Week 12 Blog

First I will talk about the reading in Chapter 3, “Slasher, Serial Killer, and Psycho Movies" in which Rafter discusses the horror/violent movie genre and which she distinguishes among the three distinct types that each killer may be characterized by. According to Rafter the Slasher is extremely violent and gory similar to most the other killers. They also kill at random or just for the sheer pleasure of it. Psycho killers kill a lot of people without any remorse. They are usually working toward a goal. Serial Killers may also kill for no reason and randomly but they are thoughtful and meticulous in the process. They are portrayed as intelligent and planners.
Our next reading was “Idols of Destruction: Celebrity, Consumerism, and the Serial Killer.” Schmid explored and analyzed the phenomena where by serial killers are made infamous in America by their deeds.  There is no denying that Americans love to hear about serial killers.  That is what our ghost stories are about when we are kids. That is what the horror genre is based upon.  But when it comes to books, documentaries, or movies based on true stories, it crosses over into a gray area of moral question. Those are real people and by consuming those forms of media one is in a sense glorifying the accomplishments of that serial killer. The moral question not only is from turning a killer into some sort of celebrity but also when the victims in the human mind are treated the same as those victims in fictional movies. Its a morbid curiosity that humans possess that cause them to examine the extent of evil in human potential.
The class viewing this week was the film the Silence of the Lambs. I've seen it a few times and I enjoyed it. The Buffalo Bill character could be classified in Rafter's system as a Psycho-killer. Where as Hannibal Lecter could be classified as more of a serial killer though he also has a goal with his victims, the film places less emphasis on his mental condition and more on his intelligence and brilliance.
The Black Donnellys has no "serial killers" per say but the main characters do end up killing a lot, at first out of necessity, for survival, then for business,  or other agendas. The show analyzes the dynamic in the timeline in that at first it was for survival, justified, yet it was traumatizing, by the end it was easy, they didn't feel a thing, and it was much less justified. Interesting.  

Week 11 blog

Lind's article, Media Misogyny: Demonizing ‘Violent’ Girls and Women was all about women criminals in the media and how it differs. Lind explored and analyzed the ways in which women are portrayed differently in crime media. The author argues that women criminals are "demonized" in the media. That they are judged more harshly for violent crimes because they are deviating from the norms of femininity with their crimes. Furthermore the they are judged and measured based on their femininity, looks/appearance, and on their performance as wives, or mothers. Any of these things often work against them in court or in the media.
The article Coverage of Domestic Violence Fatalities by Newspapers in Washington State, as the title might suggest covered just that. The authors explored domestic violence cases in Washington state that have resulted in fatalities. The authors then analyzed deeper how these cases were portrayed in the papers. Its sad to say the many of the victims in these cases were further blamed and victimized by the media.
I watched the movie Enough expecting it to be terrible as everyone made it sound and actually because of my very low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. It really wasn't bad. It was also nice that the main character J-Lo was not treated as she would have been in the news media (according to our readings.) In this film the victim was glorified in her taking action and taking matters into her own hands and solving her problems with violence. But she almost just beat him up and didnt finish the job, only to let him chase her forever, but then she did and Im glad she killed his ass.
In the Black Donnellys there are two female criminals that come to mind. The first is Mrs. McCreedy a pitiful old lady who gets the gang to beat up some street toughs. As it turns out they were drugdealers stealing Mrs. McCreedys business. It's funny because she fits many of the trends we read about. They even refer to her as a witch a few times. The other female criminal is Jenny who's plot is actually very similar to J-Lo's in Enough. She straight up kills her violent stalker with a pipe. Awesome.  

Week 10 Blog

The readings for this week discussed black culture in crime and the media. They analyzed the plight of blacks in America and how they've come to represent an unproportional amount of crime in the media in the US. They explored many different views on this topic and delved into the process by which the system came what it is today. He analyzed the Moynihan Report and the repercussions that would have on the stance of the media of the time and on the government and their actions. They also analyzed Black criminalization in specific circumstances such as the OJ Simpson and Rodney King trials and how these contributed to the ideas of the trends of Black male violence on white femininity. They also analyzed the difference between Crack and Meth in the view of the public, being respectively black and white drugs typically. Crack was highly criminalized and and looked down upon where as Meth was seen more as a predator on its poor victims who could be anyone even nice, white, businessmen. It also went in to Reagan's administration and the war on drugs and it's many resonating effects that it had on black culture. As for this weeks viewing on the LA Riots, that was crazy. That is something that I had never known about before and can hardly believe what went down. It's crazy to read about these little things here and there but then these riots that were the culminating results of it all. The gangs and violence that seems to be for no reason, or is it all because they couldnt get into the boyscouts. Eye-opening, crazy to think about. My favorite thing the guy said was "if you want to oppress somebody, make the tool or object of their own oppression." Smart guy... My least favorite was when they said it was "5 times worse the violence in Northern Ireland," that is simply not true. They used either a specific timeframe or a specific amount of time to make it sound more significant. That statistic is skewed and manipulated.

Week 9 Blog

This was a short week because our midterm was also this week. The only reading for this week was the "Surveillance Culture" article.  In this article Jewkes discusses as the title might suggest, surveillance. He discusses how surveillance first came about. He argues that it was not actually a measure taken by the government and by police to stop crime so much as really just a successful marketing scheme by those who are in production of the surveillance systems. There was not really a call, cry, or need so much for surveillance until those companies got the government, stores, and the public to really buy into the fact that these would stop crime. In fact after millions of dollars have been spent on the results are arguably medial. The one environment where they were a huge success was in parking garages. Jewkes goes on to discuss what surveillance has actually been used for since it hasn't helped much with crime. Surveillance is used for economics. It is used in a way to classify customers in stores, to classify wanted and unwanted customers so that they can take measures to encourage customers who will actually yield profit, and discourage those who actually solicit and inhibit their business. It was an interesting read and a viewpoint on surveillance that I had never considered before.
And...I finished the season of my show weeks ago but the Black Donnellys never have surveillance in the show. In fact they never worry about it at all. It's like it's the wild west and it doesn't exist yet or something.

Week 8 blog

Starting my 3-week catchup with week 8...I will begin week 8 blog by talking about the reading "The Screen Machine: Cinematic Representations of Prison." In his article Dr. Paul Mason discusses the prevalence of the "prison film" in the media, the impact this may have on the views of the public and therefore the repercussions that might come back on the prison and justice system due to public opinion. Previous views on the "Prison Film" remain skeptical on the value of the prison film because of it's not necessarily very accurate portrayals of criminals and the prison system. However the author rejects this conclusion, arguing that the importance of these portrayals are underrated and serve to be quite useful in keeping the public's attention and giving them opinion, which helps with reform in the prison system.
In class we had discussions over the general format of the typical prison film. That is typically falls along the lines of main character goes to prison, main character is either innocent or his crimes are justified in some way and the audience can relate to him. Not only must he fight for survival amongst the other inmates but he also falls victim to the cruel, corruption of the American prison system and the evil, cruel guards and warden. This is perfectly portrayed in this weeks viewing, "Shawshank Redemption," which actually other than the very basics of the plot-line is anything but typical...because it's awesome! Great movie, one of my favorites. Andy Dufraine was framed, never trusted to be innocent, and the narrator even bet against him that he would crack the first night but he seemed to thrive in jail, not just survived but thrived. He always made the best of his situation. Even though it was discovered he was innocent but the warden murdered the only witness he never lost hope because the whole thing was a giant scheme, all the while he was making his escape and padding the rest of his life with the warden's money. Awesome. 

Week 7 blog

This weeks reading explored a different part of the Crime and the Media. Specifically Rafter explored Criminal Law Films placing her focus on lawyers, their role in the media and how the courtroom is portrayed in the media.  People have longsince been interested and captivated by the courtroom drama and the battles that are waged in the courts as anywhere else and how the good lawyers fight the odds and triumph over circumstance and the evil lawyers. Ever since the airing of Perry Mason and the writing of the American classic: To Kill A Mockingbird media has found a demand from the public to see shows and stories of the courtroom battles. One thing to address is the funny way in which the normal theme seems to consist of a good citizen as the defendant, wrongly accused by the evil policemen and prosecutors, found helpless until the good defense attorney in shining armor steps up to defend them and get them out of trouble. Rafter would argue however that these courtroom dramas have been inaccurate in their portrayal of current problems and concerns. The trends in today's shows are moving away from lawyer heroes such as Matlock and toward shows that deal a lot with crime yet ignore the lawyers and courtroom battles a bit.
The viewing for the week is the film Presumed Innocent. This was my first time time seeing it and it was pretty damn good. I was impressed, of course it was Harrison Ford so I should've known it would be good. It was a little older of a movie so I found it kinda funny and interesting how they dealt with the DNA evidence. Being made in the 1990's DNA evidence could not quite implicate or exonerate. Harrison Ford despite being the protagonist or main character was not quite view as a "good guy" or a hero, considering how he manipulated the investigation and had an affair.
And...The Black Donnellys has nothing to do with lawyers or the courtrooms

Week 6 Blog

This week's topics are on a subject that is not my area of expertise, CSI crime-drama.  From the reading and in the discussion I felt as though I was missing out on something the majority of the class knew all about. However also from the reading and discussion and the episode we watched in class ( maybe my first or second ever watched) I do feel like I did get the "gist" of it.  As I saw in the episode, discussed in class, and in the reading by Cavender and Deutsch, the show CSI employs many themes of older shows and crime-stories as well as employing their own new style which is in part why it has been so successful.  Like any show with the makings of a good story there is a protagonist, conflict...etc.  The reading discussed one of these key story elements giving it the term: emotional hooks. This is not a new strategy, another word for it is Pathos or appealing to the viewers emotions, getting them emotionally involved in the story. This was clear in parts of the episode that broke down stereotypes of cold, hard cops and having them more like nice, relateable humans. There were traces of new elements employed in the episode I watched as mentioned in the reading.  The show brings about a new kind of masculinity that is not based on traditional views but more of a new age "technical" masculinity that's not badass like Dirty Harry but still cool because they are good at what they do and competent and they "catch the badguy." The main discussion in the reading is really all about the relationship between policing and science, the two main components of CSI.  CSI is television, entertainment, but it is not quite treated as such by the viewer.  CSI presents these cases and scientific solutions in such a convincing manner to the average American who doesn't know jack about either science, forensics, or policing, that they come under the false notion that they actually know whats going on and how things are done. CSI presents this world in a convincing yet inaccurate manner and it has affected a lot of people and their view on the justice system, courts, and forensics, some of whom serve as jurors and are under false pretenses that everything can be solved by science, the crime scene investigators, they think that blood or DNA is on everything and will lead to the criminal...