Fundamentals of News Criminology in Cyberspace; Challenges and Preventive Solutions

With the expansion of new media and social networks, the phenomenon of newsmaking in cyberspace has become one of the most important legal and social challenges. Newsmaking, meaning the production, distortion, or dissemination of news with specific motives, can have many harmful effects on public opinion, social order. From a social perspective, newsmaking in cyberspace is often done with the aim of attracting attention, settling political scores, or creating public excitement, and at deeper levels, it reflects a kind of structural distrust between society and official institutions. From a criminological perspective, the phenomenon of newsmaking can be the result of a connection between individual motives (including psychological emotions and the desire to be seen), social contexts (such as the lack of transparent media), and structural conditions (such as the lack of media oversight). Also, the boundary between professional journalistic misconduct and criminal action is in many cases unclear and needs to be redefined. This article, using a comparative approach - Imami jurisprudence and statutory law - examines the criminological foundations and effects of this phenomenon, and presents challenges and preventive solutions. According to the research findings, criminal news production in cyberspace, also faces challenges in the legal system such as lack of transparency in defining instances, gaps in accurate criminalization, and lack of rapid verification mechanisms. Finally, solutions at three legislative, judicial, and cultural levels are presented with the approach of crime prevention, strengthening non-security monitoring processes, and amending laws governing media crimes to reduce this phenomenon.