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.