Power Of The Fourth Estate : How Does New Media Coverage On Polarized Criminal Justice?

The 2006 Duke Lacrosse Case brought to light many of the issues and divisions currently plaguing our media sphere. This terrible act of injustice, which blamed three innocent Duke lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, for the rape of an African-American stripper, garnered extensive media attention that gripped America for almost an entire year (Wasserman, 3). Today, many scrutinze the media’s methods of covering the case, and deem that certain codes of ethics were not adhered to. Rather than remaining neutral, newspapers and TV outlets allowed themselves to “be used” by Mike Nifong, the former District Attorney for Durham and prosecutor of the case, by reporting

It is no secret that the media is able to influence the general public’s opinion on most anything. Whether the subject is fiction or non, movies, documentaries, and the news especially, are capable of swaying the public’s opinions and perceptions one way or the other. Not even the world of law enforcement is safe from the media’s purview (Barlow, M. H. and Barlow, D. E. and Chiricos T. G., 1995), as media portrayals often romanticize law enforcement as a well oiled machine that always gets the bad guy, and has a perfect relationship with the public. On top of this, the media has displayed a poor habit of portraying crime as predominantly violent and racial, rather than showing the whole picture(Gilliam, F. D. and Iyengar, S. and Simon, A. and Wright, O., 1996). In this paper, the motives driving these depictions, as well as the scope and effect of the media’s influence on public perception of law enforcement, will be explored and discussed.

In July of 2008, one of the biggest crime cases devastated the United States nation-wide. The death of Caylee Anthony, a two year old baby, became the most popular topic in a brief amount of time. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, became the main suspect after the child supposedly was kidnapped and went missing. To this day, the Casey Anthony case shocks me because justice, in my opinion, wasn’t served. I feel as if the criminal conviction system became somewhat corrupted in this case. The entire nation, including the court system, knew that Casey Anthony was behind this criminal act, but yet she escaped all charges. I chose this case not only because it’s debatable, but also to help state the obvious, this case was handled the wrong way.

The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content

The media can be an effective tool for exposing injustices in the application of criminal law, however it can also be used to create unfair bias against the alleged offender therefore, causing an imbalance between the rights of the accused and society. The media attempted to vilify Loveridge to create prejudice

On July 5, 2011, during all deliberations Casey was found guilty for false information that she was providing. However, she was found Not Guilty for 1st degree murder, Child Abuse,

In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in her home. This was very disturbing news. I am a native Houstonian. I was at home that day. The television was on and will never forget the news breaking announcements that broke the story of a homicide in Clear Lake. All the information the reporters had was a mother killed all her children then called the police to report it. The full story and the details that lead to this tragedy did not unfold until years later. It was sad because as details unfolded if Andrea Yates had been treated properly and followed her doctors

Unfortunately, for the hearings, this clarification resulted in the primary focus of the hearings becoming the interpersonal relationship between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, with a lesser importance placed on the political implications of the hearings. However, media interference did not end at merely simplifying. The media’s next step in reaching more viewers was making this summarized news exciting and newsworthy. Conservative America was stunned and enthralled with the scandals associated with one of America’s most potentially powerful men. All the alterations by the media created a loss of the facts of the story. The media’s inference resulted in the Clarence Thomas hearings became little more than the average fluff article.

On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called the police saying her daughter Casey Anthony stole her car and some money. Later that same day the police received another call from the same person saying that her granddaughter Caylee Anthony had been gone for over a month. When this was heard, they knew they had a big case on their hands. The mother Casey Anthony was taken into custody and told many lies concerning the whereabouts of her daughter. The police began to investigate and found some interesting things that could very well prove Casey Anthony guilty of kidnapping and murder of her own daughter.

Also the whole nanny situation was a lie, after detectives went to the apartment complex where supposable Zenaida Fernandez lived records showed that no one by that name had ever been a resident there. The next lie discovered was Casey’s employment, she was actually unemployed and not working at Universal studios like she stated. Records show that she worked there years back but was fired. Detectives saw no ambition in Casey trying to find her daughter, Casey was a liar and never did she show any type of emotions of suffering while talking to the detectives. The biggest concern to police was “Why Caylee was reported missing until a month after she was last seen?”

Casey was cleared of all the charges that were in connection to the first degree murder that she was facing. Casey was also fine for each false statement she gave the jurors.

media has always been a vital role in history. Media is the source of information that people use to become informed on current events. It serves as the public's "watchdog" by checking the government on any disinformation. Media is often named as the fourth branch of government because of its ability to hold the government accountable. However, I don't believe that the media should hold the title of the fourth branch of government.

In 1996, Keli Lane, was charged with murder over her newborn baby Teagan. Keli gave birth to Teagan in September 1996, and a short time after the birth, the baby had seemingly disappeared. Two days after the birth of her baby, Keli attended a friends wedding and they had reported that she was with no baby and there was no evidence that Lane had ever had one, which raised some suspicions. The baby has not been seen since she was born at the Auburn Hospital. Lane’s family, friends and partner had no idea that she was pregnant in the first place. Lane would later go on to have two more children, covering up both pregnancies and putting up both children for adoption. When Lane began getting questioned about the whereabouts of her newborn, she had

Many authors had agreements and disagreements about the media 's role. Authors such as Mary Melton in “How High-Speed Car Chases Became a Citywide Pastime in Los Angeles” makes an interesting case by arguing that over 5000 car chases happen in California and that the media over reacted on this one because it was a famous athlete. Authors such as Richard L. Fox, Robert W. Van Sickel, and Thomas L. Steige in “Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in an Age of Media Frenzy”, argue that the trial was literally the trial of the century. Derek H. Alderman argues in “TV News Hyper-Coverage and the Representation of Place: Observations on the O. J. Simpson Case” that the media spent a enormous amount of time covering the trial. My argument agrees with there’s and is that they spent a lot of time on the trial and use strategic

Although courts have used different standard, lower courts have generally used the following four step analysis to determine whether a plaintiff is a limited purpose public figure: “(1) isolating the controversy and determining the scope of the public’s interest; (2) examining the plaintiff’s role in the controversy; (3) determining if the defamatory statement is germane to the plaintiff’s role in the controversy; and (4) analyzing the extent of the plaintiff’s access to channels of media communication.” However, there are still inconsistencies in the ways that courts analyze each prong. In addition to the plaintiff’s access to media, the role a plaintiff must play in a controversy to become a public figure, has also been topic of debate. One of the reasons for such debate is the every changing social marketplace.