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Designer: manikka
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Let me give you a hint of what my Crime and the Media unit is about.

So let's talk about this term connoted at the turn of the 21st century when media technologies developed at so quick a rate that the societal structure had no time to adapt to it.

TRIAL BY MEDIA

Ever since cameras and reporters were allowed in court, the public got more nosy and wanted more. Covering their busybody-ness with academic claims of educating people of the justice system in the country, the media had the chance to broadcast to the people court proceedings.
Only problem is...
The focus on what the media system wants and what the legal system is, is just too different.
Media wants entertainment value, profits, ratings and power. Legal system wants justice, what is right, what is truth (although in recent days I've not seen much of it, as law takes precedence over truth) and stability.
So how does these two very different structures coexist with one another?

And that's the question we all seek to answer.

With media trials, the defendant is not only victimized by the crime and the trial, that person is also victimized by the media which leads to persecution by the public, depending on what emphasis the media sensationalizes. These media trials and publicity, affects jury decision making and the manner in which the courts function. A place where a judge is seen as impartial becomes emotional. A place where justice and truth should reign now becomes a place of scandals. And the public's opinion of the criminal justice system fails when the verdict is not of the expected.

So where can we draw the line?
Now that's the difficult part to answer. There can be no fixed line, and that is the problem of it all.

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On another note, I heard from my group members that a jury trial is basically the basis and reflection of a democracy.
So far I know of, Malaysia abolished all jury trials in 1995 and Singapore has none. Why?
What does that make us then?

~8:22 pm