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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 26, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ 490-01: Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 7: Week of February 29, 2004

Topic: The Construction of Criminal Proceedings and the Media

Preparatory Readings:

• Surette. Media, crime, and criminal justice. -- Chapter 4.

• Of Little Gestures of Disappearance: Interpassivity and the Theory of Ritual.
  

• Potter and Kappeler. Constructing crime. -- xxx.

• Merlo and Benekos. What's wrong with the criminal justice system: Ideology, Politics and the Media. -- xxx.

Lecture related links:


--- Check out this link Ray Surette found by Bettie Poole.



Concepts to be covered:

• prejudicial information
• pretrial publicity
• due process
• reporter's privileged conversation
• media access
• courtroom cameras
• information control
• privacy
• change of venue
• sequestration
• shield laws



Discussion Questions:

1. Can media trials coexist with fair trials? (Surette:113)?

2. What aspects of contemporary news coverage do you feel are the most damaging to fair trials? (Surette:113)

3. Should live television coverage of criminal trials be allowed? (Surette:113)

4. Is it important that reporters be protected from testifying and that their files and notes be protected? (Surette:113)

Suggested Creative Activities:

• Watch a court-related television program, and relate it to some of the points made in Surette, chapter 4.
• Find out how and why Court TV was created. How popular is Court TV? Who are some of its competitors? Why.

Recommended Readings:

• Emily Finch. The Criminalisation of Stalking: Constructing and Evaluating Solution. Recommended by Bettie Poole: "an interesting book provides the first detailed analysis of stalking and how the law has responded to social problems situations." Fall 2003.
• Bernard Goldberg. Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News. Recommended by Adam Beau. Fall 2003.
• Edward J. Gerald. News of Crime: Courts and Press in Conflict. This was the other book Stephen Bedwell mentioned to me. Fall 2003.
• Nicholas Cowdery. Getting Justice Wrong: Myths, Media and Crime. recommended by Stephen Bedwell. Fall 2003.
• Willaim Haltom. Reporting on the Courts: How the Mass Media Cover Judicial Actions.

Media Sources:

Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal -The Weekly Standard - The Nation
Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - The Washington Post
Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor


Indymedia - BBC News - New Profile - Progressive Sociologists Network