For me the most memorable mediated experience would have to be the recent dismemberment of the eight-year-old boy in Brooklyn. The reason why this had such a huge impact on me is because it occurred so close to where I live. I remember getting off work and walking out of the 9th avenue train station and I saw a man handing out flyers with the boys photo on it. I saw the posters taped to the train stations door, lamp poles, etc. At first I thought, “Hmm maybe he’s just lost, they’ll find him in a few days, he’s probably fine.”
It was the following night that I saw on the news that the kid was dead, in my mind I’m thinking, “Holy crap, just yesterday I saw them handing out posters…looking for him, and today he’s dead.” So the next day, I picked up an AM New York and saw the killers face plastered on the cover with the letters MONSTER. Through intrapersonal communication, I tried to make sense of what had happened to the boy. It turns out that it was the first time the mother had allowed the child to go home on his own, however he made a wrong turn and ran into his killer.
The way the story goes, is that the boy, Leiby Kletzky was lured into Levi Aron, the killer’s car. In my mind I’m thinking maybe Kletzky asked Aron for help or Aron offered to help the boy cause he looked confused and lost, Aron takes advantage of the situation. Basically, Aron kills Kletzky and then dismembers his body and keeps some of his body parts in his fridge and the rest he dumped into a dumpster. I remember reading in the article that specialist identified this behavior as something sexual related, as he probably had a sexual thrill in dismembering the body and kept some of the body parts as trophies.
The reason this is so shocking to me was that it occurred right in the neighborhood I lived in, Borough Park. I remember interpersonally communicating with my mother about what had happened. She told me that my younger cousin, whose nine, also asked his mom to walk home on his own too. His mom tells him to turn on the news and he was speechless. Although this case was so upsetting I could not help but think about my English teachers conspiracy theories about the media, what if the child was not white would it have gotten as much coverage as this story did. I live right on the boarder of Sunset Park and Borough Park, and around this area the people are predominantly Chinese immigrants who cannot speak English, would it get any coverage if it something similar like this had occurred within the Chinese community.
This experience really shocked all of New York, as these cases rarely ever appear in New York, which is probably why it had gotten so much coverage. Something so disturbing is what grabs parent’s attention and let them know that they have to watch after their children. I work in a mall with a play area for children, and every now and then I would see parents let their child run wild, and sometimes the child would lose sight of the parent or vise versa. What if a child predator got to the child before a security guard did? Then there are my English teachers conspiracy ideas, what if they were not white would it get as much coverage, if we look hard enough, and sometimes this is what the media does. It spends more time on a certain race of people and less time on others.
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/severed-body-parts-found-of-missing-brooklyn-boy-1.3022239
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/what-s-in-the-mind-of-a-child-killer-1.3023778
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/brooklyn-boy-s-nightmare-slay-sends-jolt-across-new-york-1.3023775
I had the same thoughts as you when I first saw the posters at the train station. The very next day, the internet,the newspapers, were all buzzing with death of the young child. Even Mayor Bloomberg came out and reprimanded the murderer.
ReplyDeleteThis media experience is memorable to me as well, considering it also occurred close to my home. I was driving up ocean parkway the night of the search for Lieby. An insane amount of people (men, women, teenagers) from this boys community were gathered from Church avenue on, handing out fliers to every passing car. I even had a search party of apologetic men enter my backyard at 11:30pm. The media reports, and twitter/facebook updates i woke up to that next morning strained my mood, along with the rest of my afternoon. If it weren't for my 'participation' in the search, the media wouldn't have been so effective in evoking my emotions.
ReplyDeleteCoincidently, I am also a resident of the Sunset Park neighborhood and frequently visit Borough Park. It is always alarming to hear news about one's neighborhood or its vicinities. As a mother, I was definitely emotionally disturbed upon hearing the news of the tragic death of Leiby Kletzky. I am predicting more overprotective mothers as a result of this news, and I may just be one of them. Even if one is aware of the effects of the media, that doesn't necessarily mean one is immune to them. I have even lectured my child again regarding strangers and ways to seek help in emergencies. As far as media bias is concerned, it is certainly not an issue of the past. Particularly now that we are on the verge of polishing our media literacy skills, it should become easier to detect. If you recall from today's lecture and the previous reading about the missing white woman syndrome, it is the same concept. The Elizabeth Smart case is another fitting example. For a diverse list of missing children, you can refer to the first link below, and for a list of questions to examine when evaluating a case of media bias, you can refer to the second link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.missingkids.com
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=121
This event was a very tragic story especially on how it was an eight year old boy's first time walking home. The media played a very big role with it's use of mass communication to get the whole community to help search for the boy. This was a very big story playing on every newspaper, internet and on the phone. This story will definitely produce more over protective parent's.
ReplyDeleteThis highly mediated experience made me think about our discussion of the critical/cultural model (Hanson Ch. 2), insofar as "the subjects that get covered are those in the best interests of the advertisers who support the media and the companies who own them." There is a disproportionate focus on the kidnapping/murder of Caucasian individuals as opposed to other races. It is sad to think that the kidnapping of a child of another race would not be as mediated as this particular case.
ReplyDeleteThis particular story shows the importance of mass communication. A combination of media -- television, newspapers, Twitter and Facebook statuses, and interpersonal communication helped inform the public, and aided in the search of this innocent boy's attacker.
I think everyone was shocked about how fast the communication about the boy went from handing out flyers to being on the front pages of newspapers and television news headlines. It seems that through mediated experiences, many are able to be informed about specific things happenening in their neighborhood as well as the awareness brought to parents, such as those of Leiby Kletzky. Most people are unaffected by the news if it does not concern their neighborhood or their part of that country; however, the death of this innocent boy hit home for many of us living in the New York.
ReplyDelete