In Munshi's article the author shares first hand observations of the attacks of September 11 and media coverage during and after the attacks. After the attacks American nationalism, religious devotion, and symbolism were at an all time high. The whole world was hurting from what had happened. One of my favorite quotes from this article is about the CNN anchor who teared up interviewing families. He said "we are trained to be dispassionate, but we are not expected to be inhuman." I think this shows that though journalists usually remain unbiased at times you can't help but have an emotional reaction to a story. Interview with families, survivors, and phone calls were played over and over again making the tv programming follow the confessional genre which provides people a language to work through stressful emotional issues. The Author also talks about how war is good for the media business because war sells better than even sex. War stories are always big stories and defining moments for journalists. After the attacks criticism of the war was hard to find basically everyone was supportive and patriotic to give the war a good face the only people openly opposing were on the internet.
Campbell article not on e-reserve.
Week Twelve
In Schmid's article he focuses on the social acceptableness of murderabilia. Murderabilia is the selling of serial killer artifacts such as artwork, personal effect, and letters. This topic has caused both outrage and fascination. There was so much outrage over eBay selling serial killer artifacts that it led to them banning it. There are now websites devoted solely to selling murderablila. How do these websites survive? People are fascinated by serial killers, they want to know what makes them tick, they are amazed by how ordinary they can be, and how bizarre their behavior is. I am personally one of these people I completely love the show criminal minds because they explore how these people think. At the same time however you wont see me on one of these sites trying to buy someones toenails. Schmid states that one reason we are so attracted to serial killers is that we are a wound culture. We drive slowly by car wrecks, love crime shows with dead and mutilated bodies, and relish in the idea of trauma.
In Conrich's article discusses the similarities and difference between serial killer films and slasher films. Both slasher ans serial films can meet the FBI's definition of a serial killer which is " an offender associated with killing at least 4 victims over a period greater than 72 hours". Differences though are slasher films focuses on groups of teenagers and shows deaths in progress. While serial killer films show the bodies post mortis. Police in slasher filma are either incompetent or not present. In serial killer films the police are committed, skilled and prepared to make scarifices.
In the Rafter chapter she differentiates the three different kinds of mass murder films. Slasher films have teens, uncontrollable and unkillable entities that get loose for a short period of time, are used as folktales to scare us, and are seen as semi-humorous. Serial killer films have more character development, are set over a long period of time, the killers are repetitious and have a fine attention to details. I would also include that most serial killers are hyper intelligent such as in Silence of the Lambs. Lector is smart, polite, has immense character development, and has every last detail figured out. In psychopath movies the killer lacks a conscience, they are cold, cunning, and calculating, they are anti social and selfish.
In Conrich's article discusses the similarities and difference between serial killer films and slasher films. Both slasher ans serial films can meet the FBI's definition of a serial killer which is " an offender associated with killing at least 4 victims over a period greater than 72 hours". Differences though are slasher films focuses on groups of teenagers and shows deaths in progress. While serial killer films show the bodies post mortis. Police in slasher filma are either incompetent or not present. In serial killer films the police are committed, skilled and prepared to make scarifices.
In the Rafter chapter she differentiates the three different kinds of mass murder films. Slasher films have teens, uncontrollable and unkillable entities that get loose for a short period of time, are used as folktales to scare us, and are seen as semi-humorous. Serial killer films have more character development, are set over a long period of time, the killers are repetitious and have a fine attention to details. I would also include that most serial killers are hyper intelligent such as in Silence of the Lambs. Lector is smart, polite, has immense character development, and has every last detail figured out. In psychopath movies the killer lacks a conscience, they are cold, cunning, and calculating, they are anti social and selfish.
Week Eleven
In Chesney-Lind's article the author talks about how violence in girls has increased 41.5%. The author relates this to increased women's liberation which led to an increase in women in all fields including the criminal. The article cites a report from New York City that claims crime rates of black females is equal to those of white males.The article discusses how the violent woman has become a prominent theme in film with movies such as Thelma and Louise and Basic Instinct. Chesney- Lind claims that like their male counter parts women are drawn to crime for the same reasons, mainly lack of legitimate opportunities.
In the article about newspapers in Washington the authors claim that domestic violence is a result of the organization of the home. They say that the gender roles and privacy of the family leads to abuse. I don't agree with this mainly because not all families have violence. If gender roles and privacy that all families have lead to violence and not every household has violence then that argument is invalid. The article also says that when women kill their husbands it's in self defense or after a long history of abuse. We can see this in the movie Enough. I enjoy this movie because I like the idea of a woman working hard and training to be able to over power an aggressor. I do see the cheese factor of this movie at the same time though and do admit this would never happen in real life.
In the article about newspapers in Washington the authors claim that domestic violence is a result of the organization of the home. They say that the gender roles and privacy of the family leads to abuse. I don't agree with this mainly because not all families have violence. If gender roles and privacy that all families have lead to violence and not every household has violence then that argument is invalid. The article also says that when women kill their husbands it's in self defense or after a long history of abuse. We can see this in the movie Enough. I enjoy this movie because I like the idea of a woman working hard and training to be able to over power an aggressor. I do see the cheese factor of this movie at the same time though and do admit this would never happen in real life.
Week Ten
In "Criminalizing Black Culture" Stabile discusses inconsistencies in how crimes are investigated based on race. She uses the Stuart murder as an example stating that had the Stuarts been black the media would have been nowhere near as interested and police would have investigated the husband more. She then discusses the criminalization of the black woman beginning in the late 60's and focused on unwed mothers receiving welfare. In the 60's black women were held responsible for crime by breaking the strong social ties that are held together by the household being run by the man. When the Watts riots broke out in 1965 this too was blamed on the black woman breaking down black society by emasculating men. Black women were then seen as whores having children out of wedlock just to get welfare, further breaking apart black society. This then morphed into crack mothers in response to the crack epidemic. Then in the 80's the big concerns with blacks were black on black crime and drive bys. To me all of the discrimination caused discrimination and violence begot violence. Whites in power have tried any means necessary to keep blacks down and further push them into poverty giving them no choice but crime.
In Schubb's article he discusses how the term racism was never used and frequently news anchors claimed that the riots had nothing to do with the Rodney King verdict but did hardly any interviews from people actually involved. I feel that the way these riots were handled by the media was just ridiculous. They threw anchors out in the streets who weren't accustomed to live tv and they got what they paid for which was crap.
In Schubb's article he discusses how the term racism was never used and frequently news anchors claimed that the riots had nothing to do with the Rodney King verdict but did hardly any interviews from people actually involved. I feel that the way these riots were handled by the media was just ridiculous. They threw anchors out in the streets who weren't accustomed to live tv and they got what they paid for which was crap.
Week Nine
In Jewkes article "Crime and the Surveillance Culture" The author talks about how surveillance has changed from being reactive to proactive. That surveillance is part of risk calculation crime control strategies including rating the dangerousness or prisoners, those on probation, and a national register for sex offenders. These risk calculating strategies have led to zero tolerance of crime and tough on crime initiatives. The author also discusses the idea of governmentality which is attempts to govern crime and to involve government through crime. One objective of governmentality is to develop situational crime control and to single out and exclude those who do not belong rather than tolerate and rehabilitate. This makes no sense to me, I think everyone deserves a second chance and the right to prove they have changed. This also makes crime worse since it targets poor whites and ethnic minorities and segments them into places where all facets of life depend on participating in crime. Another idea Jewkes discusses is using a DNA database as surveillance. This would establish identity and provide a complete genetic profile. There are problems with doing this the first is equality. In the UK 40% of all black men are in a DNA database while only 9% of white men are in a database. There are other concerns about using the databases to further segment society by using them to predict substance abuse and criminal tendencies.
Week Eight
In Mason's article " The Screen Machine" he talks about how people are misinformed about prison. he says that the media has selective, simplified, and skewed depictions of prison and that peoples familiarity with prisons is through symbolism not facts. He also talks about the violence and brutality in prison primarily between inmates and prison authorities. This is a common theme especially when the inmates are the protagonists like The Longest Yard and The Shawshank Redemption. Mason also defines prison films as an English language film that concerns civil imprisonment and that is mainly set within the walls of a prison or uses prison as a central theme. He also says there's over twelve different common themes in prison films including escape, riot, inmate and prison officer violence, wrongful conviction etc. One main theme he discusses is the prison as a machine that dehumanizes inmates. I can't think of one prison movie I've seem that doesn't have a scene of dehumanization. The author concludes but saying there are two reasons that prison movies have not led to prison reform the first is movies that show imprisonment for shock value only and second that the only reason that prison films add to debates is because they model real life issues happening at them time. I think that they have not led to reform simply because people understand they are just for entertainment and do not believe real prison is like that.
In the Rafter chapter she talks about the traditional characters in prison movies, the older, hardened,and wise criminal, a snitch, the loyal friend, convict buddies, a father like warden, a cruel assistant warden/guard, a bloodthirsty convict, and the hero.
In the Rafter chapter she talks about the traditional characters in prison movies, the older, hardened,and wise criminal, a snitch, the loyal friend, convict buddies, a father like warden, a cruel assistant warden/guard, a bloodthirsty convict, and the hero.
Week Seven
In the film lawyers article the authors spend a majority of the time trying to define what a Law film is.The authors decided on these characteristics, geography of law, language and dress of law, legal personnel and the authority of law. The authors also say that law films are concerned with the behavior and activities of legal personnel. The authors also say that when the defendant is wrongly accused the lawyer will bring justice using three techniques, physical defense of the client, acting as an investigator, and ignoring codes of ethical conduct.
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