Reading 8

Paul Mason’s article discusses how to rate the prison films. Mason points how inaccurate the issues of genre and oversight in prison films.  Some of the prison films are not a recognizable genre.  For example, one major conflict with prison films is deciding what proportion of the film should be based on the class of prison films. The article states how escaped prisoners and riots are very popular in news media. However, media generally ignores stories on inmates in prison. A writer named Nellis states in the article how imprisonment is difficult to image in viewers, and prisons were modernized during 1900’s to 1930s. Some of the themes of prison show escapes riots, violence, wrongful conviction and etc. Mason states how films give the audience a systematic process of a new inmate that enters into prison. Paul Mason states the prison films tends to be more entertaining for viewers because most haven’t been in prison. I agree with Mason because we can take it for granted that we know the prison only be watching shows or TV. Within the article there was an example from The Name of The Father. The characters in The Name of The Father were stripped naked at the entrance of prison then they changed into their prison uniforms and put in jail this is how the dehumanizing process began.

Rafter’s explains characters, plots and themes that make prison films. Most traditional prison films are based in riots and prison escapes. She stated four things the prison films offer us: to identify with a perfect man, perfect friendship, fantasized about sex and rebellion. An example of perfect friendship in The Last Mile was when inmates were helping each another when guards wore overpowering them in a negative way. Just as in Mason’s article, Rafter stated riots and prisoner escapes makes headline in media. Rafter discussed corrupted wardens, snitches and gangs. She also states there are three stock themes; rebellion against injustice, power in the prison over and appearance versus reality. Rafter’s argument is finding the perfect hero inside the prison. For example how the innocent learns to adapt in the prisons and forms friendships. Another is how prison media relates to the masculine rather than the feminine.  

Another example of Mason is the film called Shawshank Redemption. This film illustrates the dehumanizing process of new inmate into prison. Even the film the justice system was corrupt. It showed the masculine side of prison, how the men came very close to each other. The film shows how there is “wise prisoners” that are being taught by a senior inmate. This film connects with Rafter’s chapter by the four things the prison films offer us, by leaning more toward friendship. In Shawshank Redemption film friendship mainly theme. Both prisoners became best friends, even thought hey didn’t belong in prison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mL_916GFaA this clip is the same as the example Mason and Rafter used in their articles. From this clip it showed me how to never give up on your freedom. The clip showed how a prisoner becomes dehumanized and just became another number in the prison. The clip also showed how prison films are repetitive and using the same setting to give the prison a negative aspect. 

READING 7

In the Greenfield and Guy’s article they explained how media take criminal stories and expand them to make a film so it will be watched in a cinema. Lawyers wrote the whole article. The main point of this article was how the lawyers were in the media willing to be seen as the good guys by solving cases. From my understanding I noticed how lawyers would take a small certain case and make it into a big issue. They solved that case to make themselves known. Greenfield and Guy stated the fact that the lawyers were not ethical, meaning they would play with their own rules to make justice within their case. For example Killing of the Mockingbird, found evidence the accused to be found innocent and not be placed guilty for being a different race.  Television lawyers played the role of saving the innocent from jail. Even for good lawyers, defending a case could be bending the rules to make case seem successful. The viewers like to watch trials due to the justice being fairly applied and anticipation of the outcome of the case. The media makes films because the society wants to see others people suffer rather than themselves.  I feel that couldn’t agree or disagree because it is very interesting to see how the justice system works. On the other note I wouldn’t like how media can puts a stereotype on lawyers to be a certain way.  I feel that media overall has cons and pros to shape an individuals views.

The film Presume Innocent can be explained by Greenfield and Guy’s article. The film involved a murder story. Which was expanded into a major public criminal case. The accused murderer’s law firm corrupted the evidence and testimony for the accuser to not face punishment. The accused lawyer was unethical because he bent the rules in order to be viewed as a good lawyer. He didn’t be forth evidence against his wife, who was the murder of the mistress. The film was made to portray the mythological romanticized law system in the 1990’s, which allows viewers to acknowledge the fault within lawyers and law system. At the end of the film we portrayed how he wouldn’t now tell who the real murder was to protect his child. However, accused is facing punishment because he is living the consequence from his actions.

Another example of Greenfield and Guys’s article is Until We Meet Again.  The main character was accused of killing her husband but could not remember the event. She sought help form a report agency, which discovered she was not the killer. There was controversy over who the real murders were. Two doctors were killed because of their affairs with a young nurse. It turned out that the real killers were her two best friends. The reporter bent the rules to solve the case. I feel in overall how lawyers or reporters do whatever it takes to make their story be successful even if they are placed in danger.  Seeing these two films I have an assumptions that lawyers and reporters should use ethical and moral chooses before risking if the justice being safe. 

Reading 6

In the article “CSI and moral authority: The police and science,” Caverder and Deutsch explain how “CSI” is one of the top 10 television programs. The focus is on how the CSI show uses images and the cultural meaning of the crime to play into police and science investigations. The argument of this article is whether science should or should not play a role in closing a case. The article explains how some of the CSI scenes are not valid, because CSI uses forensic science to make viewers think sciences can prove who committed the crime. They also state that sometimes some scenes are too fictional and put irony into viewers to question authority of the police investigation.  In the article they point out there is not much accuracy in the scientific procedures but CSI presents them as accurate. The article states that CSI projects images that all case are solvable by highly technical science. I disagree with the article because science should be put in consideration when crimes are committed. In some cases forensic science is necessary to solve crimes but should not be taken out of proportion.

In the CIS show, which was my first CSI experience, I saw how much technology was used in the show.  All of the evidences were taken to the forensic lab. The forensic team had to use many techniques to show what had occurred at the time of the crime. The message the CSI show sends out is that the criminal does leave a trace. I can see why the article states that the forensic team tends to take a larger part in the show to make the viewer think science is what solves the crime. The show ignores the police investigation in favor of the science. Just as Cavender and Deutsch state, CSI ignores the human side. The police drama series in television can make the viewers think they know the whole system without knowing the real system.

Conviction was a film based on a true story.  The two main characters were brothers who shared many life experiences. However, through time they developed their own lives with their own families and work.  After 30-year pass by Betty’s (sisters of Kenny) Kenny gets convicted for a murder he didn’t commit. He was sentenced for life Betty knows her brother didn’t commit the crime. She goes to law school and becomes a lawyer to defend her brother. When she was in school she found out about case someone was convicted wrongly for a murder.  From that case Betty applies the same case to her brother so they can do a DNA test to prove his innocence. Eventually, they do prove his innocence and he was released from the murder charge. I see how science does apply here because if there weren’t any test, an innocent person would have been convicted. I believe there should be a balance between science and policing investigation. Like Cavender and Deutsch state CSI ignores the human investigation, in this case they ignored the science investigation. 

Reading 5

In the article by Kasinsky, she explains how there is interaction between the news media and police. She gave two cases of how news media and police interact. One of the cases was called the, “Stuart Murder,” which related the murder of Charles Stuart’s wife. After the incident happened he gave a description that the murder of his wife was an African American. However, news media took a big role by telling the society of the crime. It turned out the killer of Charles Stuart’s wife was him. The second case was the Rodney King beating; he was an African American, who was brutally attacked by cops. From these cases, Kasinsky touches how news media can affect what information is processed to society. Both police and media have similar ways they project authority.  For example, in these cases, the African Americans are treated with injustice because of wrong information. The case of Rodney King was famed by the media as being more than an isolated case of police brutality. I feel that there are pros and cons of how news media sees how the system of police justice works. Seeing media plays a huge part in society. It can have different texts, shape, and images of crime. I agree how media can start taking the crime investigation more seriously and take the role of police more than police officer doing it.

The Rafter article discusses how Dirty Harry sets the stage for other generic boundaries films involving crime fighting. Also the Dirty Harry film was compared to westerns and how to make the good guy more appealing than the bad guy.  As well there is no real indication of other types of crimes. One of the references Rafter mentions was torture, for example when Harry steps on the leg of the suspect.  Rafter relates how masculinity is a concept in the film. Some of the examples are, men placed in powerful roles to symbolize masculinity over feminist, use of force, and even the main character as seen to be more masculine.  I understand and agree with how the film Dirty Harry has changed many aspects of crime fighting, and also how the masculinity is taken more seriously showing they are fighting for justice.

Dirty Harry connects with the Kasinsky article by how the suspect takes the advantage to beat himself--saying it was the police officer violating his rights. With this scene I related to the case of Rodney King, but in this case the suspect hired someone to beat him up. Even many police officers were made into stereotypes throughout the film.  Almost all of Rafter’s article appeals to the Dirty Harry films as the criminal is very smart, but Harry is the smarter one.  I see how certain dynamics made Dirty Harry to bring forth more films. I also saw how the primary modes come into play with the law enforcement in the media.

Person of Interest is a series that is barely new to TV shows. I watched how the beginning started when two persons came together to fight for justice and protect a person from doing harm to others. The two individuals had worked for the government, and then they were sick of this life and started a new one.  I see within this series how masculinity plays in just as how it’s two men fighting crime. One is the operator who gets the information from a machine. The other individual is a crime fighter who uses his military training. In this series the police department is involved only when the two crime fighters capture the bad guys. I can see how media can play in this series because we can see the police departments are seen as the heroic even though they didn’t do any of the work.

Reading 4

The article by Surette discussed how predator criminals are seen form subjective and objective viewpoints.  Society views are subjective because they see the world models that shape the criminals. The criminals’ views are objective because they’re based on their experiences. Society believes crime media creates predator criminal, and they don’t look at other factors. Media shows the violence of crimes, but does not address the cause, so society becomes scared and views other individuals as different.  From that fear, they want the government to take control, but the people won’t do anything because it’s not related to them. It even creates stereotypes within the society.  Another image media plays into is how police officers recruit more officers. They use crime media to create unrealistic pictures of crime.  Through history certain genres of criminals have been depicted and been seen as individualistic. I disagree with how society creates stereotypes with criminals that commit a certain crime. I feel society should consider all factors before making assumptions towards an individual.

The Rafter article discusses why criminals commit crimes. Some of the concepts are biological, environmental, abnormal, and rational choice theories. However, in each of these concepts the criminal can’t be excused or justified because they can blame the theories. One of things the article emphasizes that can be controversial is that theories may overlap. Even research has proven that media can make an individual aggressive but not a criminal.   I do agree with how crime films are made more dramatic. Some crime films make us take more consideration of how to view both crime and our life. We have to study a criminal in a certain aspect by seeing which theory can apply to them. However, it would become biased because criminals can have more than one theory to define their behaviors.

Menace II Society associates with Rafter’s theories of environmental and rational choices because Kane was around corrupted influences. In the beginning of the film it showed Watts’s riots, to show why the gang solved their problems by killing. Kane, being the main character, had more moral conscience but still committed crime to survive.  Also, the geographic location shows the issues within specific neighborhood. I would consider how police officers and law enforcement is not taken serious in that area. Instead the police officers were racist. In addition I was impacted by my own race. We tend to challenge each other for materialistic things for us to be happy.  The story was highly political, showing how they would set rules to justify their own crime. Having many riots in the neighborhood makes the society believe in the death penalty as the best solution.

“The Lovely Bones,” is a film about man who was obsessed with young children. He would plan carefully before he attacked his victims. As I watched this film many questions came to my mind, especially about the theories we covered in class regarding why he kills children. I assumed he probably was mentally ill or someone harmed him when he was a child. One thing that made him have the desire to kill was when the child paid attention to him.  He would even collect newspaper articles regarding the child he was interested in. In this film he didn’t get caught until a young teenager discovered him. I can see how environmental theory can take place in this situation because the area was a small community, and everyone took for granted that everyone who lived there were good people. I chose this story because the man committed a large number of assassinations, so the media created a more dramatic and awful picture. Even the setting was shocking because it was quiet and not populated.

Reading 3

Chermak

In the article by Chermak, he explains the process how crime comes to the media. He also explains how the crime news can shape the society’s understanding of the crime and victims. Even whether the reader’s laughs, cries, reflects, rejoices, or reads with lack of concern depends on how the reader understands the media.  Chermak also states that reporters and editors have a limited number of sources between organizations and justice agencies.  He informs his reader how some organizations are dependent on media. Some reporters use police as one of their primary sources to produce crime news. To determine crime news that would capture most consumers one should consider criteria that affect the editor’s story, production, and assignment decisions (Chermak’s Article #99). From this point the reporters decide whether they will use the story or follow up on it. Each crime potentially fills four different levels of news space. Each level pertains to how the crime is unique and a more comprehensive way to understand. The levels are tertiary crime stories (space fillers which are easy to put together), secondary crime stories (stories that are important in the news and have a burden to get the information into the media), primary crime stories (very important crime stories), and super primary stories (sensational crime stories). Chermak estimated 11% of the news is crime stories, which are the fourth category of media. He explains how crime news is found in newspapers or broadcasting. Important crime news is on the front page of the newspaper.  I agree with Chermak because previously I only thought inside the box about how reporters are always nosing around or copy others to get their information. By reading the article, I learned how there are different levels in the process of how the crime story makes it into media. Yes, the people are influenced in their opinions and attitudes about crime through mass news media. We also need to know what is going on where we live. For example, in my hometown we have a local newspaper to show who got arrested or in an accident.

Rafter

In the book by Rafter, she explains that in crime movies, many points are taken in consideration, such as representation of the cops, court prison etc.  Society has to decide if an individual is a good or bad person in the justice system and to identify whether the character is punished at the end. She relates how we get positive satisfactions seeing others suffer which Rafter calls happy hypocrisy. For example, we know we won’t commit a crime, but while viewing one in a film, we connect to it by some times thinking of doing that crime.

She explains how crime films make us create an understanding within social, economic and political ideologies, which are powerful aspects.  However the crime film should contain accurate information for viewers. She explains that in critical crime films the main characters are covered in bitterness or the film ends without a happy ending. From reading the introduction I do agree with Rafter, especially about how we like to see others suffer but not commit a crime in reality. I also agree with how every movie doesn’t have to have a happy ending. I like how Rafter explains how to choose a crime film by reputation, significance between crime and society, history and application to everyday life. I know that he used this process to study the crime films, which helps me understand how to choose a crime film.  I do fall into the category of happy hypocrisy in films how people suffer and how they get caught to form justice.

Video in class

In the beginning of the video, Blood Mountain, I felt the need to go on a hike because I wanted to feel the peaceful setting. Although the introduction sounded peaceful the video turned into a search for two missing individuals. I observed when a person goes missing for two days you notify the police after making calls to their friends and their job. To identify the suspect police officer found lost items of the victim and also the perpetrator.  The suspect’s lost items played a big role identifying him through the media. For example, the images of the individual in the media help the community to look for the missing individuals.  According to Chemak’s article, if a criminal sees himself in the media he tends to make mistakes and get caught. After viewing the video I won’t go to the mountains without a huge group.

News

http://www.krem.com/video?id=129540393&sec=550042  Krem news covers how a 22 years old female beats up her two-year old daughter. The mother glued her daughter’s hands to the wall until they bled then she shoved a gallon of milk against her stomach. The two-year girl was found unconscious when the grandmother came to visit them. The grandmother pressed charges, for the abuse against the mother. In this aspect I wonder how much knowledge does a 22-year old have to raise a daughter? Does the mother have a history of being violent? Does the daughter live with both parents? Where was the father? Do different cultures understand how children are protected here in the USA? Why did the grandmother turn in her daughter were there problems earlier? I see how the progress took place in the media through Chermark’s and Rafter’s articles.

Blog Reading

Hayward, Keith

Hayward’s article discusses how images cannot be taken for granted but be seen in different point of view. The world is increasingly using images as a symbolic production. One example in Hayward article was the study of David Freeburg and how he explains a book called “The Power of Image: Studies in the History and Theory of Response.” David tells us how to read the media: symptoms (what is it doing), behavior (how we react due to ethnicity and identity), and value (what is the value of the image or for society) He discusses how culture criminology connects to theory and methodology involving image. Hayward stated the study of image has a process: construction, surrounds and interpretation results from people’s understanding. I personally agree with Hayward, because now I will see images from different angles. I will connect more to the message of the image rather than the image itself. I strongly realized how images have a text not words that carries a message. It’s true that image do play a big role in how people may put it to practice as a cultural or factual crime. Technology media plays into criminal justice, in Hayward’s example of the police officer and cyclist.  An example that comes to mind in this article for me is the image of Scarface, in how the society views it in a negative way specialty for young adults.

 Yar, Majid

In Yar’s article, he states how the culture criminology connects with crime, deviance, control and symbolic representation in the study media in film. Media in film is the study that interprets the meaning of construction and textual reading. Yar goes further discussing how there are different analysis to understand a film crime. One analysis is content analysis; the number of times is shown in different ways in media. The second analysis is from Marxs, who uses ideological apparatuses approach viewing the main role character in a political and powerful way.  He uses the approach to break popular movies into parts because he leans towards power and does not tell how lower class victims are represented. The third approach is postmodern looking the reaction with our five senses.  I would agree with two-approaches that would be content and postmodern analysis.  The content approach can be effective in how media changes society. For example different kinds of media tend to draw attention to society in a positive or negative way. As in postmodern, I connect because I like to use my five senses in watching films in the real world crime. In ideological analysis I don’t agree because powerful and political views are put into play in films. In the content and postmodern approaches due take into play for crime. An example I would use, it would be Superman series, in how lower classes helps the higher and lower class, even the superpowers we something desire to have one day.

Young Alison

The postmodern analysis is connected to Young’s article. He discusses how the viewer is affect emotional by watching the film. Explains how criminological aesthetics of the crime image are more into justice or injustice. Young implies in a film you can see: law, violence and justice are put into action. As the individual watches the film, they are affected how those observation are placed in society now.  He explains images should not be taken for granted, but how law and justice are tied to the image that can provide new social changes. I agree with Young article because watching films I feel how it does appear in our society now. The example Young, used was Kill Bill, which took many details of the justice and injustice. I know postmodern and emotional play a role with criminology in how the society can put into practices.  An example I would use is Death Proof, how a man stalks young women and kills them. It has intense images the viewer would connect with.

Viewing

The class viewing was Kill Bill, applying postmodern analysis and emotional. Viewing many crimes for example patience’s in hospital that are in coma can be raped or how the females tend to be sexual assault or rape.  How women who tend to lose their children by blaming themselves for losing their babies or domestic abuse can happen to have a miscarriage. It’s interesting how some women have psychology problems get help, but other females fight for justice by having revenge. I agree with the class discussion about the articles. My mind is more open and will see media films differently by understanding the message. The viewing Kill Bill that had connections, in law violence and justice, approaches of postmodern and emotional was used in crime.

 Media Text 

On Wednesday I was watching the Spokane News, which told in how a two masked men broke into a house in Spokane, committed burglary. The robbers assaulted the victim which caused broken ribs and bruises. The victim was married, when they broke into to his house his wife, she was not there. She was staying in the cabin in another location.  None of the masked men took belongings because they found nothing valuable. In what I analyze from this robbery why was the wife not there? Does she have something to do with the crime? As well how did they know that he was alone at night? Why was nothing taken? I feel that their marriage had problems. Did the wife send someone to do her a favor? The weirdest thing that no one has the car licenses plate when the incident occurred. I feel a message was delivering to the husband from a friend or his wife. Who is going to catch them? Where is justice in this case?