate Our News”, Teen Vogue, 8th May.

Kennedy, Liam (2020) “Whenever there’s trouble, just yelp for help”: Crime, conservation, and corporatization in Paw Patrol. Crime Media Culture, 17(2).

Makam, Palika (2020) “Copaganda: What It Is and How to Recognize It”, Teen Vogue, 5th August.

The Onion (2017) ‘Paw Patrol’ Writers Defend Episode Where German Shepherd Cop Shoots Unarmed Black Lab 17 Times In Back. 16th July.

[Video] Particelli, Henry (2020) “Henry Particelli - "Your Name” (Official Music Video) Surprise Ending!!!!!” YouTube, 25th June.

Reiner, Robert (2008) “Policing and the Media” in Tim Newburn (ed.) Handbook of Policing, 2nd ed. Routledge, pp.313-335.

[Cold open music] Renda, David, “Sleek Panther”. Fesliyan Studios. https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/sleek-panther/2195

Salmon, Caspar (2021) “Puppet pups: is PAW Patrol authoritarian propaganda in disguise?” Guardian, 11th August.

[Video, part of an excellent series on Copaganda] Skip Intro (2020) “The Wire, Police Reform, and Capitalism | Copaganda Episode 4”, YouTube, 12th November.

[Video] Smack Mango (2021) “Cool Cops on TikTok”, YouTube, 5th April.

Vitale, Alex S. (2017) The End of Policing. Verso.

Tape wind Sound effect: Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay

Note: Journal articles are often behind paywalls. If you don't have institutional access but would like a copy of these papers please email Illeffectspod@gmail.com and we will happily send you a copy 

Credits: 

Hosts – Rich McCulloch and Ben Litherland  

Music by - Brutalust (Colin Frank and Maria Sappho), recorded and mixed by Joe Christman 

producer – Caroline Pringle