An 18 year old woman was murdered.
How much of a news story should that be, and how should it be covered? They are looking for a certain suspect, and details of the murder are being kept private.
So, it sounds like a local news story. Identify the suspect if it'll help, talk about the girl a bit; she was a student.
Now, there's an element to discuss for this political thread: the girl also chose to put sexual content with herself on the web. How much should that affect the coverage?
The media can create, or strengthen, the cultural 'buzz' around issues by how they cover them.
Imagine if the girl was in an inter-racial relationship, and the story made national news as 'girl with black boyfriend murdered'. People would be outraged now, because that would be seen as the media pretending the inter-racial relationship was 'questionable' enough to be the topic of the story; now, they're expected 'not to notice' in terms of treating it like other relationships.
Similarly, her sexual internet activities were not illegal, and so they could be treated as unimportant to the story - but by covering the story as 'secret porn girl murdered', they create the impression that someone choosing to interact on the internet sexually is some gray area; it's an implied condemnation, and the ugly part is that it's treated as more important than the murder, insofar as that's why it goes national over other 18 year old murdered girls.
This sends a number of unhealthy signals, from the 'fame' or 'infamy' with the sexual choice, to the priorities of news voyeurs, er, readers, to an anti-sex message.
The excuse that it's what the public wants is not entirely satisfying; there's a cycle to break there. The public may 'want' "America's greatest executions" tv show, but we say 'no'.
The way the story is covered, with the fact the young woman made the choice, it seems to me does her wrong, by implying she is some sort of monster or freak, rather than her choice, not criminal, to do those activities being views as her choice not needing the media to hype it up nationally and make her look bad, not to mention the editorial content of implying that such sexual behavior is bad - an opinion some agree with and some don't, much like inter-racial relationships.
Even the implied rarity of her behavior doesn't satisfy as an explanation; the internet shows her behavior was not all that unusual.
Further, the police have said the murder is unrelated to the sex activities, they think.
So, IMO, they should not make her a national story for having done the sex videos, for fairness to the woman and her family, as well as to others who want to do such activities.
This of course leads to the same sort of debate as happened on inter-racial relationship coverage, between those who are demanding that the coverage not stigmatize the issue, and those who demand that it do, because they want it stigmatized. The thing is, while the media is caught in the middle, there's not much debate about the issue even existing, as they just make the choice - in this case, stigmatize the issues - and that's it. And it does have an effect on the culture.
For discussion, any ideas on how society can progress on issues like this, can better break the cycle of the media reflecting the public reflecting the media messages?
Any idea how there can be be a better discussion with the media, instead of the simple 'whatever sells best' policy in place?
How much of a news story should that be, and how should it be covered? They are looking for a certain suspect, and details of the murder are being kept private.
So, it sounds like a local news story. Identify the suspect if it'll help, talk about the girl a bit; she was a student.
Now, there's an element to discuss for this political thread: the girl also chose to put sexual content with herself on the web. How much should that affect the coverage?
The media can create, or strengthen, the cultural 'buzz' around issues by how they cover them.
Imagine if the girl was in an inter-racial relationship, and the story made national news as 'girl with black boyfriend murdered'. People would be outraged now, because that would be seen as the media pretending the inter-racial relationship was 'questionable' enough to be the topic of the story; now, they're expected 'not to notice' in terms of treating it like other relationships.
Similarly, her sexual internet activities were not illegal, and so they could be treated as unimportant to the story - but by covering the story as 'secret porn girl murdered', they create the impression that someone choosing to interact on the internet sexually is some gray area; it's an implied condemnation, and the ugly part is that it's treated as more important than the murder, insofar as that's why it goes national over other 18 year old murdered girls.
This sends a number of unhealthy signals, from the 'fame' or 'infamy' with the sexual choice, to the priorities of news voyeurs, er, readers, to an anti-sex message.
The excuse that it's what the public wants is not entirely satisfying; there's a cycle to break there. The public may 'want' "America's greatest executions" tv show, but we say 'no'.
The way the story is covered, with the fact the young woman made the choice, it seems to me does her wrong, by implying she is some sort of monster or freak, rather than her choice, not criminal, to do those activities being views as her choice not needing the media to hype it up nationally and make her look bad, not to mention the editorial content of implying that such sexual behavior is bad - an opinion some agree with and some don't, much like inter-racial relationships.
Even the implied rarity of her behavior doesn't satisfy as an explanation; the internet shows her behavior was not all that unusual.
Further, the police have said the murder is unrelated to the sex activities, they think.
So, IMO, they should not make her a national story for having done the sex videos, for fairness to the woman and her family, as well as to others who want to do such activities.
This of course leads to the same sort of debate as happened on inter-racial relationship coverage, between those who are demanding that the coverage not stigmatize the issue, and those who demand that it do, because they want it stigmatized. The thing is, while the media is caught in the middle, there's not much debate about the issue even existing, as they just make the choice - in this case, stigmatize the issues - and that's it. And it does have an effect on the culture.
For discussion, any ideas on how society can progress on issues like this, can better break the cycle of the media reflecting the public reflecting the media messages?
Any idea how there can be be a better discussion with the media, instead of the simple 'whatever sells best' policy in place?
