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Media Representation By Wendy Chan And Dorthy Chunn

910 Words4 Pages

Wendy Chan and Dorthy Chunns “Media Representations of Race, Crime and Criminal Justice” provides not only a retelling of violent crimes and how the white media depicts such acts in order to fit the “white is right” narrative but critically engages and analyzes the ways in which these media depictions negatively harm minorities in Canada. This piece is filled with opinions, facts and queries that all engage with the relationship between crime, media representation and intersectionality. The most interesting sections from the reading are; newsworthiness and crime reporting, the symbiotic relationship between police and journalists and the erosion of the line between fact and fiction in relation to the spectacle that is criminal justice.
Media …show more content…

As previously mentioned people love consuming media, and this in turn results in crime being turned into media. Facts, victims, truth and the entire judiciary system are completely removed to create a bite-sized piece of information to be watched and consumed (pg. 61). The lines between fact and fiction slowly begin to bleed away as facts are removed to make room for details that will sell. Race is then either weaponized or used to depict victims/accused as racist stereotypes. Chan and Chunns use the case of Reena Virk as an example of this effect, her case was quickly turned into a late-night special that could be dissected and produced into spin-offs, tv shows, podcasts, etc (pg. 63). Allowing for the media to make a judgment that weighs more than evidence and judicial …show more content…

Trends come and go within a week, similar to how people view cases in the media, one week they wanna hear this, and the next something completely different. It completely alters or removes the spotlight from one to the other, this can result in favouritism towards one crime compared to the other. Unfortunately, the government can’t move as quickly as the trend cycle, so it causes delays within the justice system for those trying to use these trends to their

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