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0:01All right, so today we're going to be
0:02talking about constructing crime news.
0:06Uh the first thing we need to ask
0:07ourselves is what makes the news? Right?
0:10Um obviously it's something new, it's
0:12interesting, exciting.
0:14Uh
0:15But before we answer that, let's
0:17consider the fact that
0:19a very common metaphor
0:21uh used when discussing media in
0:25general, but especially
0:27news production, is this idea that it's
0:28a hall of mirrors, kind of like you
0:30might see in
0:32like a carnival, where you think you can
0:34walk forward and it's
0:36not actually a hallway, it's a
0:38reflection of reflection of reflection.
0:40And so the idea here is that uh the
0:43media distorts the truth. It's not
0:45actually reality,
0:48but
0:49it's not even a reflection of reality,
0:51it's a reflection of reflections.
0:54And this is due in part to media being
0:56culturally determined. There's two major
0:58factors to that.
0:59Uh number one is just the production
1:01process of news organizations. I have
1:03resources, I have anchors, I have to
1:06write them scripts, I have stories, I
1:07got to do research on them, I
1:09you know,
1:10uh just the the sort of day in and day
1:12out process of making the news.
1:14Uh then we also have assumptions that
1:17the news makes about the audience.
1:21And so when we talk about these
1:23assumptions, uh
1:24there's there's two big ones, uh agenda
1:27setting and framing.
1:29And these two things sound similar and
1:31they sort of deal with
1:33a lot of the same topics, but uh
1:37two uh almost two sides of the same
1:39coin.
1:40So when we look at agenda setting, we're
1:41looking at what stories get prioritized.
1:43This is often times uh
1:48how does it fit?
1:49Uh do we already have coverage of these
1:51types of stories? If we already have
1:53three different uh economic
1:56news reports, do we need a fourth?
1:58Um
2:00Agenda setting is as we see in the
2:01picture on the left here, could also be
2:04uh
2:05>> [snorts]
2:06>> ideal [clears throat] ideological to an
2:07extent, but we're generally looking at
2:09framing when we talk about ideology. But
2:12even then
2:13uh if we look over at things on the left
2:15here
2:16um
2:18>> [sighs and gasps]
2:19>> things like uh Jacobin, Mother Jones, uh
2:22sort of Vox
2:24sort of jump out as uh obviously very
2:27left-leaning
2:29um
2:30news outlets. And so you're you're much
2:32more likely to see
2:34uh as part of the agenda setting process
2:36stories involving things like let's say
2:38workers' rights
2:40immigration reform, you know, any of
2:42these sort of left uh
2:44uh hot topics. You're you're going to
2:46see coverage more. Whereas on the right,
2:49you may also see some immigration stuff,
2:50but it it's going to be
2:52more calls for how we need uh
2:55uh tougher laws.
2:57And so that gets us into this idea of
3:00framing.
3:01So this is how a story is depicted. The
3:03story has been chosen by a agenda
3:05setting. We are going to cover this.
3:07Framing asks us how are we going to
3:09cover it?
3:10Uh so we're looking at things like
3:11visual images alongside the story.
3:14Um how how is it being reported?
3:17>> [snorts]
3:18>> And so what ultimately makes the news is
3:20going to be determined by a combination
3:22of those two things. The agenda setting
3:24process determines whether or not it's
3:26covered at all
3:27and the framing determines how it fits
3:29in and how it gets covered.
3:31Um
3:33When we look at news in general though,
3:35there's this idea of news values.
3:38And so news values are helping us figure
3:40out what's newsworthy.
3:42>> [snorts]
3:42>> This is going to be based in part on
3:43public appeal and in part on public
3:46interest.
3:47When we look at something like public
3:48appeal, the question is will the story
3:50appeal to the people?
3:52Uh this is usually pretty
3:53straightforward and measured in
3:55financial metrics. Are people buying the
3:57paper? Are they watching the news?
4:00Uh there's also public interest. This
4:02gets a little bit more complicated. Uh
4:04what's important for us to note is that
4:06uh when we talk about the idea of public
4:08interest and what's news worthy
4:11um
4:12this is most often where we're going to
4:15see external interference.
4:17Whether that be like corporate or
4:18political pressure like we're sort of
4:20seeing with ABC right now
4:22or um
4:25the Trump administration
4:27uh and the FCC
4:29uh
4:29floated the idea that they might go
4:31after uh folks like Jimmy Kimmel or
4:33Stephen Colbert because they don't like
4:35the content.
4:36Um so it would be an argument that it's
4:38not in the public interest.
4:41Uh
4:41>> [clears throat]
4:41>> often the impact is going to be subtle.
4:44Uh it it's very rarely the president of
4:47this news organization says, "Do not
4:50cover this story or else."
4:52Uh in general, stories just don't get
4:54picked up. Um they don't fit the
4:56programming.
4:58You know, it's a lot of very subtle
5:00mundane things. Um journalists
5:02generally, the longer they've worked,
5:03can anticipate what stories will get
5:05pushed back and what stories they'll be
5:07able to cover with no problem. And so,
5:10year after year, they start to suggest
5:13less and less of these kind of out there
5:15stories because it it's
5:17less [snorts] likely it gets published.
5:19Um
5:22>> [snorts]
5:23>> when we talk about these ideas of news
5:25values, it's important to note that
5:27they've shifted a great deal uh as
5:29technology and society as as you know,
5:31the the world around us has changed. And
5:34so, I am borrowing um
5:37what [clears throat] is titled News
5:38Values for a New Millennium. This is
5:41from Dukes and Lindeman.
5:42Um that's actually where most of these
5:44lectures are coming from, their textbook
5:46uh as I mentioned
5:48in the course introduction module. Um so
5:50here's a list of all of them. We're
5:51going to go through them individually.
5:53So when we look at this idea of
5:54threshold, uh thresholds
5:57two parts. One, there's a threshold to
5:59be newsworthy. Something has to be at
6:02least so eventful.
6:04Um
6:05>> [snorts]
6:06>> Josh's cat did something cute this
6:08afternoon would not make the news cuz it
6:10does not reach the threshold of
6:12newsworthiness. Nobody else really
6:13cares.
6:15Uh once something is news, there's also
6:17a a sort of continuing threshold that it
6:20has to maintain in order to remain news.
6:24Um we can look at something like
6:25Savannah Guthrie's mother
6:27who um
6:29was uh believed to be kidnapped.
6:32Uh the reason that that story is still
6:34as interesting as it is and it's still
6:36newsworthy months later is because it
6:37involves a member of the news media. Um
6:41whose mother was was kidnapped. And so
6:43there there is some threshold uh to
6:46remain news that it is kind of
6:48continuing to to hit. But even as the
6:51story goes on, we see
6:53fewer and fewer stories about it.
6:56Uh
6:57when there are more stories to choose
7:00from, it's important to remember that
7:01the threshold's going to be higher.
7:03Um if I'm in Topeka, Kansas, and petty
7:06crime is probably going to make the
7:07news.
7:08But if I'm the New York Times, I need
7:10something bigger. It means I have the
7:12entire nation uh to sort of draw my news
7:14from.
7:16That's that idea of threshold.
7:17We also have predictability. Uh rarity,
7:20something exciting, something new
7:23obviously is new- newsworthy.
7:25But from a a sort of more boring
7:27logistical side, predictability is
7:29important because it allows for
7:30planning.
7:32If I'm a news organization, I can
7:33structure my news report.
7:35I can structure how I deploy my deploy
7:37my resources. I can structure any number
7:40of things. Uh I can even get reports,
7:42graphics,
7:43research done ahead of time if I know
7:46something is going to happen.
7:48Uh this is typically things like news
7:50reports, press conferences, um
7:53big data releases, uh trials.
7:56Right? These are all things that I can
7:58sort of get my work done ahead of time.
8:02Go cover the actual event, get a little
8:03bit of footage to sort of
8:06here's the shot of
8:08you know, the defendant walking into the
8:09courthouse, but I already have the
8:11narrative because I'm reporting on
8:13things that have already happened.
8:14And so when there is predictability,
8:16when there are again, things like
8:18trials, especially um
8:21these sort of big uh high-profile trials
8:24where
8:26there's uh the sort of expected
8:27timeline,
8:29we believe that a verdict will be handed
8:31out here
8:33on this day, then that allows um
8:36>> [snorts]
8:37>> folks uh who are producing the news to
8:39go, "Okay, let's get a camera crew,
8:40let's get a reporter down here, let's
8:42get some researchers working on this."
8:44And we basically have 75 to 80% of a
8:46story before it's actually happened
8:48because so much of it is background.
8:51>> [snorts]
8:51>> Uh and it's important to note here that
8:53if the media expects something to
8:56happen,
8:57in this case, sort of a
9:00uh they expect a certain dynamic to
9:02occur, they're unlikely to do a U-turn
9:04if that doesn't
9:06turn out.
9:07Uh if I am working with the news and I
9:10show up and I've done all this work and
9:11I expect it, we've heard all these
9:13stories, we've talked to sources, and we
9:14expect that
9:16protesters
9:19are going to show up, are going to
9:20mobilize, and are potentially going to
9:21get violent.
9:24If I am covering this event and the
9:27police start beating up on peaceful
9:30protesters, I'm probably still going to
9:32roll this footage.
9:33And I'm probably not going to question
9:35that narrative too much.
9:37Uh
9:38the idea the presentation, the sort of
9:40hook
9:41the predictability of this event
9:43indicates that we can expect there to be
9:46some sort of violent protest. We're
9:48covering it that way.
9:49It's very unlikely that in real time the
9:53news is going to go, "Well, actually the
9:55police are the ones who started it, and
9:57so let's turn the story on its head."
9:59They're much more likely to roll that
10:00protest got violent.
10:02Uh with little concern for who started
10:05it, just that it was violent.
10:08So, that's predictability.
10:10We also have simplification. And so,
10:12simplification is important because
10:15you hear it and you go, "Well,
10:18but I've heard any number of very
10:20complex news stories."
10:22But at the end of the day, the the event
10:25itself doesn't have to be simple. It
10:26just has to be reducible to a minimum
10:29number of parts and themes.
10:31Right? It can be this sort of big
10:33grandiose idea, but as long as I can
10:35sort of make it a very straightforward
10:37thing that you can follow,
10:39>> [snorts]
10:39>> it'll be a great news story.
10:41Um the simplification process is
10:43two-part.
10:44Number one, we have news reporting in
10:46general is just going to be marked by
10:48brevity. The audience has a short
10:49attention span, and as we sort of move
10:52forward in time with new technology,
10:55with new entertainment options,
10:57uh our incredibly short attention spans
11:01are being pulled in in unlimited number
11:03of directions.
11:05So, I [snorts] really need to be able to
11:07capture my audience's attention,
11:09and uh being able to present simple
11:11ideas
11:13>> [clears throat]
11:13>> is very helpful in doing so.
11:16The other piece of the simplification
11:18process is that the range of possible
11:20meanings inherent in a story have to be
11:22restricted.
11:24This is not an English class, right? In
11:26high school, where
11:29you know, you're spending 30 minutes
11:30talking about one page of this novel and
11:33whether or not because the curtains were
11:35blue the author is trying to symboli-
11:37the news does not work that way.
11:39Uh
11:41while there is certainly the potential
11:43for multiple interpretations, the news
11:45is not trying to go, "What do you
11:46think?"
11:48>> [snorts]
11:48>> The news is trying to tell you what is
11:49going on.
11:51And so we can see this when we look at
11:53like the news coverage of an individual
11:56criminal event versus a larger
11:58conversation about crime trends.
12:01Criminal [clears throat] events are easy
12:02to simplify to their meanings. This
12:04person was mentally ill and did this
12:07thing. This person
12:08needed money and so stole. This person
12:11is just a bad person and did this
12:13violent act.
12:14Very straightforward, very easy to
12:16follow.
12:18The problem is we start looking at crime
12:20trends. They're much more complex, they
12:22take time to unfold, require much more
12:24research and just kind of general
12:26understanding to be able to report on.
12:28So it becomes much more difficult.
12:31>> [clears throat]
12:32>> It's just harder to simplify something
12:34that is that dynamic.
12:36Simplification also explains why the
12:38mass media is inclined to participate in
12:40what we call binary oppositions.
12:43These are things like good versus evil,
12:45black versus white, normal versus sick
12:48or deviant or dangerous.
12:50What happens is we create these mutually
12:51exclusive categories.
12:53Parents
12:54who are good can't be pedophiles, which
12:57are bad.
12:58Individuals who engage in suicide
13:00bombings, bad, cannot be good people.
13:03And we [snorts] generally see these
13:06mutually exclusive categories, these
13:07binary oppositions, being reproduced
13:10with little to no uh
13:13>> [snorts]
13:13>> questioning.
13:14Right? There's There's no conversation
13:16about, well, why did that person
13:19why did they feel driven to engage in
13:21suicide bombing? It's just a in a It's
13:24just
13:25an agreed-upon thing that suicide
13:27bombing is bad. Period, the end. Nothing
13:30more to to ask about, to learn about.
13:33And so the news is trying to push this
13:34more simple narrative because it's
13:36easier to follow, easier to comprehend,
13:38and keeps the audience entertained.
13:43>> [snorts]
13:43>> We also have individualism as a news
13:45value.
13:47And so in general
13:49we want to think about individualism as
13:51an individual
13:53explanation, answer, solution is
13:55preferred to a complex one.
13:57So when we look at crime news, we're
13:59looking at things like individual
14:00definitions of crime
14:02and individual rationalizations that
14:04highlight individual responses to crime.
14:08So why does this person do this criminal
14:11act?
14:13Why did this person rationalize it? We
14:15all know it's not okay to steal, but why
14:17did this person decide to steal?
14:20Are they just a bad person or did they
14:21decide actually it's okay in this
14:23situation?
14:25Uh
14:26and we prefer all that to complex,
14:28whether that's a complex cultural or
14:29political explanation.
14:31So this person stole.
14:33We would prefer an individual decision,
14:36individual explanation, something like
14:38this person is sick, they're mentally
14:40ill.
14:41Uh this person is too lazy
14:44to uh go to school, get a good job, work
14:47hard.
14:48They want uh the easy way.
14:50So they just want to steal things.
14:52That is preferred to these larger
14:54complex cultural and political
14:56explanations like capitalism does not
14:58help the 99% and therefore we're all
15:01left to survive on our own.
15:04Um does not support any sort of uh
15:08>> [snorts]
15:08>> investigation into well, how come rich
15:11people can do crimes?
15:14Epstein got away with it.
15:16Why?
15:17He wasn't stealing bread to feed feed
15:19his family, but with a certain amount of
15:21money and power and all of this, you can
15:24get folks to run cover for you.
15:27But if I'm poor, I'm just sort of stuck,
15:30right? So, the news does not want to
15:32question any of these underlying
15:33assumptions. They just
15:35would prefer to go, "Oh, this is a bad
15:37person."
15:39We don't want to shine the light on the
15:41culture or anything that might have led
15:43this person to that point where they
15:45made that bad decision.
15:47Um
15:48very rarely are we going to see any sort
15:50of argument about.
15:51Uh
15:52you know, this person came from a very
15:54underfunded school district and with
15:56very few uh
15:58educational educational or employment
16:00opportunities. We're just going to see
16:01that this individual
16:04made a bad decision.
16:05And so, this is [snorts] part of what we
16:06call an individualist framework.
16:09And this framework applies to both
16:10offenders and victims. But everything is
16:13put through this lens of individual
16:15decisions, individual actions, and
16:16individual responsibility.
16:18Uh the criminal is seen as impulsive, a
16:21loner, maladjusted, irrational,
16:24animal-like, violent.
16:26And all of this is meant to point to a
16:28lack of like normative social ties.
16:30There's something wrong with this
16:31person.
16:32If they could be normal, if they could
16:33be an everyday person, it would be fine.
16:36But something's wrong with them as an
16:38individual. It's not our society, it's
16:40that person individually.
16:42>> [snorts]
16:42>> So, the the onus the the the requirement
16:46for change is on that individual, not
16:48society as a whole.
16:50Um
16:51>> [clears throat]
16:52>> the public is also encouraged to see
16:53themselves as as almost vigilantes.
16:56You are your last line of defense. If
16:58you want to get home, if you want you
16:59and your family get home, you got to
17:00protect yourself.
17:02Um
17:03>> [snorts]
17:03>> so, the news encourages us to feel
17:04vulnerable and isolated, and the only
17:06solution that ever really gets offered
17:08is an individual one.
17:10Um and again, individual explanations
17:12are favored over larger cultural
17:14critiques.
17:15Why was this crime allowed to take place
17:16at all?
17:22We also have risk and individual
17:25individualism and risk
17:27play together very well.
17:30Society has become increasingly risk
17:32focused.
17:35>> [clears throat]
17:35>> What's [snorts] interesting though is
17:37when we look at the vast majority of
17:38serious crimes. This includes things
17:40like murder, rape.
17:42>> [snorts]
17:42>> These are committed by someone who is
17:44known by the victim.
17:47But at the same time we see media
17:48depicting crime as this random,
17:50meaningless, unpredictable thing that's
17:53ready to strike anyone at any time.
17:56But what we actually know is that the
17:59the typical victim actually looks a lot
18:01more like the typical offender
18:04because there is such an overlap uh
18:07between offending and victimization.
18:09>> [snorts]
18:11>> And so what happens with the news is we
18:13have this concept of risk. There's the
18:15world is scary. The world's out there to
18:16hurt you. You are the only person who
18:18can protect yourselves.
18:20And again, when taken hand in hand with
18:23individualism our response to this is
18:25not to go, well, why is the world such a
18:28risky risky place? What can we do to
18:30make it safer, make it better? What can
18:32we do to support everybody?
18:35Instead, it becomes what can I do to
18:37protect myself?
18:39That's that idea of risk. Uh we also
18:41have the idea of sex. So stories
18:43involving crime tend to be over
18:46reported, especially when we look to sex
18:49crimes.
18:50Um sex and violence are actually linked
18:52as concepts. Um
18:55especially stories involving women.
18:58Uh [snorts]
18:59>> [clears throat]
19:00>> kind of taking those first two bullet
19:01points
19:02um
19:04I was reading that there
19:07was a
19:08British newspaper in
19:12>> [snorts]
19:12>> and at one point they looked and
19:15sex crimes accounted for something like
19:1741% of the reporting
19:20over the course of that year, but
19:22something like 3 and 1/2 to 4% of the
19:25reported crimes.
19:26And so obviously crimes are inherently,
19:30you know, newsworthy, but
19:32sex crimes are
19:35sort of even more newsworthy.
19:38And what's interesting is we see this
19:41sort of trade-off here.
19:43All this interest in sex crimes, but
19:46when we look at sex crimes against women
19:48where violence is not this overriding
19:50component of the story,
19:52and especially if the offender is known
19:54to the victim,
19:56these sex crimes are often framed as
19:58routine or pedestrian.
20:03Which is interesting because the the
20:05concept of stranger danger is is is far
20:08overblown both with children
20:11with women, both
20:12with who's most likely to commit crimes
20:14against you in general.
20:19But none of this should come as a
20:19surprise. We are in a very sexist
20:21society.
20:24And so
20:25even non-sex crimes involving women
20:27often mention physical appearance and
20:30reference their sexuality or their
20:32sexual history.
20:33We're going to talk about it in the next
20:34module. We're going to talk about how
20:36the media depicts women as well as
20:38children.
20:40And Amanda Knox, or as the media dubbed
20:43her Foxy Knoxy,
20:46is a really great example of
20:49sexism
20:51really blurring the lines of
20:53what is supposed to be this impartial
20:56process of justice.
21:01Celebrity.
21:02Celebrities are already just more
21:04interesting by nature of who they are.
21:06So if we consider it
21:08you know that the news value of
21:10threshold, they're already closer to if
21:12not past that newsworthy threshold.
21:15Um
21:17sometimes this means that even the
21:19smallest little criminal thing that they
21:21do is
21:23a news story, but this can also mean
21:25that the elevated status of the
21:26offenders allows crimes to go either
21:28unreported, uninvestigated,
21:30unprosecuted.
21:32Um
21:33again, Epstein is a
21:35wonderful example where there were
21:37arguments of uh
21:41having sexual contact with minors, and
21:43um
21:45he got a real real sweetheart deal that
21:47basically allowed him to walk
21:48unprosecuted.
21:50Uh
21:51that would not happen to a normal person
21:53because we just lack those sorts of
21:55resources and connections.
21:57>> [snorts]
21:58>> Alternatively though, when we think
21:59about celebrity, there is also this
22:01celebrity making element
22:03uh of the news of of crime in
22:05particular,
22:07>> [snorts]
22:07>> and we can look at serial killers in the
22:09era of true crime.
22:11Um
22:12even back when serial killers were first
22:14on trial, it was not uncommon for them
22:16to have lots of fan mail and things like
22:18that, but
22:20the the sort of
22:21sort of cult of personality surrounding
22:23a number of these very violent very
22:26horrifying serial killers is
22:29I mean, honestly, nothing short of
22:31grotesque. Uh it's very voyeuristic.
22:34And [snorts] so, in addition to
22:35celebrity, we have this idea of like a
22:36high-status person as well.
22:38It's like uh local celebrities, right?
22:41They're not as famous as celebrities,
22:46but they're more famous than us.
22:49And that's [snorts] almost a positive
22:50because it makes it more relatable. Um
22:53so, that's what we're going to talk
22:54about next with this idea of proximity.
22:56But this is the sense of like, "Wow,
22:58they're just like us. They live and work
23:00and do things in the same sort of area.
23:03But they're still [snorts] more
23:03interesting than normal. Uh typically
23:06we're thinking like business people,
23:07politicians, clergy, etc. But uh
23:10could also be sort of like a uh a local
23:13influencer or uh you know, uh popular
23:16teacher at your school or something like
23:19that. The idea is again,
23:20it's not your average Joe.
23:23It's not Justin Bieber, but
23:25still.
23:26And so we're already a little bit closer
23:28to that newsworthy threshold
23:31uh just because it's a high-status
23:32person. Add a little bit of deviance,
23:34add a little bit of crime, and all of a
23:35sudden it becomes
23:37uh much more interesting story than just
23:39Joe from down the street.
23:45>> [snorts]
23:45>> So, let's talk about proximity.
23:48Uh
23:48when we talk about proximity, there's
23:50two senses here. Uh one is spatial
23:52proximity, and one is cultural.
23:55So, we look at spatial proximity, it's
23:57this is the geographical nearness of a
23:59story. So, if I'm over here in the
24:01United States, story over here in Russia
24:04is going to be far less interesting
24:05because it's literally happening on the
24:06other side of the world.
24:08>> [snorts]
24:09>> We also have the cultural proximity
24:11though, and this is this is the sort of
24:12cultural relevance of a story to an
24:14audience. Can I relate to it? Do I care?
24:17Can I see myself in the story?
24:19Uh
24:21proximity is most obvious between things
24:23like local and national news.
24:25A mugging may make the local news. It
24:28may be one of the most exciting things.
24:29It's
24:30close, it happened right here. Cultural
24:32proximity is checked off as well. These
24:34people live here just like me.
24:38But unless it involves a celebrity or if
24:40it's especially violent in nature, it's
24:42probably not likely to make the national
24:43news because I read the national news
24:46for a national perspective.
24:48Uh and so the the value of cultural
24:51proximity and spatial proximity is
24:54relative to international news still
24:57there.
24:58Right? Uh
24:59New York Times is probably not going to
25:01be giving me a bunch of articles in like
25:03Arabic or anything.
25:05Um or Mandarin.
25:07Right? It may be much more popular than
25:09English, but it's for an English
25:11audience.
25:12You know, New York Times in the United
25:14States.
25:15Uh
25:16>> [clears throat]
25:16>> and so as a result, we are seeing uh
25:20still a little bit more of a narrow
25:21scope. We still want the story to be
25:23proximal in some way.
25:25Whether it's, "Wow, it happened down the
25:26street." or
25:28"Wow, that could happen to me."
25:31And
25:34perhaps one of the most upsetting is uh
25:38we can see the power of proximity when
25:40we look at
25:42what would otherwise be similarly tragic
25:44stories.
25:46Uh the photo on the right here, as I
25:48have a note here, is uh from an article
25:50titled "America's Black Children Are
25:52Missing at Disproportionately High Rates
25:54and How the Amber Alert Is at Fault."
25:56I have a link to that URL in the
26:00uh notes section of this PowerPoint
26:03slide.
26:04Uh
26:06but [clears throat]
26:06the the premise is that black children
26:10are being uh
26:13let down by
26:15our Amber Alert system. The idea being
26:18that
26:19uh
26:19a child has been missing child has been
26:21taken, put out an Amber Alert, let's try
26:24to mobilize as many people as possible.
26:27Uh
26:29study after study after study has found
26:31that
26:32this idea of
26:34what we might refer to as the ideal
26:37victim.
26:39And so, if we were to sort of concoct
26:43a crime criminal event
26:45that would garner the most media
26:46attention attention.
26:48We our ideal victim would probably be
26:51somebody who's young, female, white,
26:54middle-class, and conventionally
26:56attractive. That is going to garner the
26:58most sympathy, the most empathy, the
27:00most concern.
27:02>> [snorts]
27:03>> And this is what we refer to as a
27:06anything but racism argument.
27:09The argument here is that
27:11the reason these stories don't get more
27:12coverage, the the missing black children
27:15don't get the same coverage, the same
27:17sort of media push that that cute little
27:19missing white kids do, it's not racism.
27:23Wink wink.
27:24It's a matter of proximity.
27:27The audience is is much more likely to
27:29relate to and empathize with that ideal
27:31victim, the young girl who's white,
27:33middle-class, and conventionally
27:35attractive
27:36than they are male, working-class,
27:39African-American, formerly incarcerated,
27:42drug-addicted sex worker, or whatever.
27:46The more
27:48the argument goes, the more
27:50elements to this
27:52person
27:53that I can't relate to, the less I care.
27:57And so the argument is not that
27:59the news is racist cuz they do not care
28:01about black kids, it's that if it is
28:03racist, it's only because society is
28:06and we're in the news business, we're
28:08not a charity.
28:10Um
28:12Obviously, I think this is
28:15racism with a couple extra steps, but uh
28:19you know, this is the real world, this
28:21is not you can't necessarily point to
28:22somebody and go, "This is a racist
28:24action." It tends to be much more
28:26mundane like this.
28:28Uh where
28:30stories like this just don't get
28:31covered, or they don't get as much
28:33coverage, or they don't get covered
28:34until later, or there's just not the the
28:36pressure for follow-ups or or anything
28:39like that.
28:41>> [sighs and gasps]
28:42>> Uh another news value is violence or
28:43conflict. Um
28:45very common
28:47expression is if it bleeds, it leads.
28:49It comes from the newspaper days and the
28:50idea is that something big and bloody
28:52and very high stakes is going to uh
28:56get people much more interested in
28:57reading my paper.
28:59And sort of baked into this is this
29:01assumption that the state has a monopoly
29:03on what we might call legitimate
29:05violence.
29:07And this is it uses it to safeguard
29:09society against illegitimate uses. Like
29:11a cop is allowed to be violent to stop
29:13the criminal.
29:14I am not allowed to beat up somebody who
29:17uh pulled into the parking spot in the
29:20parking lot at the mall before I could.
29:22Right? That would be an illegitimate
29:24use. But if a cop were to come over and
29:26need to use violence to to separate us
29:28in order to protect society, that would
29:30be a legitimate use.
29:32And so there's this
29:34uh
29:36two sides are are going to be opposed.
29:38There's there's a lot of power
29:41concentrated on uh the side of the
29:43state.
29:45>> [clears throat]
29:46>> In today's modern society, violence has
29:48actually become so ubiquitous that it is
29:51frequently being reported in a very
29:53routine and mundane manner.
29:55Uh unless other news values are met
29:57where it's especially violent or, you
29:59know, we have an ideal victim or
30:01something like that. Uh it's
30:03increasingly becoming much more like you
30:06might see like a traffic report or
30:07something where over the weekend three
30:09people were shot uh instead of this oh
30:12my god, what does this mean for society?
30:14Won't someone do something that you
30:16could see even a couple years ago.
30:21Uh
30:21we also have this idea of visual
30:23spectacle and graphic imagery. And so
30:25the example here is drawing a little bit
30:27on my area of expertise, which is uh
30:30graffiti writers.
30:31And
30:33the thing that I always joke with folks
30:34is that
30:36I'm excited always excited to do
30:37research to to try to write and publish
30:40articles because graffiti is such an
30:43inherently visually interesting topic.
30:47Even if you don't really care what I
30:48have to say, you might stop for a second
30:50to look at the pictures.
30:52It's so obviously images
30:56help
30:57convey something that words can't.
30:59Right? And we see this taken a step
31:01further when we look at TV.
31:03TV is seen as superior because of its
31:06high-quality, in this case, moving
31:08images.
31:09Because video is held to demonstrate the
31:11truth of a story.
31:13And so if we can incorporate things like
31:14real, quote unquote, footage, like CCTV
31:18cameras, that is seen to lend to the
31:20authenticity of the story. It's not just
31:22me going, "Listen, listen, take my word
31:24for it." It's going, "No, here's what
31:27happened and here's video."
31:30Now, we've all seen
31:32you know, insert the name of your
31:34favorite
31:36reality television show.
31:38Um
31:40And And so there's
31:42we should know that just because there's
31:45video does not mean that that's how the
31:47story went down.
31:49Um I mean, so much of
31:52the reality television success comes
31:55from
31:56these narratives being crafted and
31:58storylines coming together in the
32:01editing room.
32:02Uh
32:03I may say 10 nice things to somebody and
32:06then say one thing a little bit
32:07sarcastic, but if you cut out the part
32:09where the other person laughs and only
32:11play that sarcastic bit, it may seem
32:13like I was being a real jerk and hurt
32:15their feelings.
32:18And [snorts] so there is some concern
32:20that uh
32:22especially in the age of AI and
32:24deepfakes and stuff like that, that just
32:26because there's a an image or a video
32:28does not mean that it's true.
32:31Uh
32:34Zooming out a little bit when we look at
32:35sort of visual spectacle, stories that
32:37are most likely to be covered are going
32:38to be things like acts of violence or
32:40anything with a strong visual impact.
32:43Especially they can be easily and
32:45graphically presented.
32:48This also leads to a lot more attention
32:50on what we might consider spectacular
32:52crimes. These are things that may occur
32:54in the public sphere are going to get a
32:56lot more attention. But this could be at
32:58the cost of more private crimes. Things
33:00like intimate partner violence,
33:02corporate corruption, state violence,
33:03things that happen at home.
33:05Uh without public scrutiny.
33:09>> [clears throat]
33:09>> Because it's more difficult to get
33:10images and things like that. Uh it's not
33:13as ready-made to be a new story.
33:17>> [snorts]
33:18>> Um
33:19Moving on, let's talk about children
33:20briefly. Uh again, much like women
33:23that's that's going to be the focus of
33:24module three, so we're only going to
33:25mention them briefly here.
33:27Uh the argument for the longest time was
33:29that any crime can be lifted to
33:30newsworthy if a child is involved, but
33:33that's not true.
33:35Uh given what we know about rates of uh
33:39sexual violence and abuse against women,
33:42um
33:44and how underreported uh incest and
33:48family sexual abuse tends to be,
33:50it's entirely plausible that something
33:53like child sex abuse, which appears to
33:55be
33:57a thing that occurs in basically every
33:59civilization ever to some extent,
34:02um
34:05has been around for forever and
34:06nothing's really being done about it. Uh
34:08so,
34:10you know, maybe not every crime uh can
34:13be lifted to newsworthy, but if kids are
34:15involved, it becomes inherently more
34:18interesting.
34:19Um
34:20whether it's because it's more tragic or
34:22more inspiring or more whatever. And
34:24this applies when children are the
34:26offender or the victim.
34:28Um
34:29>> [clears throat]
34:30>> Children are also very attractive when
34:32the media is trying to engage in any
34:33sort of morality campaign. Uh if we're
34:36sitting here debating, you know, LGBTQ
34:38issues, it's uh debate on human rights.
34:43If I am debating somebody who is uh more
34:48conservative, they might try to shift uh
34:51to a morality campaign arguing about
34:54what about the children. We got to
34:55protect our kids.
34:57>> [snorts]
34:58>> What happens here is is very subtle, but
35:01the the argument has shifted.
35:03Now,
35:06that [clears throat] morality campaign
35:07has been structured such that if I want
35:09to oppose it, if I want to support LGBTQ
35:12rights, I now have to be positioned as
35:15saying it's okay. I don't care about the
35:18children.
35:19Uh it's impossible to impo- oppose that
35:22argument because there's no legal,
35:23moral, ethical ground on which you can
35:25argue that it's okay to have sex with
35:27kids.
35:28It There's just not.
35:30>> [snorts]
35:30>> And so, if framed as a morality
35:33campaign, children become sort of this
35:35trump card, right? I can play it and go,
35:37"Ah, what are you going to do about
35:38that? Won't you think about the kids?"
35:41Uh with I And again, this tends to be a
35:44very individual response. There's not
35:46some larger systemic call to action
35:48going, "We need to bolster the education
35:50system or the health care system or uh
35:52ba ba ba ba." The idea is instead
35:57somebody needs to protect these children
35:59from these these monsters.
36:02So, [snorts] it should come as no
36:02surprise, in case you haven't picked it
36:04up yet,
36:05uh
36:06underpinning all of this is what we
36:09might consider a conservative ideology
36:11and political diversion.
36:13All of these news values depend on a
36:15broadly right-wing consensus on what is
36:18the American way of life.
36:21And I I understand this is broadly
36:24right-wing. Now, understand I did the
36:26GOP elephant, but if we zoom out for a
36:29moment, you can replace conservative
36:32ideology with capitalist ideology.
36:35Right? The idea is not so much, unless
36:38you're a Republican, so much as unless
36:40you are a capitalist.
36:42You may choose to spend your money at at
36:45woman-owned stores or uh
36:48uh stores owned by by people of color,
36:52but as long as you're spending your
36:54money, that's fine.
36:56>> [snorts]
36:58>> The bigger push becomes when you start
37:00to try to turn the system on its head.
37:03Uh
37:04but for now, let's just sort of focus on
37:06this conservative piece, right? So,
37:07issues of crime and deviance, we see
37:09this emphasis on deterrence and
37:12repression.
37:14We start to hear voices coming out in
37:15support for more police and prisons,
37:18tougher immigration laws, we want to be
37:19tough on crime.
37:22The news has sort of been claimed to be
37:24this voice of the people for a long
37:26time, but it also has this general
37:28intolerance towards anything that
37:29transgresses a conservative
37:32or especially a capitalist agenda.
37:35>> [snorts]
37:36>> And so,
37:38again,
37:39this is not coming out as some sort of
37:42we need uh to spike and kill all stories
37:46that involve, you know, liberal values.
37:51The way this plays out is a reluctance
37:54to question these sort of underlying
37:56assumptions, right? Uh we need more
38:00police, somebody's got to do something
38:01about crime. There was there's no
38:03conversation about do police help stop
38:05crime?
38:07Do the people here want more police?
38:09Is that the best and most effective way
38:12to try to stop this crime?
38:14There There's no conversation about the
38:15assumption, it's just that we need more
38:16police. We need more prisons. We got to
38:18be tougher on crime.
38:20The [snorts] The problems thus far
38:21happened because we have not been tough
38:23enough.
38:24This is a very conservative in the sense
38:27not political but like conservative
38:29reactionary
38:31approach. And so again we can sort of
38:33see this underlying all of these news
38:35values.

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