Too Much Information

Although it occurred just over four years ago, there remains one crime that I find difficult to forget; the cold-blooded murder of Eliza Jane Davis by two 17-year-old girls. I attribute this emotionally scarring effect to the news report I read on the crime, which featured an extensive, disturbing and graphic description of the brutal attack.



Eliza Jane Davis

Reflecting on the continuing personal impact of this case, I became interested in looking at whether the news report I read was part of a greater trend in reporting in which journalists flesh out every gruesome, horrific detail of a crime. Subsequently, over the past month I have collected an extensive number of articles which fit this criteria (See ‘The Best Of: ‘Too Much Information’ Quotes). From this activity, I have determined that this style of reporting appears to be prolific, featuring heavily in both trashy news sources (MX, ninemsn.com.au) and more reputable sources (Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Telegraph).

This got me thinking:

a. Why are contemporary news reports saturated with gory depictions of crime?

AND

b. Why do people read these reports?

Taking a pluralist approach, it can be theorised that the mass media is compelled by reasons of profit to report gruesome crime stories due to public demand for such stories (Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 33). However, this theory, while addressing question A, provides only a partial account of graphic news reporting, as it provides no insight into why this public demand exists in the first place.

A deeper understanding of the issue can only be ascertained through an examination of the consumption of crime news as a voyeuristic activity. According to Surette (2007, pp. 16-17), the attraction of crime news is that it offers audiences ‘an escape from the normal via a construction of the unusual’. The immersive quality of news reports may therefore be suggested to be intensified through a highly graphic representation of the intimate, sordid details of violent crime, as such crime is generally distant from the responder’s everyday life.

It is argued by Presdee (2000, p. 73) that there is a highly addictive quality to the voyeuristic pleasure audiences may receive through reading such detailed reports. It is this addictive quality which may be seen as conducive to the extensive focus on the grotesque in news reporting.

This indicates that the two questions I have posed are inextricably linked in a much more complicated manner than was first envisioned. This may be seen to be reflective of the complex nature of the news-making process.

Postmodern criminology theory suggests that the mass media itself has played a significant role in the formation of a culture based on ‘immediate consumption and sensationalised impact’. This focus on entertainment and a resulting lack of substance (Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 37) is perfectly personified by the extensiveness with which gratuitous crime reports have invaded all forms of the news media.

From this, it can be concluded that the news-making process operates in a cyclical motion, with the media’s graphic reporting of violent crime feeding into the public’s voyeuristic tendencies, and this in turn resulting in an increased demand for more graphic crime reporting in greater quantities.   

Personally, despite the long-lasting impact of the Davis case, I find myself constantly logging into ninemsn.com.au to read about the latest violent crime, morbidly fascinated by every detail.

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Marsh, I & Melville, G 2009, Crime Justice and the Media, Routledge, Oxon.

Presdee, M 2000, Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime, Routledge, London.

Surette, R 2007, Media, Crime and Criminal Justice: Images, Realities, and Policies, 3^rd ed., Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont.