Sex, lies, and videotape: A content and textual analysis of media coverage of the HIV criminal prosecution of Michael Johnson (original) (raw)
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Emotional storytelling: Sensational media and the creation of the HIV sexual predator
Crime, Media, Culture, 2019
More than 180 people in Canada have faced criminal charges related to HIV nondisclosure. Media coverage is often sensational and commonly portrays people living with HIV as hypersexualized threats to the (inter)national body politic. This article analyzes mainstream news media coverage of four HIV nondisclosure cases to examine how the accused (two men, two women) are constructed as sexual predators, which we found occurs through two key discursive moves. First, by tying the narrative to stereotypical conceptualizations of hegemonic and toxic masculinity and pariah femininity to construct the individual as promiscuous, hypersexual and dangerous. Second, by crafting a narrative that evokes complex moral emotions; notably, these include the 'negative' emotions of anger, disgust and fear. Given that racialized men are disproportionately represented and demonized in media accounts, and the tense race relations in the current western political landscape, it is important to consider how emotions (rather than medical evidence of the risks of transmission, intent to infect or actual transmission) might contribute to shaping punitive mentalities and the harsh application of the law. By examining how race, gender, class and sexuality are mobilized to construct narratives of Black masculinity as inherently toxic and women's sexual freedom as exemplifying pariah femininity, and the ways in which the coverage evokes negative moral emotions, we contend that media coverage shores up moralized discourses about sexuality, masculinity and femininity and HIV/AIDS.
Making monsters: heterosexuality, crime and race in recent Western media coverage of HIV
Sociology of health & illness, 2008
In the early HIV epidemic, Western media coverage encouraged the idea that infection was linked to ‘other’ identities located outside the ‘mainstream’; outside ‘proper’ heterosexuality. Today, however, HIV has become repositioned as a global heterosexual epidemic. Analyses show that since the 1990s Western media have shifted away from blame and hysteria to an increasingly routinised reporting of HIV as a health story and social justice issue. But recent years have seen the emergence of a new media story in many Western countries; the criminal prosecution for HIV-related offences, and with it a reframing of old discourses of ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’, but now with heterosexuals in focus. We examine this story in recent domestic media coverage in Australia, a country where heterosexual HIV transmission is rare by global comparison. Echoing similar stories in other Western media, in Australian coverage the idea of criminal intent converges with the symbolic weight of black sexuality and African origins to produce a ‘monstrous’ masculinity, which at the local level taps into contemporary racial tensions and, in so doing, conjures an imagined Anglo-heterosexuality at once vulnerable to and safe from HIV in a globalised epidemic and world.
The 2013 Steubenville Rape Case: An Examination of Framing in Newspapers and User-generated Content
Using the lens of medium theory, this content analysis explored the framing of the Steubenville rape case in newspapers and blogs before, during and immediately following the trial. Our findings indicate newspapers focused on social media’s role in documenting the rape and the trial of the two assailants. Blog posts, on the other hand, focused on rape victims’ rights and social media’s role in bringing the case to justice. Of the newspaper articles and blog posts coded, medium type did not make a significant difference in the framing of perpetrators and the actual act of rape. However, there was a significant difference in how the media types framed the case in general. This is a noteworthy finding, as it appears that newspapers were colorblind in their coverage and not as prone to use race frames as indicated in previous studies. Conversely, blog posts offered a platform for discussing issues that were omitted in mainstream media such as women’s rights, rape myths and the need for rape awareness/prevention programs for parents and youth.
HIV infection, gay men, the media, and the law
Hurley, M, and Croy, S. HIV infection, gay men, the media, and the law. In NAPWA (ed), The Criminalisation of HIV Transmission in Australia: Legality, Morality and Reality, NAPWA, Sydney, 2009., 2009
"'Just Testing': Race, Sex and the Media in New York's 'Baby AIDS' Debate"
In 1993, debates over mandatory HIV testing reemerged in New York when politicians and journalists launched a campaign to "unblind" results of a survey of HIV prevalence in newborns. This article reports on the findings from a content analysis of 108 "Baby AIDS" news stories published in New York newspapers in 1993 and 1994. In constructing a discourse of blame for the infection of "innocent" babies, "Baby AIDS" news stories demonstrate that racist, heterosexist, and sexist assumptions about HIV transmission, motherhood, and public HIV surveillance are fundamentally intertwined. The article concludes that arguments by AIDS analysts that homophobia and racism are distinct and independent dimensions of policy and popular understandings of HIV are not only misguided but also dangerous.
Fuel to the fire? Newspaper reporting of sexual offending across the US, UK, Norway, and New Zealand
Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention
Research suggests that the news media plays an important role in shaping public opinion about sex crimes and the people who commit them, thereby influencing the development of laws and policies. The media has potential to fuel non-evidence-based policies that are ineffective and counterproductive. Alternatively, the media offers a powerful vehicle for educating the public and promoting evidence-based practices and policies. The current study aimed to examine newspaper reports of sexual crimes across four countries with different criminal justice responses to sexual offending. Constructed week sampling was used to generate samples of newspaper articles over a six-month period in 2015. Episodic articles were coded to examine how people accused/charged with sexual offenses were portrayed, the extent to which articles aligned with stereotypes, and the extent to which rehabilitation was mentioned as a solution (n = 240). Episodic and thematic articles were combined to code for systemic/e...
The colour of AIDS: An Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of HIV/AIDS, 1992-2007.
Although overall HIV rates have declined in the US over the past two decades, these declines have been accompanied by a steady growth in infection rates among African Americans, creating persistent racial disparities in HIV infection. News media have been instrumental in educating and informing the public about the epidemic. This content-analytic study examines the frequency and content of coverage of HIV/AIDS in national and local US daily newspapers from December 1992 through December 2007, with a focus on the presentation of risk by population subgroups. A computerised search term was used to identify HIV/AIDS-related news coverage from 24 daily US newspapers and one wire service across a 15-year period (N = 53 934 stories). Human and computerised coding methods were used to examine patterns in frequency and content in the sample. The results indicate a decline in coverage of the epidemic over the study period. There was also a marked shift in the portrayal of risk in the US, from a domestic to an international focus. When coverage did address HIV/ AIDS among groups with disproportionately high risk in the US, it typically failed to provide context for the disparity beyond individual behavioural risk factors. The meta-message of news coverage of HIV during this period may have reduced the visibility of the impact of HIV/ AIDS on Americans. The practice of reporting the racial disparity without providing context may have consequences for the general public's ability to interpret these disparities.
Media Frames and the Sex Offender: A Qualitative Content Analysis from Six Major Metropolitan Areas
Journal of Crime and Justice, 2022
Media portrayals of sex offenders are often negative, suggesting that public attitudes share a one-dimensional portrait. But past scholarship has regularly relied on a single newspaper or combined national-regional newspapers when investigating the media framing of sex offenders, which has possibly masked the disparate discourse of sex crimes across geographies and outlets. Our qualitative content analysis of sex crime depictions in articles published between 2012–2016 from six daily newspaper outlets of major metropolitan areas demonstrates that the media framing of sex offenders is varied and multidimensional. Our analysis indicates four salient sex offender frames: the monstrous sex offender, the psychotic sex offender, the sex offender versus the victim, and the humanized sex offender. Each frame is constructed by distinctive scripts, or a sequence of events and actions to describe sex offenders and their offenses. As parts of the interpretative repertoire, sex offender frames and scripts are connected to specific policy initiatives from a conservative to a progressive orientation.
2019
Carter-better known as My Squad. Their combined brilliance and feedback always propelled me forward, even if I struggled to accept it. I thank them for helping me grow as a researcher, writer, and overall scholar. In addition to my dissertation committee, I must thank my village of mentors. My Winthrop family has been so supportive of my growth from undergrad to doctorate. Forever an Eagle, indeed! My ACJS/ASC conference family has also poured so much into my development over the last few years. I would be lost without them. Lastly, I am so thankful to my support system of family and friends. All the positive vibes and words of encouragement were invaluable! I cannot express how much the texts, Facebook posts, Snapchats, invitations to hang out even when they knew I was not going to come, cheers, and love meant along the way.
Queer figurations in the media: Critical reflections on the Michael Jackson sex scandal
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 15295039809367040, 2009
This essay examines the discourse of stigmatization set off by the 1993 child molestation scandal implicating Michael Jackson, and reflects on the implications of the scandal for the political possibilities and limits of non-normative identity constructions in the media, and of queerness specifically. After a brief overview of queer theory and its significance to media studies and a discussion of the "queering" of Jackson by the media long before the scandal, I examine three central aspects of the scandal: (a) the commodif cation of "witness testimony" as it relates to the question of sexual innocence in the case of child molestation; (b) the effeminization of Jackson as a homophobic containment of him by the press; and (c) the interpretive excess in the media's focus of an alleged pedophilic "bedroom scene" that served as the condensation of queer perversity.