Criminology Emergency Remote Learning Media Literacy, True Crime & Fame #6 - Casey Anthony

Your question for this blog is at the end of this post...so read the post first please...

From the Biography Channel,

Casey Anthony, a young, attractive, single mother, stood accused of the murder of her adorable two-year-old daughter, Caylee. Hailed as "the trial of a decade," the proceedings generated a media feeding frenzy as each shocking new disclosure provoked a blizzard of coverage leading up to the shocking verdict

I would like you to look at the Casey Anthony trial and media coverage in the United States.

In June 2008 Casey's daughter Caylee went missing and was found dead later that December. Due to inconsistencies in her story, her delay in reporting her child missing, and increased public pressure and scrutiny, Casey was charged with Caylee's murder. A ferocious media storm ensued and Casey Anthony's trial was conducted both in a Florida courtroom and the national media in June 2011.

I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, Schadenfreude, and the way fictional crime media represented the story (Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit). I placed a handout about these themes in the Microsoft Teams site that you'll need to review (Criminology 2020  Casey Anthony.pdf)...it looks like this

For some context, if Casey Anthony was the most hated mom in America the most hated husband in America was Scott Peterson (who was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, and unborn child in 2004). A&E TV did a retrospective six part series called The Murder of Laci Peterson and you can stream the six episodes on the link by signing in to your Telus, Shaw or Bell service provider. From A&E

The mystery of Laci Peterson’s disappearance on Christmas Eve 2002 captivated the nation. Eight months pregnant, she vanished without a trace. Her body and that of her unborn child, Conner, appeared four months later on the shores of the San Francisco Bay causing a media frenzy on both a local and national level. To this day, no one knows exactly when, where or how she died, only that her husband Scott Peterson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, despite the absence of DNA evidence or eyewitness testimony. Scott Peterson’s conviction was less a tribute to the efficacy of the legal system than it was a case study for the overwhelming power of modern media to deliver the facts of news in a way that creates irresistible tabloid fodder.

This series provides an interesting eye on the topic of the media, true crime, and infamy (episode 2 is titled "Media Frenzy")

I would like you to watch the three part retrospective 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery








HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. To her credit Nancy Grace was a criminal prosecutor in Georgia. Here is a CNN bio on her..



HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. Grace had her own trial of Casey Anthony in the media. Here is a sampling of her coverage





After the verdict here's what she had to say - which further shaped the public's opinion of Casey Anthony even after she was found not guilty by a jury of her peers



Now, here's what the media had to say about the media covering the Casey Anthony trial



And here's what CBC had to discuss about Nancy Grace on the show Q



Does the trial have a longer lasting impact on the USA or was it just 15 minutes of fame and a distraction from mundane daily life? Because of her actions, Nancy Grace has been spoofed on SNL and MadTV to name just two...





HBO had a television series called The Newsroom and they had an amazing bit on Nancy Grace's coverage of Tot Mom...



CNN did a retrospective piece on the trial here



You should take some time to understand the German psychology/sociology term Schadenfreude. This term deals with a big concept - that as humans, we have a private rush of glee when someone else struggles (we take delight in another person's pain and misfortune). Schadenfreude registers in the brain as a pleasurable experience, a satisfaction comparable to that of eating a good meal.Schadenfreude is a common and normal part of life but can become dangerous if we lose empathy, fall into demonizing others, or lapse into “us vs. them” thinking.

There is a human fascination with murder as entertainment and news media companies have turned the story of the death of a toddler into a prime time circus...a story that we can safely watch and perhaps feel a little guilty pleasure in the fact that we're better than Casey Anthony. Her pain and suffering on television brings us delight and makes us feel good in that we are not the monster that the media has portrayed her out to be...sigh.

Matt Wild wrote a piece called The guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures of Dateline NBC and in it he stated

...for an alarming number of Americans—myself included—Dateline has become appointment viewing. Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and their ilk are fine, but there’s a distinct, guilty pleasure in staying home on a Friday night, dimming the lights, sounding off on Twitter with other like minded fans, and watching the sordid true-life tales of murderous spouses (usually husbands), sorrowful family members (usually parents), and sinister motives (almost always infidelity) unspool over the course of an hour, all narrated by the stern and sonorous Morrison, or the rumpled and incredulous Mankiewicz. Murder, shattered families, and desperate cries for justice: perfect for a cozy night of popcorn, wine, and incessant tweeting.

So you have a question to answer for me:

Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude apply to the Casey Anthony trial? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas

1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?

I've got links to the following articles on the site that I'd like you to scan through to help with your answers:

For News, Americans Now Officially Prefer Social Media to Newspapers
Social media guided defense in Casey Anthony case
Social media v. Casey Anthony
Social Media’s Influence on the Casey Anthony Trial
Social media revolutionized coverage of Casey Anthony trial
The Casey Anthony Case and Public Perception of the Criminal Justice System
How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Trial of the Century
Watching a Trial on TV, Discussing It on Twitter
How "Trial by Media" Can Undermine the Courtroom
Social Media Has Changed Crime and the Justice System
Social Media and the Fair Trial
Social Media in the Courtroom
Tweeting from trials: How social media gives crime followers a front-row seat