Media sensationalism is the first thought to come to mind when analyzing this piece from “Losing Matt Shepard”, by Beth Loffreda. A young man tied to a fence, sitting on the ground, beaten and found near death, would grab a reader’s attention, enough to shake our head and wonder what this world is coming to. A young man, slight and youthful in appearance, homosexual, tied to a fence “like a scarecrow” (238), beaten so badly that “the only spots not covered in blood were the tracks cleansed by his tears” (238), leaves the impression of stark brutality, meant to horrify the reader and leave an impression on an emotional level. Leaving an impression the media did, however, not an impression based on fact. The exaggerated journalism exercised in reporting the events of Matt Shepard is not uncommon; the media is catering to the preference of the masses. The public is the media’s platform and the more sensational the event is, the more we gravitate to it, regardless of the integrity of the piece. …show more content…
Loffreda shares with us that “two friends of Matt, Mike Boulden and Alex Trout” (239) were quick to spread the word. “Boulden was not shy about seizing the attack as a political opportunity” (239), and what better platform to get the word out than through the media. While this may seem like a criticism within the text, the lack of hate crime laws at the time that this happened shows us it was a strategic move on the Bouldens part. This was a move that further encouraged the tabloid style reporting that encompassed the events surrounding Matt
In the nonfiction book My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, he mainly expresses all the trials and tribulations he goes through as a child and in his current livelihood as senior at Citadel college. Conroy never had a good relationship with his father, no matter what he did the constant banter and hurtful play from his father always lingered. Conroy had a military family which meant that they were constantly moving every year to two years, this never gave him the chance to really settle in with the community and create steady friendships. This also made it hard for him to adjust to the way that certain area played basketball and how well he fit in with the teams. Basketball made him happy and having such an all-star basketball player as a father
Scott Peterson was an educated man from California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a B.A. in Agricultural Business. He was married to his wife Laci Peterson who was also pregnant with their unborn son. In December of 2002 Laci Peterson went missing in the Modesto, California area where she shared a home with Scott. Once the investigation of Scott’s missing wife started authorities began to suspect Scott as a suspect in her disappearance. In April of 2003 a fetus and a female torso that was missing hands, feet, and a head were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area was where Scott was boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The body was later identified as Laci Peterson and the fetus as Laci and Scott’s unborn son. Scott was also arrested in the month of April shortly after the discovery of Laci and their son’s body and was later sentenced to the death penalty. Over the course of this paper I will cover the whole event of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, relating it to a sociological theory, the impact the event had on our society and how the media had influence over this national event.
The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.
Forty shades of grey (2011) The media and the ideal victim (blog). Available at: http://fortyshadesofgrey.blogspot.com/2011/01/media-and-ideal-victim.html. Accessed on 31 February 2011.
In 1998 a man named James Byrd was drug from a pickup truck in Texas and dismembered. Ashraf Rushdy wrote an essay to examine the moral authority of photography and the effect it has upon a population’s view of a tragedy. Rushdy’s argument is that in 1955 when Emmett Till was murdered his mother allowed photographs of her son’s mutilated corpse to be shown across the nation. These photographs had a significant effect upon the course of the civil rights movement. Rushdy asks why the photographs of James Byrd were never displayed to the public and provides a compelling answer to this question. He provides the answer through the use of persuasive appeals, diction, and the visual effects provided through the use of photographs throughout the essay.
The documentary demonstrates the connection between violence and social standards of masculinity by showing how masculinity is portrayed in the media. The media, as stated in the documentary,
However, despite being regarded as unnecessary rumors by a section of the American society and government, many media people and houses reported harrowing incidents of murder, rape, carjacking and assaults. There were also media reports about a significant number of urban legends who sprouted at the height of the commotion brought about by Hurricane Katrina – systematic children rapists and a 7-year-old’s throat being slit. However, media reports aside, these contentions remain just that. Nevertheless, although a significant count of th...
The documentary demonstrates the connection between violence and social standards of masculinity by showing how masculinity is portrayed in the media. Media, as stated in the documentary,
Jackson Katz shows how violence in the media perpetuates, reinforces, and promotes violence in society. He points to how violence is gendered and that the media and society ignores the fact that men are almost always the perpetrators of violence. Katz explores how the media and society create masculinity. The title is a pun that refers to the masculine "guise" that guys put on to prove their manhood.
The Author uses second person in this piece in order to implicate the reader, all of us, because we are all guilty of this as well as creating a society that values these kinds of news stories over ones that cover real news and actually make a difference. I believe this is still extremely prevalent today especially when combined with the boom of mass media in recent years. This is why this piece is still culturally relevant as this piece speaks to many people such as myself when one realizes that the viewer in the story is us as a collective society you realize the dark nature of the human race. This obsession with brutality is not new as I believe this fascination of violence stems from the primal nature of humans and the violent tendencies of our ancestors. In medieval times the entire town would gather in order to watch the hanging of a man and the audience would cheer for death just like how millions of Americans will tune in to a news station such as the one in the story in order to satisfy our craving for violence and destruction. An example of this happening in modern times was when the video of ISIS beheading an American journalist was put on the internet and although people knew exactly what they were going to see they still searched for the video and talked about it with as many people
... goal as feminists is to end gender-based violence, we must look at how dominant news outlets shape messages of sexual assault.
In a world in which acts of heinous violence, murder or crude and shocking behavior seem to be a normal occurrence, it may lead one to wonder what has put society onto this slippery slope. How did this type of behavior come to be so acceptable and in some cases glorifiable? A careful study of society may lead to multi media as being the main cause in this changing of ideals. The modern world has become desensitized to the acts shown on television, movies, video games or printed in newspapers and magazines. Censorship must be employed if morals and decency are to be preserved.
In 1989, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, a group of popular high school athletes gang raped a mentally impaired 17-year-old girl with a baseball bat and a broom. If this story isn’t disturbing enough, the community of this small close-knit upper class town stated their boys are innocent and the blame was put on the mentally impaired girl. There were even reports that a number of other boys had tried to entice a young woman into the basement a second time to repeat the experience. The news of this tragic indecent was reported 3 months before any arrests were made, the boys had not come forth with any information and kept quiet about the indecent. When interviewed some teenagers stated that the girl “teased them into it” and “she was promiscuous and asked for it.” When the adults of the community were interviewed they stated that “she was always flirting” and “this is Leslie just getting into more trouble” they even said that the girl was to blame for all that happened to her. Why were students protecting these boys? Why were parents not worried about the way they raised their children? Labeling theory and the self-fulfilling prophecy explains that these parents and teenagers were so caught up in the fact that their kids were perfect that they couldn’t believe they would do such a thing without being asked to. Just because these boys were labeled “good guys” the community stood up for them even though the evidence was clear as day. Grave moral transgression had taken place in their town, why were parents concerned about their daughters or the behavior of their children? The town was squeaky clean, high school students dressed in dinner jackets and gowns, the streets, lawns, and houses were almost perfect. Since these parents and students believed their town was full of goodness and that their children were
The media uses affective tones in their writing in order to provoke the audience. Being interested in Central Africa for quite some time, I have been paying attention to a story in Uganda that has been playing out in the media over the past few years. It started in 2009, when David Bahati, a Ugandan politician, proposed the Anti-homosexuality bill. This made it illegal to have sexual relations with a person of the same gender and if caught, they could be imprisoned or receive the death penalty. Since 2009, this bill has received attention from both Uganda and Western media. Looking at affect and the media, I decided to look at how the Ugandan media was using specific writing styles to convey the Anti- homosexuality bill in a certain way. I wanted t...
During these difficult economic times sensationalism has become more prevalent in the media. Stories involving sex scandals and child murders have taken over our T.V and internet screens as well as the front pages of our newspapers. The media bias of sensationalism has been used as a sort of escapism for readers. Although it may seem that sensationalism has just started making waves, it has been around for decades. Sensationalism has been influencing viewers and contributing to media bias since the days of the penny press. Sensationalisms long history has been turbulent, self-serving, and influential to today’s reporting practices. With the influence over readers’ sensationalism’s media bias have and will continue to affect media reporting for years to come.