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This collection focuses on media representations of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, defendants in the Meredith Kercher murder case. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing criminology, socio-legal analysis, critical discourse studies, cultural studies and celebrity studies, the book analyses how this case was narrated in the media and why Knox emerged as the main protagonist. The case was one of the first transmedia crime stories, shaped and influenced by its circulation between a variety of media platforms. The chapters show how the new media landscape impacts on the way in which different stakeholders, from suspects and victims' families to journalists and the general public, are engaging with criminal justice. While traditional news media played a significant role in the construction of innocence and guilt, social media offered users a worldwide forum to talk back in a way that both amplified and challenged the dominant media narrative biased in favour of a presumption of guilt.
This book begins with a new and original foreword written by Yvonne Jewkes, University of Brighton, UK.
List of contents
Foreword.The tragicomedy of Perugia: Power and prejudice, visibility and invisibility in the making of a transnational, postmodern media story.Yvonne Jewkes.- Introduction: Transmedia crime stories.Lieve Gies and Maria Bortoluzzi.- Part I: The making of Amanda Knox.- 1.What's in a name? The UK newspapers' fabrication and commodification of Foxy Knoxy.Atalanta Goulandris and Eugene McLaughlin.- 2.Scarlet letters from Perugia: 'Slut shaming' and the media representations of Amanda Knox.Stevie Simkin.- 3.(A)moral representation: The hyper-sexual construction of Amanda Knox.Siobhan Holohan.- Part II: Alternative narratives in social media and beyond.- 4.SIAMO INNOCENTI: Twitter and the performative practices of the 'real' Amanda Knox.Katrina Clifford.- 5.(Co-)constructing community-identity: Pro-innocent voices in the Meredith Kercher murder case.Maria Bortoluzzi.- 6.From news to comment: Tracing text trajectories in news reporting about the Amanda Knox trial.Michael S.Boyd.- Part III: Other media injustices.- 7.Prosecution in action in the Italian criminal justice system: the Amanda Knox case.Riccardo Montana.- 8.Race, a floating signifier, or, Rudy Guede in the Italian press.Julia Heim.- 9.'My name is Raffaele Sollecito and not Amanda Marie Knox': Marginalisation and media justice.Lieve Gies
About the author
Lieve Gies is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. Her research principally concerns the intersections between law, media and popular culture. Her publications include Law and the Media: The Future of an Uneasy Relationship (2008) and Mediating Human Rights: Media, Culture and Human Rights Law (2014).
Maria Bortoluzzi is Associate Professor of English Language at the University of Udine, Italy. Her research interests are in the areas of critical discourse studies and teacher education. Her latest research work and publications deal with language in social media communities and ICT for language teacher education.
Summary
This collection focuses on media representations of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, defendants in the Meredith Kercher murder case. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing criminology, socio-legal analysis, critical discourse studies, cultural studies and celebrity studies, the book analyses how this case was narrated in the media and why Knox emerged as the main protagonist. The case was one of the first transmedia crime stories, shaped and influenced by its circulation between a variety of media platforms. The chapters show how the new media landscape impacts on the way in which different stakeholders, from suspects and victims’ families to journalists and the general public, are engaging with criminal justice. While traditional news media played a significant role in the construction of innocence and guilt, social media offered users a worldwide forum to talk back in a way that both amplified and challenged the dominant media narrative biased in favour of a presumption of guilt.
This book begins with a new and original foreword written by Yvonne Jewkes, University of Brighton, UK.
