Monday, November 9. 2020

Today's classes are: 

9:15 - 11:50 A Block Criminology 

12:30 - 3:05 D Block Social and Environmental Sciences 

A Block Criminology - 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). 

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

D Block Social and Environmental Sciences - Today with Benton you'll look at what is “sustainable” (time frame dictates) along with biodiversity, what is the value – extend to why invasive species are problematic and preserving biomass, comparative to other landscapes and ecosystems

Ecoforestry Institute Society

Money trees: The struggle over what’s ancient, giant, valuable and dwindling in B.C.’s coastal forests

We'll discuss discuss putting to pieces together and try to address: Why haven’t we been able to affect change provincially with how we log. How do we log? What are the biggest issues – roads, soil erosion, biomass loss, etc.?

With Young we'll look at another way of coming up with solutions...we've looked at creating awareness campaigns, we've looked at engaging stakeholders in discussions, and we've looked at voting. To start this week, we'll look at civil disobedience and protest. American abolitionist/author/philosopher Henry David Thoreau lectured on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government" from which came the idea of civil disobedience. His belief was that as a citizen you do have an obligation not to commit injustice and not to give injustice your practical support. According to Thoreau, this means that if a law is unjust, and the legislative process is not designed to quickly get rid of it, then the law deserves no respect and it should be broken hence being civilly disobedient. So, for us a modern day example may be the TransMountain Pipeline twinning project or the Keystone XL Pipeline project. The Canadian chapter of the Sierra Club recently put an online poll on their website, to which about 1900 supporters responded. About nine in 10 felt “the climate crisis is so urgent that traditional legal campaigns are no longer sufficient.” They have chosen, however, not to practice civil disobedience. Should they?


Civil Disobedience, Environmental Protest and the Rule of Law