The Media's Construction and Focus on Victims

In 2005, an 18 year old girl was brutally bashed, doused in petrol and left for dead in her Northmead home. Only a beast could do this.

Lauren Huxley before she
was attacked

This was how the case on 18 year old Lauren Huxley, a victim of a horrendous criminal act, was told across the nation. I still recall hearing this on the news, and being freaked out because it happened so close to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Northmead. I remember the reporters kept mentioning how this was such a tragic and lamentable event to happen to someone so young and beautiful, and I remember thinking: "what does how beautiful she is got to do with anything?"
It now makes sense.
When the media report crime stories they are out to draw you in from the first line you read. Any crime report you read will be so full of strong emotive language, ultimately shaping your opinions of the victim(s) and offender(s). I know the example of Lauren Huxley is not a recent one, but it's one that has stuck with me because of the way it was reported. Looking at the articles regarding Lauren Huxley's ordeal on thedailytelegraph.com, when they focus on her victimisation you'll read lines like: "endured more pain than anyone will ever know", "brain had been so severely traumatised from a violent beating at the hands of a stranger", "fighting for her life", "beautiful Sydney teenager". The media invoke such sympathy, making Huxley out to be the stereotypical and deserving victim. If lines like the above don't make your heart go out to her (as they should) then I don't know what will.

Jewkes (2004) lists twelve key news values that can shape and ultimately sell crime news story. These are: threshold, predictability, simplification, individualism, risk, sex, celebrity or high-status person, proximity, violence, spectacle or graphic imagery, children, and conservative ideology and political diversion.Huxley's case, and news reports contain these key news values:

• Threshold - meets a certain level of perceived importance
• Predictability - an unexpected and rare event
• Individualism - regarding an individual
• Proximity - close to home
• Violence - speaks for itself
• Spectacle or graphic imagery - again, speaks for itself. Click here

Without  having gone into too much detail, the case of Huxley contains half of these values, making it in Jewkes opinion 'newsworthy'.

We've looked at how the victim was portrayed, so I thought I'd give a very brief account of how the media portays offenders in cases such as Lauren Huxley's: Robert Farmer, is described as 'monstrous', 'sickening', 'callous', 'evil, a 'beast'; when the media wants you to hate someone, you'll wish they were dead. That's the power of the media.

References:

The Daily Telegraph <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/indepth/lauren-huxley>

Jewkes, Y., 2004, Media and crime, Sage, London.

RE: "The media coverage of school yard bullying"

In Katie Myer's blog post "The media coverage of school yard bullying" she looked at the media's coverage of school bullying using the example of Casey Heynes (who now has a tribute website), and how it has created a 'moral panic' regarding this issue of bullying. I however do not wish to respond to this, rather I'd prefer to reiterate it by looking further at the moral panic of bullying.

Anything that concerns the safety of children is always going to attract a lot of attention, so it makes sense that when the media report on bullying that there would be a public outcry. Yet it seems that this moral panic is a capricious one, whilst not denying the excess to which bullying occurs, due to its hidden nature bullying generally flies under the media's radar, and it is only when something extreme or especially dramatic occurs that this moral panic arises (Cohen 2002).  The video of Casey Heynes and his tormentor is a perfect example of this as it is right in the face of the public. Other examples of bullying creating a public fear off the top of my head are the Columbine Massacres, or the bullying related suicides of Alex Wildman or Hope Witsell, all of which spurned on a the outcry, as Katie stated, that bullying is on the rise and that school is no longer a safe place for our children. It seems though the media has no factual evidence of such, and are just using these extreme cases to  coerce us into believing it's a far greater concern and danger than what it really is. Ultimately what is happening is these extreme cases are creating a cognitive shift from "'how could it happen in a place like this?' to 'it could happen anyplace'" (Cohen 2002, p. xiii.

For the second half of this blog I'd like to make mention of the link Alyce posted in her comment on Katie's blog. The link is to a Media Watch piece about the Casey Heynes saga, where Media Watch discuss and pull apart the reporting methods and tactic used by ACA (A Current Affari) and TT (Today Tonight). I hadn't though much of it, but after watching this video I was appalled by how these reporter had invaded the lives of these kids, prodding them and asking for intimate details, just to milk their story without even or concealing their names or faces.

I don't like to say it, but it's times like this I feel the media are criminal.


References:

Cohen, S., 2003, Folk devils and moral panics : the creation of the mods and rockers, 3rd edn, Routledge, New York.