Dingo media? The persistence of the “trial by media” frame in popular, media, and academic evaluations of the Azaria Chamberlain case

Middleweek, B

Dingo media? The persistence of the “trial by media” frame in popular, media, and academic evaluations of the Azaria Chamberlain case

Middleweek, B

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Feminist Media Studies, 2017, 17 (3), pp. 392 - 411
Issue Date:: 2017-05-04

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Middleweek, B https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0359-7303	en_US
dc.date.available	2020-05-25T19:03:08Z
dc.date.issued	2017-05-04	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Feminist Media Studies, 2017, 17 (3), pp. 392 - 411	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1468-0777	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/123672
dc.description.abstract	© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In the bulk of popular, media, and scholarly discourse on Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance there is overwhelming consensus that the sensationalist reporting of the event convicted parents Michael and Lindy of their daughter’s murder outside official court processes. In feminist scholarship in particular, the infant’s disappearance in August 1980 has been read according to a “trial by media” frame. This frame persists despite altered perspectives about the role of the Australian public whose punitive and collectively hostile response to a media-driven hysteria has been replaced with the portrait of a kinder and more compassionate nation. The objectives of this article are threefold: to demonstrate the persistence of the trial by media frame in popular, media, and academic discourse; to consider assumptions of a monolithic and hostile media; and by examining a previously unanalysed archive to suggest that these arguments overlook the existence of sympathetic voices in mainstream media as well as the dialogic connection between media and counter-publics mutually supporting the Chamberlains’ bid for innocence. This research offers an alternative view to scholarship on a landmark event in Australian history and has broader implications for the way we view the media in trial by media situations.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Feminist Media Studies	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/14680777.2016.1235054	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Gender Studies	en_US
dc.title	Dingo media? The persistence of the “trial by media” frame in popular, media, and academic evaluations of the Azaria Chamberlain case	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	3	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	17	en_US
utslib.for	1699 Other Studies in Human Society	en_US
utslib.for	2001 Communication and Media Studies	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Journalism Program
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	3	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	17	en_US

Abstract:

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In the bulk of popular, media, and scholarly discourse on Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance there is overwhelming consensus that the sensationalist reporting of the event convicted parents Michael and Lindy of their daughter’s murder outside official court processes. In feminist scholarship in particular, the infant’s disappearance in August 1980 has been read according to a “trial by media” frame. This frame persists despite altered perspectives about the role of the Australian public whose punitive and collectively hostile response to a media-driven hysteria has been replaced with the portrait of a kinder and more compassionate nation. The objectives of this article are threefold: to demonstrate the persistence of the trial by media frame in popular, media, and academic discourse; to consider assumptions of a monolithic and hostile media; and by examining a previously unanalysed archive to suggest that these arguments overlook the existence of sympathetic voices in mainstream media as well as the dialogic connection between media and counter-publics mutually supporting the Chamberlains’ bid for innocence. This research offers an alternative view to scholarship on a landmark event in Australian history and has broader implications for the way we view the media in trial by media situations.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/123672