Since its inception centuries ago, millions of people across the globe have relied on contemporary media to stay informed and entertained. However, following the development of many high-profile cases in the mid 1900s, the media has seemingly become obsessed with serial killers. Hundreds of true crime podcasts have flooded the internet, serial killers are being given catchy nicknames, and movie studios are profiting off these cases by sexualizing serial killers in an inappropriate manner. Media representation of serial killers has influenced public perception of serial killers by portraying them in an idolized manner, resulting in the criminal being glamorized and millions of people following dozens of series being broadcasted in a manner disrespectful …show more content…
Recently, Netflix announced the release of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, their new drama documentary starring renowned actor Zac Efron as Bundy himself. According to Zeba Blay, a journalist for HuffPost, throughout the trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile released online, Efron continuously “grins, winks and charms to the tempo of a catchy rock tune,” (Blay). Portraying Bundy in a romantic, sexualized manner was inappropriate from the start, considering how he was known as misogynistic, and a serial killer responsible for killing dozens of people. In order to garner more attention for their new show, however, Netflix decided that they would emphasize and highlight one characteristic of Bundy: many people found him to be attractive. Instead of focusing on the crimes of Bundy and educating the public about warning signs or other factors that might contribute to the development of serial killers, Netflix chose to attract hordes of fans by focusing on certain physical characteristics of Bundy. Although these two incidents alone may seem isolated, there are several cases of sexualization occurring. Judith Fathallah, a researcher for Lancaster University, one of the biggest issues surrounding documentaries is that “True crime …show more content…
Furthermore, another major issue surrounding the media and how they portray serial killers is the fact that they give the serial killer a type of celebrity status. The vast majority of true crime fans tend to be respectful of crime victims, acknowledging the heinous nature of serial killers. On the other hand, “girls who profess their love for Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer [and] boys who admire the ‘accomplishments’ of Richard ‘The Nightstalker’ Ramirez, and a whole range of activities that fall uneasily into grey areas” can be found abundantly throughout the internet (Fathallah). This occurs in part due to the media’s romanticization and sexualization of serial killers, resulting in a small subset of the population growing an obsession with serial killers, either due to their looks or their actions. It does not help that movie studios continue to cast a-list celebrities with a cult-like following to play the roles of serial killers. Additionally, due to the abundance of horror movies, the idea of serial killing and horrific incidents occurring have both been ingrained into society as a normal contingency. However, other people may be influenced by how the media tends to portray criminals, giving them catchy nicknames such as Jack the Ripper. In turn, this glamorization of serial killers can have certain
I placed the knife on the table and turned around, pinning my gaze inside the plastic wrapped room that I had carefully prepared. An agonized face glared back at me, blue eyes burned beneath the black eyebrows. “What the hell is this?” I carelessly studied the forehead which tightened and twitched with tension and my gaze wandered off to his left cheek. “This... is the moment of truth.” I replied to his cry with ease. He was breathing heavily. Oh, this felt so good. It has been a very long time since I let my dark passenger come out to play. Thirty-eight days, sixteen hours, and twelve minutes to be precise, Trinity has kept me occupied long enough. Then I sliced his left cheek to take my blood slide.
Brogaard, Berit. "The Making of a Serial Killer." Psychology Today. Sussex Directories, Inc., 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 03 May 2014.
16) Gribben, Mark. "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Crime Library. , Presents facts and myths about Fleet Street's most famous serial killer.
“Some werewolves are hairy on the inside.” Stephen King, a famous horror film writer and director, knows that serial killers are some of most evil but unrecognizable people in society. Walking down the street, serial killers go completely unnoticed. This “under the radar” way of living is what makes them very dangerous. Serial killers appear entirely normal on the outside, but it is what is on the inside that makes them unlike everybody else. Inside is where their minds are altered to accept all the morally unacceptable things that they do. Most of the evils they think and do root from abnormalities in their brains, or other imbalances in their bodies. Whether additional faults accompany their irrational behavior or not, serial killers are their own kind of human being.
Oliver Stone’s 1994 classic, Natural Born Killers, excited and traumatized its audiences while also causing controversy. The tale of white trash lovers caught up in a realm of chaos that includes a continuous murderous rampage from state to state, draws in audiences with its graphic violence and riveting pulse inducing music. Yet, the message of this film seems to be much deeper than just exposing audiences to yet another chaotic action movie filled with guns, blood and mayhem. Stone’s Natural Born Killers examines the subject of media’s investment in serial murder very thoroughly, and so it seems likely that it has the potential to offer a more rigorous interrogation of the nature of the American public’s fascination with the serial killer superstar (Schmid 123). Natural Born Killers is a film that exposes modern society’s obsession with serial killers and how the media aids in the glorifying of these notorious icons. The film also plays into the fact that society while finding murder repulsive are just as sick as the serial killers because the enjoy watching such films.
Due to the extreme vile behaviors of serial killers, they become a phenomenon in modern culture (Dogra et al., 2012). People are captivated by serial killers, giving them an almost celebrity like status. Serial killers such as Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer have even had films made about their lives and killings. Serial killers have essentially become icons of infamy in our
However, with every myth there is a certain truth to it. The public’s notion of serial killers is that most killers are nearly all white, they are all male, they are insane, they are all lust killers, they kill dozens of victims, they kill alone, serial killers torture, beat, stab or strangle to death their victims. The offenders also are all very intelligent, they have high mobility in the United States (for example) or they are truly driven to kill because they were sexually abused as children. The truth? Hickey (2005, 139) brings facts to light, one in five serial killers is black, nearly 17% of serial murderers are female, very few offenders being 2%-4% are legally insane. Many of the murders do not involve sexual assaults, torture, or sexual mutilations, a very few number of the homicides have a high body count but most kill under 10 victims, one in four killers have one or more partners in murder. To continue from Hickey, some victims are poisoned or shot as opposed to tortured, beaten, stabbed, or strangled. Truthfully, most killers are of average intelligence, most offenders remain in a local area and many kill because of rejection and abandonment in childhood.
Creeping around the shadowy house, the predator found its prey waking to strange sounds. The victim lay facedown, with a sweating forehead pressed fearfully into the pillow, silently praying the noises would just go away. Suddenly the victim found himself straddled and pinned to the bed. He was unable to scream for help due to the pressure of the handle of a pick-axe against his throat, preventing any breath from escaping, much less any sound. The victim struggled beneath the weight of the assailant. The scant light from the sodium-arc street light outside cast a peculiar silhouette on the walls of the darkened room, projecting an image that looked oddly like that of a cowboy saddled upon a bucking bull at a rodeo. Struggling to dismount the attacker, the victim felt the piercing blows of the sharp point of the pickaxe, succumbing to death only after receiving eleven stab wounds to the chest and throat. The thrill of the kill was stimulating enough that, when interviewed later, the murderer reported “popping a nut,” that is, becoming so sexually aroused by the event, to the point of having an orgasm (Pearson, 1998).
Serial killers differ from other types of murderers. The number of serial killers in the U.S. is staggering. Differences are clear between serial killing and conventional murders. Serial killing can be classified as either motive based or organizational and social based. The Holmes Typology helps to understand the motivations behind serial killing. Serial killers may be even motivated by fame as part of their motivation for killing. John Wayne Gacy could be seen as evil due to his repeated violent acts. Jeffrey Dahmer was also evil by committing his acts of serial murders. Both Gacy and Dahmer had police records prior to their arrests for serial murders. Serial killers are poor candidates for rehabilitation. Their acts are evil.
“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” These were the terrifying words of one of America’s most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy, after he confessed to coldly slaughtering thirty women. Every year Hollywood writers go after serial killers like Bundy for their gruesome stories; in turn, these writers have created a stereotype. They cover their faces with masks and stalk their prey in the cover of night’s darkness; they are unknown outsiders, and sometimes even invincible. These faceless murderers horrify masses of people around America. But who are the real killers, the individuals walking around freely in the sunlight without a disguise?
Killers have been roaming across the world for hundreds of thousands of years. Society outlaws murder, yet people keep on killing. Among these people who take somebody else’s life, there are serial killers. A serial killer is somebody who commits a series of murders, sometimes with no motive, but usually a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern left behind the crime scene. Serial killing is psychological, someone to be labeled as a serial killer is to have a psychological motive for taking life. Some of the greatest serial killers to have wandered America, searching for their prey are Ted Bundy, H.H. Holmes (Hermman Webster Mudgett), John Gacy, and perhaps the most notorious killer from Wisconsin, Jeffery Dahmer. Jeffery Dahmer,
On February 1, 2004, millions of Americans sat down around their television sets with their family and friends to watch the biggest sports event of the year: Super Bowl XXXVIII. Inside the Reliant Stadium of Houston, Texas, the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in one of the closest games in recent history; but this year it wasn’t the football game or even the commercials that had people talking. It was an incident that occurred during the halftime show that involved pop singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake that ended in millions of Americans having the privilege to see the left breast of Janet Jackson for a few moments. This single issue may not have been a huge ordeal in itself, but it brought to surface some very pertinent questions about how far was too far in the media, what the government should do to control it, and what effects sex and violence in the media were having on American culture.
In the last three decades the USA has been troubled by an approaching problem, the serial killer. A serial killer is a person who kills a number of people, usually considered over five, with a cooling off period between each murder, usually one murder at one given time). Two murders at one time occasionally happen and these murders may go on for a period of months or years until the killer is caught. Throughout the last three decades the US serial killer rate has risen 94% and it is estimated that by the next millennium it will claim an average of 11 lives a day. Serial Murder is an epidemic; there are at least 35 serial killers active in the USA today who claim one third of the annual murder rate. The USA has 6% of the world's population yet it has three quarters of all serial killers. Not only are serial killers appearing in more numbers in the US but also all over the world countries are terrorized by serial killers, which are appearing in more numbers year and year after. KILLER TRAIT: A serial killer is a typical white male, 20-30, and most of them are usually in the USA. Their main motives are sex (even though the act of sex may or may not take place), power, manipulation, domination and control. The sex motive is usually rape for an organized killer and sadism for a disorganized killer. They act in a series of 5 or more murders with a cooling off period between each murder.
The media, both in the mainstream and alternative sources, determine how the community views crime and how it represents the victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials. Media organisations have arguably become the main source of news, entertainment, recreation, and product information in society. For many people, media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, social media and television broadcasts inform viewers about events that affect their everyday lives. This essay will explore the many variations of how crime is misrepresented in society through mass media organisations. Over the years, research has shown an increase in crime is largely over-represented in media coverage, compared to actual crime rates in society.
When most people hear about serial killers they atomaticly think there a horrible person that just like to kill people. In actuality there is so much more about them that people don’t understand. Research on serial killers can date back to the early 1900s. there has also been a lot of sisticical information that has been learned about them would give you the percentages of how many serial killers there went at certain times, places of even which race has the most serial killers. Some of the information I learned deals with why serial killers like to kill, diffrences betwwen men and female serial killers, and the sististicl information about the regarding their race, Iq, and why American has by far has had more serial killers then any other country.