The mass media representation of serial killers (on the example of English newspapers ″The Sun″ and ″The Guardian″)
For citation: Katkova L.V. (2016) Obraz seriynogo ubiytsy v SMI (na primere angliyskikh gazet «San» i «Gardian») [The mass media representation of serial killers (on the example of English newspapers ″The Sun″ and ″The Guardian″)]. Mediaskop 2. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/?q=node/2120
© Lyudmila V. Katkova
PhD student at the Chair of Foreign Journalism and Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), liudmilakatkova@gmail.com
Abstract
The article aims at the study of the representation of serial killers in English and American mass media by means of critical discourse analysis. As an example, the author uses English newspapers ″The Sun″ and ″The Guardian″. Striving for sensations journalists often create an attractive image of a serial killer, which can affect mental health of the society. The article introduces readers to the most prominent English and American researches about the phenomenon of serial killings. Nevertheless, the author herself is interested in specific methods and linguistic techniques that are intentionally or unintentionally used by newspapers to create an appealing image of a killer. The author points out the following methods and techniques: demonization and glorification of serial killers, defamation of the victims. As an example, the author uses the killings, committed by Levi Bellfield in 2002−2004 and Steve Wright in 2006. As a result, the author finds out that ″The Guardian″ and ″The Sun″ are not radically different from each other in their representation of the serial killers: both newspapers to a greater or lesser extent tend to use the same methods and techniques described by the author.
Keywords: serial killer, crime, critical discourse analysis, ″The Sun″, ″The Guardian″.
Notes
Greenslade R. (1999) On the press: New bill shows its clause. The Guardian. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/1999/feb/22/columnists.guardiancolumnist...
Sullivan M. (2007) Evil double killer on the prowl. The Sun. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/851228/Levi-Bellfield-on-the-h...
Sullivan M. (2007) How many vics of evil Levi? The Sun. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/846156/Levi-Bellfield-How-many...
Sullivan M. (2007) The bisexual blonde-hater. The Sun. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/845677/The-bisexual-blonde-hat...
Sullivan M. (2008) The Ladykillers: Sick gang name. The Sun. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/1004330/The-Ladykillers-Sick-g...
Troup J., Hagan L. (2007) Partner Pam: I`ll stick by killer. The Sun. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/837784/Pam-Im-sticking-by-kill...
References
Caputi J. (1987) The Age of Sex Crime. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press.
Fairclough N. (2013) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. New York: Routledge.
Grant B.K. (2011) Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Gregoriou C. (2011) Language, Ideology and Identity in Serial Killer Narratives. New York, London: Routledge.
Halttunen K. (1998) Murder Most Foul. The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Ingebretsen E. (2001) At Stake: Monsters and the Rhetoric of Fear in Public Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Jenkins P. (1992) Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Leyton E. (1995) Men of Blood: Murder in Everyday Life. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart; London: Penguin.
Newitz A. (1999) Serial Killers, True Crime, and Economic Performance Anxiety. In: C. Sharrett (ed.) Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 65−84.
Pizzato M. (1999) Jeffrey Dahmer and Media Cannibalism: The Lure and Failure of Sacrifice. In: C. Sharrett (ed.) Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 85−118.
Schmid D. (2005) Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Seltzer M. (1998) Serial Killers: Death and Life in America`s Wound Culture. New York: Routledge.
Sharrett C. (1999) Afterword: Sacrificial Violence and Postmodern Ideology. In: C. Sharrett (ed.) Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 413−434.