West Memphis 3

What role did the media play, both positively and negatively in the West Memphis 3 case?

The media shed light and created dark spots on the West Memphis 3 case. Negatively, the media portrays an ideal of demonic satanic people, going along with the media literacy concept of media messages affect our thoughts, attitudes and actions. The people of Arkansas had the idea that Damien Echols looks like the "typical" satanist. They thought the murder was a satanic cult murder. Wearing all black and shutting himself out Damien made himself the perfect target indirectly and his friends happened to be drawn in as well. The media gave Arkansas citizens these ideas, they went merely by the look of this 18 year old boy. The boys were wrongly convicted of a murder because people assumed that they were involved in satanic rituals based on looks. 

Positively, the media gave this case attention. It showed people the injustice that was actually occurring. People started to get involved in this case, protesting for the freeing of these innocent boys. Detectives started looking into new evidence in the case, none of which pointed back to ANY convicted boy. Without the media these people would have never been notified. Damien would have never met the love of his life. The boys would have never been freed, and Damien Echols would just be a name on a tomb stone of a convicted murder. Now, the new suspect Terry Hobbs has been put into the spot light hopefully to be investigated. 

The media produced by this case has also got people to start thinking. How many people does this actually happen to? Why can't these boys be let go of the charges instead of being "guilty"? Research is still being done on the WM3 case and on other cases similar to it. Organizations have come into the limelight to help wrongly accused prisoners. These three boys, now men, have to walk around everyday with this weight on their shoulders. When will it end? When will our justice system finally stop being idiotic? 

Miss Representation Reflection

The movie Miss Representation conveys the basic literary concept of media messages affecting our  thoughts, attitudes and actions. The movies, music videos, advertisements, games, news and other forms of media all show the same perspective of women. Women are often portrayed as sexual objects who are either really moody or ditzy. The bodies these women have are what most men now believe are the ideal bodies of women. The media has affected their thoughts of what a real woman actually looks like.  The movie picks out several examples of young girls starving themselves to try and attain these impossible bodies. Not being happy with yourself can lead into depression, as the movie explained with a young girl cutting herself. She was picked on for not being "perfect" so she harmed her own body. The media doesn't realize that its changing the lives of young girls. This film finally points that out to the eyes of the naive who have been taught nothing more than the false displays. 

The media doesn't show the women of power, or the women who have created change in the world. These young girls don't have anyone to look up to if they don't know they exist. They don't think they can be in political positions because the women aren't as glorified as the men in the media. When a woman does stand up for herself, the film used Hillary  Clinton as an example, they are often slandered sexually or using profanity. Young girls watch these things and have negative attitudes towards ever attempting to be in power. If the media changed the way they portray women running for office more females with get the courage to run.The film also pointed out that Sarah Palin was sexualized for running for office, yet overlooked for the political points she made. Young girls need an example to look up to, these bimbos on the big screen shouldn't cut it anymore.