Cop shows, or crime dramas, can be considered a genre in the sense that they are texts with recognisable elements, notably a police force as the central feature, which can be categorised. The genre of crime drama is approximately 60 years old, and is one of the most popular genres in American television history. Over that historical period, the crime drama has formed and developed a number of conventions, practices and discourses, which define the genre and audiences expectations of a crime drama. Genre crime shows are expected, in a sense, to be serial, formulaic, and repetitive in themes. (Sabin, Wilson, Speidel, Faucette, & Bethell, 2014, pg. 6 -8) In Foucauldian terms, this would be considered an episteme; “a body of knowledge and ways …show more content…
Unusually, from the outset, The Wire does not have a clear protagonist or villain. Instead, the series depicts the criminals, the police force, and the politics that impact upon the police investigation. As the series expands over the following four seasons to encompass almost every aspect of American urban reality, including the workforce, the political system, the school system and the newspaper industry, the drugs investigation remains as the one common thread throughout. (Sabin, Wilson, Speidel, Faucette, & Bethell, 2014, pg. 154) Ultimately, The Wire over its 60 episodes is not concerned with a single protagonist nor a single case, but multiple characters and systems building a complete picture of the American city in decline. Through the window of Baltimore and the lens of the drug trade, it views and comments on universal contemporary realities. (Telegraph, 2009)
Thus, academics, critics and fans have argued The Wire cannot be limited to the genre of crime genre with its breadth and depth greatly exceeding that of other shows in the genre. (Sabin, Wilson, Speidel, Faucette, & Bethell, 2014, pg. 154) The Wire can be seen as revolutionary, creating and launching a new genre, the postmodern urban drama aimed at illustrating a realist outlook in society and expressing universal social
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However, the show, as a unique exception to the genre’s conventions, was never intended for the casual viewer, and was not only well received but lauded amongst its multiple audience developing a variety of new discourses. (Kennedy & Shapiro, 2012) Indeed, Simons in his oft repeated statement of, “F*ck the average reader,” has been interpreted as stating the audiences dedication is regularly underestimated. To Simons, each viewer, “…likes being trusted to acquire information on his terms, to make connections, to take the journey with only his intelligence to guide him.” (Alvarez, 2009, pg. 394-396) From this, it can be interpreted that overall The Wire is underpinned by Foucault’s views on discourse as the show attempts to develop knowledge and language within its audiences.
Initially The Wire was shown solely on HBO, a premium subscription cable channel, who did not target its programming at the mass audiences that the network broadcasters relied on. Instead HBO differentiated itself from the outset by targeting quality programming towards wealthy, educated, intelligent and cultured niche audiences who could follow and engage with complex narratives. The Wire fulfilled this, cultivating a loyal and dedicated audience of Americans
Each show represents urban crime and investigation, but each show has its own way in which it attacks these two aspects. Law and Order wants to audience to have an obvious criminal to name and uses external music to do so. While The Wire want the audience to experience Baltimore, and to accomplish this they have to present different crimes and use internal music to add to the experience even more. It is important for shows to start out with similar purposes and styles, but to then take their own route to the end because if they were all the same no one would want to watch them.
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
Young black men crowd the corners of Baltimore. They are all hard talk, hard jaws, and crisp white t-shirts as big as sails—strapped. One precocious boy witnesses a shootout near a drug lord’s stash house and takes up sticks to play guns ‘n’ robbers. His trajectory is as follows: he graduates from sticks and piss-balloons, to g-packs and real guns, to taunting cops with brown bags of excrement, to housecats and lighter fluid, to bold, cold-blooded murder. In the words of social reformer Charles Loring Brace, this boy is one of the dangerous class—an undisciplined, delinquent youth. A creation of David Simon’s for HBO’s crime drama, The Wire, the character of Kenard may be a fictionalization, but his presence adds to the much-praised realism of the series. There really are young boys like Kenard that exist on the streets of American cities—falling into the easy and familiar trap of the drug industry. The Wire makes a point to follow the tread of Baltimore’s youth throughout all of its five seasons, introducing the topic of juvenile delinquency to the considerable range of social issues the show discusses. The Wire almost flawlessly represents the factors which cause a young person to “defect”— from the failings of the city school district, a difficult home life, or the struggle of homelessness, to the surrounding environmental influences that arise from life in the city of Baltimore. However, while The Wire and its examination of causalities does many things for the discussion of Juvenile Delinquency on the whole—taking the conversation to levels no other scripted telev...
Throughout the physical research of this study I have found out a lot more about this show than could have ever crossed minds before, one example being that this show has be premiered and marketed so well to the point that the viewer have almost no resistance to not believe what the show is trying to instill into our minds. These shows also categorize the characters, some are “good” guys and others are bad guys, but who is actually decided these labels? Are the categories fair? Many would say yes based off the plot line of the show, but some wonder if the bad guys have an equal amount of air time to defend themselves. These factors bring up a conflict of narration weather or not every character is portrayed in a way that they could be like-able which not the case in The Blacklist is. This “good” guy, bad guy routine is commonly used in crime shows and movies, but is not a true example of real life that these shows depict to do. In a sense these real-life shows are the complete opposite not giving the audience a real conclusion o...
Over the course of this class, three historical pieces have been examined for their historical accuracies but also their unique creations. Each author tackled a different a period of American history, yet two similarities emerged as a common theme: evidence can either support or disprove a claim, and the narrator of a story dictates what story is told. An author, whether writing a piece of fact or fiction, gathers evidence; however, the interpretation of said evidence creates a framework for the story. Unredeemed Captive, Alias Grace, and The Chinatown Trunk Mystery exhibit this idea through their own interpretations of history. Sometimes, accepted accounts conflict with actual details. This does not diminish the need to analyze all interpretations of history and gain a broader understanding of past events.
Justice and forensic science shows. The CSI Effect followed by whether the criminal investigation were satisfied with their ending results. Additionally, this research sought to determine if there were discrepancies between the story lines and viewer expectations before watching the Forensic Science or criminal justice CSI television shows. However the viewer attitudes while watching the Forensic science or criminal justice investigation movie. Over a five hundred viewers and participants get heavenly involved and become addicted to these crime scene television shows.
Trudi Canavan once said, “Better to know the quick pain of truth than the ongoing pain of a long-held false hope.” Life would be much easier if the truth was told first before a lie is put in its place to cover up when in reality it creates a much bigger problem than saying the truth from the start. Dashiell Hammett’s, The Maltese Falcon, is a classic example of detective fiction and pulp magazine. Hammett demonstrates this example using: society, corruption, and criminality in San Francisco in the 1920s, explaining the role of the femme fatale in detective fiction, explaining the concept of fear and betrayal, explaining American men’s disillusionment after WWl, and explaining his, Dashiell Hammett’s, history of detective fiction and pulp magazines.
Ever wondered if there is a serial killer in your community? The characteristics of a serial killer may shock you or be surprisingly familiar to some of you. It is important for society to get informed about the various types of serial killers that are out there. It is essential for families to educate their children about strangers, to be careful with everyone they encounter on the streets, store, and even in their neighborhoods. A serial killer is defined as a person who murders three or more people in at least three separate events, with a "cooling-off period" between the kills. The big question is, what makes a person do these atrocious killings? We will analyze personal histories, categorized serial killers,
Media portrayal of crime and criminal justice has become incredibly widespread in the last decade, with crime often considered both a source of news and entertainment. As a source of entertainment, crime and criminal justice have emerged as central themes across various sources of media. Most individuals do not have any direct experience with the criminal justice system, so their only source of information on this topic is the media. Particularly in television shows, portrayals of crime and criminal justice can be seen in everything from courtroom dramas to nightly news programs. Indeed, the popularity of crime shows has lead to some of television’s most enduring series, such as Law and Order and CSI. Because of this, fictional
The world will always be full of crime, thus it is necessary for scientist to grow along with the gruesome and increasing amount of violations. Due to this it sparked scientist to develop crime theories in which emerged to explain why crime is caused by individuals. Some of the few theories that have advanced over the past century and provided many answers to why crimes are committed are biological theories, psychological theories and learning theories. These theories provide an insight to its first use and change in order to provide answers.
Deep down inside everyone has the same desire – to do what one wants whenever he or she chooses to and to not have to worry about anyone or anything else. Along with this desire to be able to do what ever it is that one wishes to at any given time, a person wants to be successful at what they do. The type of success that a person wants may be measured in money, property, fame, or even the entourage that follows him or her. This kind of lifestyle is only truly lived by a certain kind of people – gangsters and mobsters. For the rest it is just a dream to be able to live such a life, but for gangsters and mobsters this lifestyle is reality. But these gangsters can go around doing anything they want without the fear of consequences, which would, for most people, lead to long-term prison sentences. We are commonly shown in many movies and television shows that gangsters can just walk into an alley and beat up whoever they wish and be able to leave as if nothing ever happened. In “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” by Robert Warshow and “Our Mobsters, Ourselves: Why The Sopranos Is Therapeutic TV” written by Ellen Willis the gangster’s middleclass part of his or her lifestyle is brought out along with this “dream” reality at the same time.
“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” argues that the application of film and literary genre theory do not fully translate when analyzing television, because of “the specific industry and audience practices unique to television, or for the mixture of fictional and nonfictional programming that constitutes the lineup on nearly every TV channel. 2” The goal of media genre studies, Mittell asserts, is to understand how media is arranged within the contexts of production and reception, and how media work to create our vision of the world.
We are all affected by crime, whether we are a direct victim, a family member or a friend of a victim. It can interfere with your daily life, your personal sense of safety and your ability to trust others.
Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, the BTK Killer. The names and assumed names of these cold-blooded serial killers are forever branded into the cognizance of people everywhere. This is mainly due to the mass media coverage, including newspapers, movies, television specials and books. This media coverage brought to light that these killers were, on the surface, normal, successful, attractive, productive members of society – that is, until the time that their heinous crimes came to be discovered.
Crime is typically classified as either a property or personal crime. Personal crimes embody crimes of violence like murder and theft. With a private crime you'll have a offender and a victim. Property crimes area unit simply that, crimes against a bit of property wherever there's no use or threat of force against someone. the foremost common crime sorts area unit violent crimes, white collar and company crime, social group, and crime.