Multiculturalism in Democratic European Countries Essay

Multiculturalism in Democratic European Countries - Essay Example Managing diversity in democratic European countries has several issues to address. Similar to Africa, Europe is not a monumental space. It is a rich and abundant continent occasionally divided by history into several fragments, languages, and cultures. Furthermore, similar to African societies, European democratic societies, in their distant past or recent history, have been faced by the same concern: discovering the most suitable form of government to guarantee respect for minority rights, at the same time as supporting the determination to live together. The implementation of democracy and legitimacy as ideals rising above multiculturalism, the execution of protection systems for minorities and regionalization and decentralization strategies have aided in addressing the concern, mitigate conflicts and build an established and secure Europe. However, there is still some form of tension that persists in Europe and there is still development to be initiated in particular democratic so cieties where groups continue to experience discrimination in education, employment, and housing (Kymlicka 2001). The concern of diversity management emerges increasingly in terms of the assimilation of migrants. Democratic European countries have had various experiences in the issue, frequently affected by the manner in which these societies themselves were established as nations. It can be noted that the boundary between these various models is not, though, watertight. Beyond the various frameworks, the same problems continue everywhere in terms of the assimilation of migrants into public economic life. The outcome is that numerous of the youth descending from immigrants have more and more problematic in acknowledging a life of social, educational and professional failure. There is hence an urgent necessity to form the appropriate conditions for migrants to break out from a social life constricted to the boundaries of ethnic communities and have access to an opportunity of genuine participation in the life of democratic European societies (Lisbon Forum 2005).  Ã‚  

Contemporary Social Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contemporary Social Theory - Essay Example It is not possible to discard the classical theories because modern theories have to branch out of them and as the society is a continuous story, classical theories remain forever relevant. Also we require social theories that could combine and understand many cultures and regional specialities. To understand the demography, social class structure, population, law and justice matters, sociological network and sociological geography it is necessary to have easily applicable social theories. It enables culture mapping, research, social justice and the requirements of a social welfare state. It is necessary to analyse the complexities of contemporary societies, and to understand the present social world. It is necessary to theorise communication between social systems, social interaction, and hierarchies. It is also significant to understand the configuration of power points like global trends, media and shifting political issues. Mills argues that social theory has to be combined with social imagination that shows how the personal issues could affect the large scale social structures: â€Å"Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life. They have to do with the organisation of many such milieux into the institution of a historical society as a whole, with the ways in which various milieux overlap and interpenetrate to form the larger structure of social and historical life,† Mills (1959, p.15). Interpreting September 11th in terms of social theory is not easy. Calhoun et al (2002, P.24) argue: â€Å"The terrorist attacks have stimulated public soul-searching. Both attacks and responses to them have raised a host of questions about social organisations, basic social institutions, and how people mobilize amid crises.† Harrington covers both classical and contemporary social theories in his book Modern Social Theory. Harrington

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 33

Case Study Example Britt might be compelled by the culture in the company, as informed by Sue, regarding the information provided by George. In the case, George is willing to disclose and use insider information for the company to present a winning bid, probably at a fee. The returns of the act might be big, but the acts of ensuring the tender wins are unethical. In this regard, Britt is entitled to at ethically, and avoid getting involved in the acts. As a matter of fact and responsibility, she is supposed to disclose such information to the management. The hardest part would be such disclosure as the ethical misdemeanor is led by the team leader, whilst the management can compromise such information to get the tender. Notwithstanding, Britt should go ahead and do the right thing, hoping for the best possible response from the company. As an ethics officer, it is vital to discuss the belief of discussing a pending proposal with a decision making team. The issue is hard to tackle, but very vital and relevant to the parties, as it tries to curb future malpractices. Ethical malpractices if discovered may make a company less appealing to the essential stakeholders, making it lose profitability. One way of communicating the issue to the firm is by engaging the workers in a one on one discussion. As an officer, one can approach the employees on a personal basis and enlighten them on the ills on such a behavior. The officer can research for various cases that negatively affected other companies and effects on individuals of such companies. Such information will be vital in ensuring that the employees are conversant with challenges of unethical practices and thus try to refrain from the same. Another practical way of ensuring that the employees of such a firm are addressed on the issue is organizing conferences. Such conferences should be well tailored to handle ethical issues and if necessary other issues on good corporate responsibilities. Such a move, even though initiated by an

Bob took a pistol with him on a visit to the hospital to see his Essay

Bob took a pistol with him on a visit to the hospital to see his terminally ill father. At his father's request, Bob killed hi - Essay Example Bob action can be considered to be well thought before committing the crime because he carried a pistol with him to the hospital to see his father. A loaded pistol by any definition is a lethal weapon and the action of carrying it to the hospital, a place that does not present any reasonable threat to his life or that of his father is an indication of his intention to kill. In this case, his action amounts to murder and he is guilty of first-degree murder if it is not proved that, his terminally ill father requested Bob to shoot and kill him. However, if his father requested Bob to shoot him in the head and kill him, Bob’s action amounts to the crime of assisting self-murder and hence he would answer to the charges of manslaughter. According to Jordan, Van Dyke and Malone (2008,) helping someone to commit suicide is a criminal offense in the United States. In this case, if it is established that Bob assisted his father to commit suicide by obeying his request to shoot him, he is guilty of second-degree murder. The laws governing assisted self-suicide vary in different states across the US, and Oregon is the only jurisdiction in the world that allows doctors to assist terminally ill patients to commit self-suicide (Siegel, 2008). References Jordan, P., Van Dyke, M. & Malone, L.(2009).

Explain Anselm’s Ontological Argument Essay Example for Free

Explain Anselm’s Ontological Argument Essay Explain Anselm’s ontological argument. The ontological argument was put forth at first as a prayer by the eleventh century monk and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury. In his Proslogion, which means discourse, he presented this argument as a prayer for believers to substantiate their belief in god. Anselm uses ‘a priori’ (which means before experience) reasoning, which conveys that it does not rely or depend on experience and so an argument of this sort is more plausible and likely to intrigue and attract philosophers, by not depending on experience or acquaintances it can be understood and derived purely from logic. Furthermore its truth doesn’t depend on anything apart from logic and can be deduced purely from the meaning of the words used in the argument. The ontological argument uses deductive reasoning, which means its conclusion is contained within the premises presented, and if one accepts these premises to be true then one must accept that the conclusion is also correct; an argument of this sort would be: 1. Men are all mortal. 2. Renà © Descartes was a man. 3. Consequently Renà © Descartes is mortal. From this example if we accept the premises (12) then logically we must accept the conclusion (3) so in some form this argument presents a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion. Anselm’s argument said ‘God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived’, by greater he means perfect and by conceived he means to think of, so we can put in other words: God is that than which nothing more perfect can be thought of. When Anselm first wrote this in the Proslogion, his intentions for this were not for it to be used as an argument to prove God’s existence but just a mere prayer for believers, but due to his reliance solely on reason and logic it has become popular and has overcome the test of time as it is still relevant today and is being studied. The argument can take this form: 1. God is that than which nothing more perfect can be thought of. 2. Even a fool can understand this definition. (By fool Anselm most likely meant someone who does not believe in god, and so he said this to show that  this argument is nothing of a complex sort but of a simple nature which can be comprehended by anyone, even a fool as Anselm said.) 3. This fool says that god ceases to exist in reality, merely as an idea. 4. It is greater to exist both in the understanding and in reality, than essentially just in the understanding. 5. The greatest possible being, for it to be the greatest must truly exist in both modes: reality and understanding. 6. Hence god does exist both in reality and in the understanding; therefore we can also conclude that the fool in reality is actually a fool. (The fool is denying the existence of the greatest possible being, this being must exist for it to be the greatest possible being, and if he wasn’t the greatest possible being then surely we could conceive of something greater.) Anselm starts the argument with a definition, and uses this definition to prove god into existence, however this argument relies on a particular definition and analysis of a particular one. There are two fundamental and paramount facets to this argument: one is the understanding of the definition, this is an integral part of the argument, because the argument arises from this start point, and also that it is greater to exist both in reality and in understanding. Anselm understood god in an analytical sense, analytic sense is where the whole meaning of a word or statement is transferred through the words only, like for example, Tom has a brother, you wouldn’t say he has a brother who is a male because the fact that he is a male is already conveyed through the meaning of the word brother. And so likewise, Anselm understood god in the same way, so it isn’t necessary to say ‘god, you know exists’ the aspect of existence is already given away from the word god, and so in a way could be perceived as inseparable from god. This argument mentioned hitherto was found in Proslogion 2, which tried to prove gods existence. A contemporary of his, Gaunilo of Marmoutier who was a monk and also a theist, replied to Anselm’s Proslogion, with a work titled ‘On Behalf of the Fool’, he was truly also a Christian and had a firm belief in god, but he rejected the jump from the definition that god is the greatest being to the conclusion that he must exist. Gaunilo claimed that through Anselm’s reasoning we can potentially prove anything one wishes into  existence by proposing it’s the greatest thing or maximally perfect in its calibre. He used the example of an Island, that if we were to say that there existed an island which was the most excellent and possessed an inestimable wealth, we can easily understand this; even a fool can comprehend this. And therefore it is the most excellent, and it is more excellent to exist both in reality and in understanding moreover this island must exist. He argued even a fool is right to be sceptical about Anselm’s argument, as evidence is required for a matter as great as god. Furthermore he went on to claim that Anselm’s argument is a ‘reducto ad absurdum’, this is Latin for reduced to absurdity. As Anselm was aware of this criticism during his lifetime, he wrote a Reply to Gaunilo, in this he defends his argument and draws up another aspect. He says ‘God cannot be conceived not to exist†¦ That which can be conceived not to exist is not god’. This introduces another matter; Anselm asks whether a god is greater who can be thought of as not existing or a god which cannot be thought of not existing. Furthermore he claims that it is a contradiction for a god who can be thought of not existing if he truly is the greatest possible. Anselm created a dichotomy between the concepts of things: necessary and contingent existences. Anselm himself didn’t use these aforementioned terms himself but were later applied by philosophers but Anselm did split the two as he described the island as physical and therefore he could easily propose that it could cease to exist due to other physical causes like for example the sea levels rising could eradicate the island completely. However he said that it is impossible to imagine the greatest being not existing or ceasing to exist, and then surely it would not be the greatest being. Necessary existences do not depend on any other thing for it to exist, as it is the greatest thing so it is not predisposed to anything else. On the other hand, contingent existences do depend on other things and also there was a time when they didn’t exist, like for example humans, who are a perfect example of a contingent being. However Anselm argued that god was a necessary being, and it cannot be thought of as not existing, it has always exists and always will. It is rather hard to conceive of another necessary being or existence apart from this. Anselm put forward this proposition in Proslogion 3, that god has a necessary existence, and this is the type of god that he is, in this way Anselm shows that Gaunilo was a fool as he didn’t understand the type of god that Anselm discussed.

The Lemba Clan, Are They Real Jews Essay Example for Free

The Lemba Clan, Are They Real Jews Essay Introduction Walking through the Venda Plaza shopping center in Thohoyandou, South Africa, R dai ae ta a ad a tm ,T aioe f Jws bo e . Gv g i a uznw vdo m n n si o eâ€Å" hts n o my e i rt r† i n h d h hs i m pzl ytn i e l kh ep i dâ€Å"a a l k e . cm f m I al l gi e uz d ei r ud o ,e xln ,Im Ba Jw We a er s eao t e tg o ae c o r n m aoT e hv poe iwt gns N t nowing what to say and not having heard about this g. hy ae rvdt i ee. o k h † before, I let his statement pass. My time in South Africa was devoted to working with a victim empowerment program, but I continued to wonder about the idea of Black Jews. The Black Jew or Lemba population creates a blip on a cultural map of sub-Saharan Africa. When researchers discovered and studied them over the last fifteen years, the Lemba also made a blip on the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa. Genetic analysis of the Lemba has focused primarily on the Y chromosome, which is useful for studying variation among and distance between populations. The Lemba genetic markers support the oral tradition which says the Lemba came from the north. This paper reviews biological and cultural studies of the Lemba and the correlation between genes and oral tradition to propose a biocultural history for the Lemba people. Biology Genetic Variation across Populations Much of the study of genetic variation has focused on dissimilarity between groups. Genetic variation over time is used to postulate about the place and time of the origins of modern humans as well as subsequent movement and migration. Genetic variation is the greatest in Africa, and it is reasoned that the longer a group has been around, the more variation it will have in its gene pool. Additionally, the longer groups are apart, the greater their genetic distance (Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza, 1995). Maps of variation show migrations out of, around, 1 and back in to Africa (Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza, 1995). Based on comparison of genetic landscapes, maps by Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza (1995) show the arrival of Neolithic cultivators in northern Africa 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. The migration of people continues down the eastern side of Africa, with groups mixing and moving. According to Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza (1995), the Bantu arrived in South Africa 300 to 400 years ago, and the archaeological and linguistic data support the history of Bantu expansion. Cavalli-Sforza’t e o py gnt r aosi a gnr e t og ae g sr s f hl eece t nh s r ee t h uh vr e e o i li p e ad r a linkage analysis. Synthetic maps are produced from principle-component analysis of multiple gene frequencies. MacEachern (2000), however, criticizes Cavalli-Soz’sn eio gns fr s yt s f ee a h s and language for its assumptions about the nature of language and groups and its lack of cni r i o t d e i o hm n oii . A r a e n ui a ntone, os e t n fh i rt f u a sc ts â€Å" fcn t i n s r obudd d ao e v sy ee i hc t e homogeneous monoliths either frozen in place since before A. D. 1492 or caroming around the continent like cultural-ba n b lr bl†MaE ce ,00 7) G nr sn ec as er g ii d as ( c ahr 20: 0. ee lyt t m p i la l n 3 a hi provide a visual representation of variation, but they do not show how the variation came to exist nor do they reveal anomalies. The Lemba are an anomaly in the genetic patterns of Southern Africa. Variation and the Y Chromosome The primary genetic research on the Lemba has used the Y chromosome for comparison with other groups. The Y chromosome has many characteristics that make it favorable for investigating lineage. Almost all of the Y chromosome consists of non-recombining regions and the information is passed intact from generation to generation, from father to son. The variations, called polymorphisms, occur so infrequently that they are commonly called unique event polymorphisms (UEPs) (Stumpf and Goldstein, 2001). UEPs occur along male lines in 2 different time intervals, thus the changes can be compared between and among groups to examine relatedness and age by identifying variations (Bradman and Thomas 1998). More changes on the Y indicate an older line, and more shared sequences between Ys indicate a more similar gene pool. Once thought of as mainly junk, researchers have identified 20 different genes on the Y (Lowenstein, 1999). The function of Y is related to imparting maleness and to fertility (see figure 1). Figure 1: The human Y chromosome (Quintana-Murci et al. , 2000:173) Because most of the Y does not recombine, the Ycrm sm ise a a ui r tl ho oo es en s â€Å"n a n l p e ay t nm tdi ae ru† r s ie l kg gop which allows the history of the paternal line to be deduced (Poloni et a t n al. , 1997: 1015). The non-recombining section of the Y has the potential for a large number of different mutations (Stumpf and Goldstein, 2001). Because most variation in the Y is not expressed, changes are not selected for or against, which allows the record of these changes gets passed on (Bradman and Thomas, 1998). Four types of changes can occur between generations: microsatellites, minisatellites, snips and indels (Bradman and Thomas, 1998). Microsatellites are a section of repeats of a short 3 nucleotide sequence and minisatellites are a section of repeats of longer sequences. Snips refers to single nucleotide polymorphisms, meaning one nucleotide is changed. Indels are insertions or deletions of DNA in a particular location (Bradman and Thomas, 1998). An example of an indel is the Y chromosome Alu polymorphism (YAP). Alu is a sequence of about 300 base pairs which is inserted into a particular region of the DNA. There have been about half a million Alu insertions in human DNA and YAP is one of the more recent (Bradman and Thomas, 1998). Because they are unique event polymorphisms, YAP inserts and snips are unlikely to have arisen more than once in evolution (Thomas et al. 2000). An Alu can be copied, but it is not removed from a locus. After an Alu change, the YAP will accumulate new mutations at the same rate as surrounding DNA loci. One can think of an Alu insertion as a fossil, and patterns of new mutation allow the fossils to be sorted into lineages. (Dolan DNA Learning Center 2002). Different combinations of polymorphisms are known as haplotypes (Bradman and Thomas 1998). The more similar the haplotype frequencies of two populations, the more similar their biological history is likely to be (Bradman and Thomas 1998). Quintana-Murci, Krausz, and McElreavey caution that genetic drift, founder effects, and male-specific migration processes may lead to over-representation of specific haplotypes (2001). Genetic drift refers to random change in gene frequencies between generations which will cause frequencies to fluctuate up or down (Releford, 2003). After enough time and if no other forces are acting on a population, variation within a population will be reduced (Releford, 2003). The founder effect is a type of genetic drift where a small number of people form a new population, causing allele frequencies to deviate from the parent population (Releford, 2003). The Lemba Y 4 If Lemba migrated from Judea and Yemen and maintained the tradition of marrying only within the group, the Lemba Y haplotypes may be over-represented when compared to the neighboring populations. Thus, the Lemba Y is useful for comparison with African and Semitic populations their contribution to the Lemba. More genetic evidence of a non-Bantu origin for the Lemba is expected and found (Bradman and Thomas 1998). The Lemba Y has an additional genetic marker that indicates links to the Jewish priest class Cohen. Members cannot be appointed to this class and priesthood can only be inherited, thus a possible Jewish marker will be preserved down the line (Bradman and Thomas 1998; Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza 1995). Judaism began in Semitic tribes living about 4,000 years ago in the Middle East. In 586 B. C. , the Babylonian exile spread Jewish populations out of present-day Israel (Hammer et al. 2000). Hammer et al. (2000) used Y chromosome haplotypes to trace the parental origins of the Jewish Diaspora. Multi-dimensional scaling (figure 1 ) of frequencies of 18 Y-chromosome haplotypes in 29 populations produced three main clusters: sub-Saharan African, North African, and European. 5 Figure 2: Multi-dimensional scaling from Hammer et al. (2000:6772) The Jewish cluster appears in between the European and North African population clusters. The Lemba population is set halfway between sub-Saharan African and Jewish clusters (Hammer et al. 2000). Genetic and geographic distances were not correlated for other Jewish populations, which supports a recent dispersal and subsequent isolation model. Hammer et al. conclude that â€Å" m j pro o N Yb ll d e i .. ae to a common Middle Eastern source a a r ot n f R ili i rt . t cs o i aec v sy r ppli svr t uad erao (00 74. h iue lo ea an c i s f ou t n ee lh sn ya g†20: 7) T i s sf frvl t g lm o ao a o s 6 s u ui a Jewish origins as well as for supporting old ties to the Middle East. Once populations dispersed from the Middle East, gene flow with surrounding populations was likely. The Lemba present genetic markers identified with Bantu and Semitic populations (Spurdle and Jenkins, 1996; Wilson and Goldstein, 2000). Wilson and Goldstein (2000) examined 66 markers on the X chromosome to study the effect of admixture of Bantu and Semitic populations on linkage disequilibrium. Recent mutations will tend to have more linkage d eu i i (D t n i o eoe ( l n n G l tn20)â€Å" h s n i n i qib u L )h wl l r nsWio ad o s i 00. T e i ic t s lr m a ld s de, g fa difference between partially linked and unlinked loci rules out substructure as the sole source of the LD in the Lemba . . . Ethiopian-Bantu differentiation is not sufficient to produce the d eu i i osre it L m a ( l n n G l tn20: 2.T e oc s ns i qib u be dn h e b†Wio ad o s i 00 3) h cnl i i s lr m v e s de, 9 uo that the Lemba LD has two sources: parental population and admixture. Another examination on the worldwide distribution of Y haplotypes (Poloni et al. , 1997) found a significant correlation between genetic and linguistic distances. The picture of genetic affinities places the Lemba not with other sub-Saharan African populations but with Afro-Asiatic populations (figure 2 ) indicating admixture or a different parent population from other subSaharan groups. 6 Figure 3: Multi-dimensional scaling from Poloni et al. (1997:1019) Spurdle and Jenkins (1996) also looked at Bantu-Semitic variations to establish genetic affinities and offer a model for the origin of the Lemba. Their study analyzed allele frequencies of Y-linked Restriction Length Fragment Polymorphisms (RLFPs). Ht4 is a typical Negroid haplotype and it is found in the Lemba sample at a frequency of . 20, which indicates significant Negroid male gene flow into the Lemba (Spurdle and Jenkins, 1996). Ht7, Ht8, and Ht11 are Caucasoid markers and the Lemba show high frequencies of these markers as well. These haplotypes seem to be typical of Jewish populations but also occur in Asiatic Indians, thus it is not possible to distinguish between Semitic and Asiatic Indian sources with these markers (Spurdle and Jenkins, 1996). The allele frequencies of the Lemba are significantly different from those of the Bantu-speaking Negroid population and the European population but not from those of the Jewish group. Spurdle and Jenkins (1996) conclude that 50% of the Lemba Y chromosomes analyzed appear to be of Caucasoid origin, and 36% appear to be of Negroid origin. 7. One possible method for distinguishing a Semitic origin, versus a general Middle Eastern origin, of the Lemba is to make comparisons with the Cohen modal haplotype, which is dominant in the Jewish priesthood (Thomas et al. , 1998). There are three castes of Jewish males: Cohanim, the paternally inherited priesthood; Leviim, non-Cohen members of the paternally defined priestly tribe of Levi; Israelites, all non-Cohen and non-Levite Jews (Thomas et al. , 1998). If the Lemba Y has Jewish origins, the Cohen modal haplotype is expected to be present. Thomas et al. (2000) continue the study of Bantu and Semitic markers in the Lemba adding the investigation of the Cohen modal haplotypes. Y chromosomes were analyzed for six microsatellites and six biallelic markers in the Lemba, Bantu, Yemini-Handramaut, YemeniSena, Sephardic Jews, and Ashkenazic Jews. The twelve polymorphic markers were characterized in multiple Jewish populations and identified single haplotypes (Thomas et al. , 2000). Genealogical trees were drawn based on microsatellite variation to explore possible origins of the Lemba Y chromosomes (Thomas et al., 2000). The trees can be used to assess whether each Lemba haplotype has a close genealogical relationship with one or more haplotypes in the other five populations. Trees for the individual haplotypes were drawn for each UEP group by measures of average squared distance and proportion of shared alleles (Thomas et al. , 2000). Thomas et al. (2000) designate 67. 6% of Lemba chromosomes as having a Semitic origin and the other 32. 4% to have a Bantu origin. The high frequency of the Cohen modal haplotype in the general Lemba population supports a Jewish contribution to Lemba gene pool found. The Cohen modal haplotype is observed only moderately in Ashkenazic and Sephardic Israelites, in a single Yemeni, and is present in a very low frequency in Palestinian Arabs (Thomas et al. , 2000). The genetic evidence is consistent with the Lemba oral history of Jewish origins in a population outside of Africa followed by admixture with Bantu neighbors. 8 Culture Oral tradition and Origins of Lemba The Lemba people claim ancient Jewish origins. According to oral history, they come from Judea, from whence they traveled to Sena. From Sena they crossed into Africa, moving down the coast, building great cities in Zimbabwe, and finally settling the northern part of South Africa. Additionally, the Lemba assert Jewish identity through their customs of food prohibitions, ritual slaughter of animals, and circumcision (Buijs, 1998; NOVA 1999; Parfitt 1992). These are not black people who have been recently converted to Judaism. Judaism is not a proselytizing faith thus conversion and intermarriage as an explanation for Jewish genes is unlikely (Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza, 1995). However, many groups across the world claim connections to lost tribes of Israel (Parfitt, 1992). Furthermore, the surge in Lemba Jewish identity is connected to political economy and other social circumstances in South Africa in the last fifty years (Buijs, 1998). The Lemba say they came from the North, possibly from Judea. Then they went to Sena, they crossed Pusela and came to Africa, where they broke the law of God and were scattered across African nations (NOVA, 1999). Parfitt (1992) located Sena in a remote valley of Southern Yemen. Parfitt reasons that Pusela is similar to the Masilah River, which they would have had to cross to get from Sena to the sea. The port town of Sayhut was used for Arab exploration of Africa. In Hadramaut, the valley where Sena is located, tribes have the same names as Lemba tribe names (NOVA, 1999; Parfitt, 1992). Genetic samples of Lemba and of people in the Hadramaut showed similar features as well as the Cohen modal haplotype (NOVA, 1999). Lemba Identity in South Africa 9 The Lemba live in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, but according to Buijs it is only in South Africa where one finds the belief of Jewish origins (1998). The Semitic identity was propagated by early white missionaries and colonial officials; their writings emphasized differences of the Lemba by comparison with European Jewish communities (Buijs, 1998). T ee ri supr d a e o o a ii tdn t (u s19: 1. u s19) o s hs w in spot â€Å"n t s f d t ci ty B i,98 6) B i (98 nt tg e h sn e i † j 6 j e that the Lemba were aware of their distinct cultural heritage prior to colonization, but when ethnic identity became important in Apartheid, the Lemba Cultural Association (LCA) became a m d mfrosut g peet a Jws H rae B i asr,T eniec ..n ei o cnt cn a r n dy e i e t . u s s t â€Å" h i s ne . O u r i s h ig j es st their Jewish heritage is a direct result of the struggle for resources, initially land and later civil sri j sit N r e Tasaln V na (98 6) Ietyi l i r i ad e c o , h ot r r vaad ed†19: 2. dn t n u n a a n ve b n e hn n 6 i, c d g c l ethnic identities, is not a static concept. Identity, especially during Apartheid, was tied to power. The Lemba Cultural Association was founded in the 1940s when Europeans were encroaching o r or s T e C polm d spr e u uai n tadh L m a i pr ne n e uc .h L A rc i e a ea tcl r d ty n t e b’ m ot c s e a a t l ei e s a identified the Lemba with a non-African community (Buijs, 1998). During Apartheid, literally meaning separation, people were classified by race: white, cl e,n b c. n’sc laaits e df e acri tt s cnet( e o r ad l k O e oi cpb ie w r e nd cod go h e ocp s od a s a li e i n e se Mandela 1994 for a first hand description of the Apartheid system). The Apartheid government, the white minority, knew that if black people were united, the white autonomy would be threatened. They instituted a Bantu education system that further classified blacks according to tribe and encouraged local identity and rule in hopes of keeping blacks divided (Mandela 1994). In the 1980s, as the white hold on power was becoming more and more challenged, the gvrm nc a d i eednhm l d† h h e stp uhhthy e sl oe etr t â€Å" dpneto e ns w i w r eu sc t t w r tl n ee n a c e a e ei 10 overseen by South Africa but the government no longer provided money or services to these areas. Lemba in Venda Vendaland was created and within these bounds were the Lemba. Before the independent hm l diw saoalfrBak e s ti n f t m e e ad e e o e n, a f r eo â€Å" l Jw †o d tyh sl s n b r a t v b c ei e v cognized as Lemba, because they were associated with whites and considered superior to other Blacks. However, in t â€Å" l k o e n,w e b cseu t io n oe m n ibcm m rf oalt h Ba hm l d hr l k stph r w gvr et tea e oe a r eo e c a † e a e n , v b be Black and not associated with whites. A highly placed civil servant in Venda government cm et â€Å" i t V na e e a etgop I t s dy w w rl h o m n d ‘ t h ed w w r n le ru. nh e as e e i t e wh e e i o e g -skinned .. . V nar t u l e sro uprl s . t C oe pol (a i,92 8. h h ed t a d si a otf pec s.. e hsn ep †Prt 19: ) T i e ee k a h e ft 7 s refers to the days of their arrival in southern Africa. At the beginning of the century, in spite of the dark skin, the Lemba were commonly called valungu – white men (Parfitt, 1992). The civil srate a e,‘ sog s vrt n ge j ti , y e g L m a os’matter . . . e nr r dâ€Å" l a ee h g osu f em bi a e b dent v m k A n yi s n n B tson sh g s rgi w ogiiar u do y e b oi n†19: ) T e ua so a t nst to g rn, s ti t tm L m a r i (92 7.h i a n t tb e g’ 7 status and identity of the Lemba has not been fixed and it has not always been Jewish. Proclaiming a form of Judaism is an event of the 19th century, but it does come from an o e cm la d eg u i n f ao (a i 19)â€Å" h L m a e e a a i l my l r o p ct r i osd ti t n Prt 92. T e e b si d prc a t d, i e li e ic i ft z tu r h and used it as a means of ridding themselves of a rather ancient ambiguity at a time when new ambiguities were being created every dy (a i,9225. T e e b igop i a†Prt 19:5) h L m as ru wt ft h particular traditional practices, and some say they are not a religious group but a cultural one (Sand, 2002). The Lemba culture today points to ancient Hebrew origins but some Lemba practice Christianity and Islam (Sand, 2002). The practices they do ascribe to ancient Jews would 11 not be identified as Judaism in the West, however they have adopted more Jewish traditions in recent years (Sand, 2002). Lemba today In post-Apartheid times, the Lemba identity is flourishing. They continue to have LCA meetings (Buijs 1998). Websites about their heritage and culture are published on the Internet. People in South Africa can identify themselves with whatever group or groups they please. About 80,000 Lemba live in the Venda area of the Limpopo Province in South Africa as well as the Johannesburg township of Soweto (Buijs, 1998; Sand, 2002). Lemba are also found in villages in the southwestern region of Zimbabwe (Buijs, 1998; Sand, 2002). In the Venda region, people speak TshiVenda. Another day when Rudzani and I were walking through the shopping center, he called up to a man with a phrase I did not understand. With a twinkle in his eyes, he told me that was the traditional greeting for a Jewish brother. Again, I let that pass, thinking he could translate it to mean whatever he wanted since I did not know TshiVenda (a favorite joke of my friends there). In reflection and after research, I do not doubt the old Jewish ties and if I go back to South Africa, I will be sure to find out more. Conclusion The problem with constructing the history of the Lemba identity is that it has been passed down through oral tradition. When it was recorded at the turn of the twentieth century, it is possible the outside visitors were biased or projecting a Jewish identity on the Lemba. Genetic data support the oral tradition, and genetic research has identified anomalies in the Lemba population. Across the articles, the same information about the oral tradition and culture of the Lemba was offered. Ethnographic study of the Lemba traditions, not in contrast to Jews or other Africans, is needed to understand what being Lemba means today. Further research considering political 12 economy, as Buijs did, will continue to fill out the picture of constructions and projections of identity for the Black Jews of South Africa. 13 Works Cited Bradman N, and Thomas M. 1998. Why Y? The Y chromosome in the study of human evolution, migration, and prehistory. Science Spectra, 14. Electronic document, http://www. ucl. ac. uk/tcga/ScienceSpectra-pages/SciSpect-14-98. html. , accessed November 19, 2002 Buijs G. 1998 Black Jews in the Northern Province: A study of ethnic identity in South Africa. Ethnic Racial Studies, 21:661-682. Cavalli-Sforza LL, and F Cavalli-Sforza. 1995. The Great Human Diasporas. Reading, MA: Addison Weasley Publishing Company. Dolan DNA Learning Center. Genetic Origins: Alu Insertion Polymorphism. 2002. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Electronic document, http://www.geneticorigins. org/geneticorigins/pv92/aluframeset. htm, accessed November 19, 2002. Hammer MF, Redd AJ, Wood ET, Bonner MR, Jarjanazi H, Karafet T, Santachiara-Benerecetti S, Oppenheim A, Jobling MA, Jenkins T, Ostrer H, and B Bonne-Tamir. 2000. Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97:6769-6774. Hammer MF, Spurdle AB, Karafet T, Bonner MR, Wood ET, Novelletto A, Malaspina P, Mitchell RJ, Horai S, Jenkins T, and SL Zegura. 1997. The geographic distribution of human Y chromosome variation. Genetics, 145:787-805. Lowenstein JM. 1999. Why the Y? California Wild. Electronic document, http://www. calacademy. org/calwild/spring99/counter. htm, accessed November 19, 2002 MacEachern S. 2000. Genes, Tribes, and African History. Current Anthropology, 41:357-384. 14 Mandela, Neslon. 1994. Long Walk to Freedom: the Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Boston: Little Brown Co. N V O l eL stbs fs e T dr a i’r a alj re. 00( oe br O A n n. otr e o I al uo Prtse r b o ny20. N vm e i i r . ft m k e u 2000). Electronic document, http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/nova/israel/parfitt. html, accessed November 19, 2002. Parfitt, Tudor. 1992. Journey to the Vanished City: Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Poloni ES, Semino O, Passarino G, Santachiara-Benerecetti AS, Dupanloup I, Langaney A, and L Excoffier. 1997. Human genetic affinities for Y-chromosome P49a,f/TaqI haplotypes show strong correspondence with linguistics. American Journal of Human Genetics, 61:1015-1035. Quintana-Murci L, Krausz C, and K McElreavey. 2001. The human Y chromosome: function, evolution and disease. Forensic Science International, 118:169-181. Releford, JH. 2003. The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology, 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Sand, JP.2002. The Jews of Africa: The Lemba of Southern Africa. Electronic document, http://www. mindspring. com/~jaypsand/lemba. htm. accessed November 18, 2002. Spurdle, AB. 1994. The Y-ALU polymorphism in Southern African populations and its relationship to other Y-specific polymorphisms. American Journal of Human Genetics, 54:319-330. Spurdle A. and T Jenkins. 1996. The origins of the Lemba Black Jews of Southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-Chromosome markers. American Journal of Human Genetics, 59:1126-1133. 15 Stumpf MPH, and DB Goldstein. 2001. Genealogical and evolutionary inference with the human Y chromosome. Science. 291:1738-1742. Thomas MG, Parfitt T, Weiss DA, Skorecki K, Wilson JF, le Roux M, Bradman N, and DB Goldstein. 2000. Y chromosomes traveling south: the Cohen modal haplotype and the origins of the Lembathe Black Jews of Southern Africa. American Journal of Human Genetics, 66 (2): 674-686. Thomas MG, Skorecki K, Ben-Ami H, Parfitt T, Bradman N, and DB Goldstein. 1998. Origins of old testament priests. Nature, 394:138-140. Wilson JF, and DB Goldstein. 2000. Consistent long-range linkage disequilibrium generated by admixture in a Bantu-Semitic hybrid population. American Journal of Human Genetics, 67:926-935. 16.

Media Essays Media Fiction Fact

Media Essays Media Fiction Fact Media Fiction Fact ‘Media portrayals of law, be they fiction or fact, are inevitably distortions of reality’. Discuss with reference to the module’s readings and, if relevant, illustrate with specific examples drawn from the seminars Introduction ‘I think we can say that the public’s attitude to the criminal justice system is greatly, probably dominantly, affected and influenced by what they read in newspapers, hear on radio, watch on television and, now of course, see on the internet. In other words the media’. As the noted legal journalist, Marcel Berlins explains, the media has become a powerful and significant source of legal information and a means by which individual perceptions about the law are formed and shaped. The concern however, is that the media is also capable of persuading people to adopt and endorse notions about the legal system that are based on ‘misconceptions, false facts or prejudice’. By using various images and sounds the media is able to influence the public’s reaction to legal issues, and convince the public to accept the media’s distorted perspective. The question then becomes whether all media representations are a distortion of reality or whether the media is also capable of accurately portraying the law. Information and representations become distorted when they are presented in a manner that is misleading and inconsistent with their original form. The case of Caesar Barber is a clear illustration of media’s ability to present the law in a manner that falls within the definition of distortion. Caesar Barber commenced a class action lawsuit against various fast food restaurants for failing to inform the public about the harmful risks associated with the consumption of fast food. Although, the aim of the lawsuit was to raise public awareness and attempt to make large corporations legally accountable for their ‘pervasive deceptions’, the media, in an attempt to attract readers, used various tactics to undermine the importance and socio-legal implications of the case. Various newspapers and reputable journalists used catchy phrases, humorous pictures and witty headlines to give the story an entertainment quality and create market value. According to some commentators, the media must resort to these theatrical antics and dramatic techniques in order to retain its ‘mass appeal’. As Margaret Thornton notes, the media are forced to present distorted images of the legal system in order to secure ratings and retain its power and influence over the public: ‘Accurate portrayals, such as the American TV series, Paper Chase, which was located in a law school, have had to be withdrawn because of their unpopularity. Similarly, the exploration and explication of legal doctrine are considered to be too dull and complex for popular media’. Thus, as a business, the media responds to market pressures by employing various tactics to attract consumers including using misleading headlines and false images to incite emotional responses. It is precisely because the media picks and chooses what to focus on, that they inevitably misrepresent the law and blur the line between fact and fiction. Events are defined as being fictitious if they are untrue, imaginary or based on a false belief. Although the term ‘fiction’ is usually equated with the imagination, fictitious events can include real people and experiences, but are primarily viewed as a form of entertainment. In contrast, a fact is usually equated with truth and reality and is defined in law as ‘a thing that is indisputably the case’ or ‘the truth about events as opposed to interpretation’. The distinction between fact and fiction is fading as reality is becoming more fictionalized through the media’s use of narrative devices such as metaphors. It is the media’s ability to present their version of the story in a realistic manner that makes it difficult for the public to discern the truth. Although there is strong support for the argument that ‘media portrayals of the law, be they fiction or fact, are inevitably distortions of reality’, the real issue is whether this is indeed a cause for concern. Many media critics are concerned that the media will inevitably undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary, lawyers and the legal system. This anxiety is founded on the idea that the media is the chief or sole source of legal information, and that audiences are incapable of resisting media influences in formulating their opinions about the law. The aim of this paper therefore, will be to explore the relationship between the media and the law, and examine the ways in which the media distorts the law through representations of reality based on fact and fiction. The last part of the paper will be devoted to examining whether or not the media’s ability to misrepresent the law is indeed as problematic and worrisome as it first appears. Relationship between the media and the law The media and the law are inextricably linked in a number of ways. Firstly, the media is the subject of legal discourse. Lawyers, judges and policy makers are constantly involved in the regulation of different forms of media such as the radio, television, newspapers, and the internet. Media regulation has become an important legal issue and attempts have been made to develop rules restricting media content and to determine who should have control over the production of media forms. Secondly, the law and media are connected through media communications about the law and legal events. Whether it is an advertisement for a law firm, a reality courtroom programme, a newspaper article on a current legal event, or an internet blog on a controversial legal issue, the media is a constant source of legal information. Although the law is probably most visible in highly institutionalized places such as the courts, law firms and police stations, it is also present through media representations of crime and justice. It is through media portrayals of law that the relationship between the law and media manifests itself. As Sheila Brown states, ‘By depicting the processes of law and justice within the dramatic conventions of reality TV, courtroom soap opera, the voyeurism of human interest, and the aesthetics of visuality, media culture and the law sometimes appear to become indivisible domains’. The relationship between the media and the law is further strengthened by the fact that both are present in our everyday lived experience. A common sense approach to understanding the concept of the ‘everyday life’ suggests that it is ‘the routine act of conducting one’s day-to-day existence’. Based on this view, the everyday is simply a representation of individual experiences that impact on the formation of one’s opinions and identity. Since the everyday life is interwoven into human experience it is both patently obvious and hidden because it is often ‘taken-for-granted’. As Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns note, quoting from Schutz and Luckmann’s Structures of the Life World, ‘The world of everyday life is consequently man’s fundamental and paramount reality†¦It is the unexamined ground of everything given in my experience†¦the taken-for-granted frame in which all the problems which I must overcome are placed’. The law is representative of the everyday life because it is an integral part of our daily routine and plays a significant role in various aspects of our life such as our family, career, community and education. From filing for divorce, to claiming sexual harassment in the workplace, or to suffering an injury at the hands of a drunk driver we encounter the law on a daily basis in its various shapes and forms. It is precisely because the law is an integral part of our every day experience that it becomes a dominant source of knowledge that ‘helps shape experiences, interpretations, and understandings of social life’. However, because the law is a component of one’s daily routine and habits, people are generally unaware of the law’s influence over their daily experiences and conceptions of social life. The same principle can be said to apply to the media. Like the law, the media penetrates our daily lives, helps formulate our understanding of social reality, and its influence and power in shaping individual perceptions of the world is frequently ignored. Thus, the media are often viewed as both entertainers and an ‘agents of socialization’ who play a significant role in shaping the public’s understanding of the law and legal processes. As a dominant source of legal information, the media is often viewed as the primary means by which the law is able to become a part of the everyday life. The media educates the public about lawyers, judges and criminals and provides its own perspective on what the law is and how it works. It is the media’s ability to ‘teach us about ‘the law’’ that has led legal scholars to critically examine the relationship between the media and the law. The concern is that the media’s use of sensationalized headlines not only misinforms the public by presenting distorted images of legal reality but also undermines the public’s confidence in the legal system. Media distorts legal reality On January 25, 2007, one of the BBC news headlines read, ‘Risk of suffering crime ‘rises’: The risk of becoming a victim of crime in England and Wales is rising for the first time since 1995, figures suggest’. Anyone reading this headline would automatically be under the impression that, according to official figures, crime is on the rise and is a serious issue in England. The problem with this headline and other newspaper reports about crime is that it does not accurately reflect the reality of criminal behaviour. Statistical evidence produced and gathered by the Home Office indicates that contrary to the BBC report, ‘violent crime has fallen or remained stable since 1995’. Furthermore, any rises in crime can be attributed to procedural disparities arising from the number of crimes reported and recorded by the police in any particular year. Although the text of the BBC article makes reference to these findings, noting that the increase in crime is still lower than the total percent recorded in 1995, this information is contained further down in the text of the article. Thus, the large number of readers who merely skim newspaper headlines will be misled into thinking that the general level of crime in England is increasing. This suggests that what the media chooses to focus on can give rise to public misconceptions about the criminal justice system. The question then is if the media has such a large impact on people’s perceptions about the law, then why do they insist on distorting representations of crime? People generally use their spare time to engage in activities that are both relaxing and fun and that help them unwind from the stresses of everyday life. During these leisurely moments, people generally watch television, listen to the radio, surf the internet, or read the newspaper. In this way, the media is often viewed as a pastime, as both a source of entertainment and a means by which one is able to distract oneself from the complexities of life. As McQuail states, ‘The media are often sought out precisely as an alternative to and an escape from reality’. What people seem to forget during their leisurely pursuits is that the media is still a business, whose primary goal is to sell the product of entertainment and information to its consumers. The media is subject to various market pressures and as such its principle objective is to generate profits by using a variety of techniques to attract consumers. Since the media’s principle objective is to sell its product, the media is not focused on representing a true pattern of what is going on in the world. As was seen with the BBC news headline, the media use various marketing tools such as sensationalized headlines to attract its audience. Events are only reported in the media if they resonate with the public and attract viewers. As is noted by McQuail, â€Å"The simple fact that the mass media are generally oriented to the interest of their audiences as ‘consumers’ of information and entertainment can easily account for most of the evidence of reality distortion†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. A clear example of media distortion is the fact that the press only concentrates on a small number of criminal offences which include serious crimes such as murder and sexual assault or celebrity crimes. As is noted by Thornton, ‘The dramatic potential of criminal litigation is overwhelmingly preferred, in which everything is biased and distorted for dramatic effect. Within the crime show genre itself, violent crimes are disproportionately over represented’. Although these types of cases matter, they often leave the viewer with misconceptions regarding the general level of crime. The recent British Crime Survey indicates that in 2006/2007 the total number of domestic burglary crimes reported by the police was 292.3 thousand compared to the 19.2 thousand reports of crime that constitute serious violence against the person such as homicide or serious wounding. Although the threat of being a victim of burglary is higher than that of homicide, the media tend to focus its reports on violent crimes because the seriousness of these types of offences triggers an emotional response in the viewer thereby increasing media productivity and profits. This type of slanted reporting leads the public to grossly overestimate the amount of serious violent crimes, in relation to all other crimes. As Berlins notes in his lecture, ‘I suppose what I’m saying is that the media, in its totality, does probably irreversibly convey a distorted view of the state of crime and punishment, that therefore in turn, the public, which takes much of its information as well as its attitudes from the media, holds misguided views on the subject’. Thus, while the media only reports that which will give rise to public emotion, the public, who view the media as a primary source of legal information, uses these reports to formulate their own views about the criminal justice system. The danger is that this type of reporting will erode the public’s confidence in the legal system. As Garapon notes, ‘by placing us under the jurisdiction of the emotions, the media are in fact distancing us from the jurisdiction of the law’. Public confidence in the legal system and the judiciary is an important issue. A lack of confidence in state institutions, and in particular the court system, may lead to a form of vigilante justice. For instance, when Sarah Payne, an eight-year old girl, was sexually assaulted and murdered, the News of the World’s tabloid made a plea for the public endorsement of a law that would allow the public access to a sex offender registry. After the tabloid ran this report, vigilante groups began attacking the homes of families they mistakenly believed were pedophiles. Thus, if the public, through media portrayals, is under the impression that violent crime is on the rise or that the courts and police are not doing enough to keep criminals out of society, then they may attempt to take justice into their own hands. A regular pattern across all research in this area suggests that the majority of the public does not have confidence in the courts particularly in relation to sentencing. Mike Hough and Julian Roberts conducted a study on the sentencing trends in Britain and found that ‘judgesreceived significantly more negative evaluations than any othergroup of criminal justice professionals. The public systematicallyunder-estimate the severity of sentencing patterns, and thisis significantly related to attitudes to sentencers’. This lack of confidence appears to emanate from a significant lack of knowledge about how the system works and the levels of sentencing. Since public opinion about the legal system is influenced by media reports about crime, it would follow that the public’s ignorance about the judiciary and sentencing is substantially based on media representations which are largely inaccurate. However, not all media portrayals of the law are entirely unfounded or inaccurate. As Berlins notes, ‘I don’t want to give the impression that most people get most of their information and opinions from bad fiction on the telly. After all, television also gives us some very good, informative, sober documentaries’. However, Berlins goes on to state that while there are accurately depicted representations of crime and justice in the media, viewers tend to not be interested in these shows and they are usually ‘withdrawn because of their unpopularity’. The Media distorts the law regardless if they represent the facts or fictions The issue then is whether the media is incapable of producing legal narratives that are based on facts and not fiction. Recently, the L.A. Times, a predominant American newspaper, released the story of Mychal Bell’s guilty plea in the ‘Jena Six’ case. In the ‘Jena Six’ case, six black teenagers, including Mychal Bell, were accused of assaulting Justin Baker, a white teenager, at their highschool in Jena, Louisiana. The media claimed that the assault resulted from a racially-motivated incident at the highschool, where three white students hung nooses from a tree that black students were allegedly prohibited from sitting under. Mychal Bell was the only member of the ‘Jena Six’ group who was charged with attempted murder. Bell’s charges were subsequently reduced and after pleading guilty to a second-degree battery charge he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The public viewed Bell’s prosecution as being ‘excessive and racially discriminatory’ particularly in comparison to the way white offenders were treated in similar offences. The L.A. Times’ coverage of Bell’s guilty plea sensationalized the issue of racism while at the same time omitting relevant facts relating to Bell’s sentence. Although the L.A. Times story appears to set out the true facts of the story in relation to Bell’s sentence, they overlook the fact that Bell had a previous criminal record. Previous convictions on an offenders record is considered an aggravating factor that the court will take into account when determining an appropriate sentence. Thus, as one commentator notes, the L.A. Times, in addressing the issue of whether the sentence was excessive and racially-motivated, should have noted that information concerning Bell’s previous convictions was a factor in the sentencing decision: This is a story about whether a criminal prosecution of young black males for a violent crime was too harsh. Any responsible story addressing that topic would fully describe the perpetrators’ criminal histories especially histories of similar behavior. This information is absolutely vital to assessing whether his treatment at the hands of law enforcement was unnecessarily harsh and by not mentioning his priors, the paper implies to most rational readers that he has no criminal history at all. Assuming the aim of the L.A. Times report was simply to inform readers of recent developments in the ‘Jena Six’ case, this example demonstrates that by focusing on certain facts, at the exclusion of others, the media is able to create a fictional reality which substantiates its own hasty judgments. A local reporter in Jena, Louisiana, commented on the media’s coverage of ‘Jena Six’ and highlighted several myths reported by the media noting: ‘The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice’. Among the number of facts the media neglected to report was that evidence given by both witnesses and defendants showed that the noose incident, which took place three months prior to the assault of Justin Baker, was not only a prank against a group of white not black students, but was also unrelated to the attack. Thus, the media, by picking which facts to report and by drawing unsubstantiated correlations between various facts, have presented a distorted picture of this case. Although, the facts presented by the media in the Jena Six case are in and of themselves true, the manner in which they are presented leads to a blurring of the line between fact and fiction. It is for these reasons that the media is generally charged with presenting a ‘flawed and distorted version of the law’. As Richard Nobles and David Schiff note, ‘the media misreads law for its own purposes. This misreading has the capacity to generate what, within the media itself, are described as ‘crises of confidence in the administration of justice’. Distinguishing between fact and fiction has become a difficult task for media consumers. Fictional events are becoming more realistic through various television programs that dramatize the law and the judicial system such as Ally McBeal and People’s Court (UK). These television shows impose a conceptual ‘reality’ that viewers can identify with. How then is it possible for a viewer of these types of programmes to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction when the real object of these shows is to provide neither? According to J. Street, the distinction between fact and fiction is not one that can be discerned by simply watching these shows but is rather a skill that must be learned. The idea that the line between fact and fiction is becoming more and more difficult to discern is not something that is recent or that has emerged with the introduction of reality TV. The media has always used various tools to impose a certain amount of ‘fictionalization’ on ‘real’ issues. In addition to using sensationalized headlines and twisting facts by playing on words, the media also uses metaphors as ‘an expression of categories of reality’. Metaphors are used in media crime reporting in order to present complex legal issues in a clear and straightforward manner that makes them more ‘real’ and easy for an audience to relate to. Metaphors such as ‘justice is blind’, ‘war on terror’, ‘cold-blooded murderer’, ‘lawyers are leeches’ and ‘if it doesn’t fit you must acquit’ are used by the media to represent a particular angle on a legal story by relating that perspective to human experience. For example, the metaphor ‘lawyers are leeches’ will impress upon anyone who has had a negative experience with a lawyer or who has had to pay an excessive amount for legal representation. The media is able, through the use of these metaphors to paint a certain picture for the viewer that they are able to connect with because the ‘values and emotions’ attached to these metaphors resonate with the everyday. As Brown notes, ‘What gives such metaphors their resonance is not actually their ‘distortion’ of reality; it is their proximity to experience’. Metaphors, however, can also distort representations of the truth in crime reporting. For example, the metaphor ‘justice is blind’ is used to signify the fact that the judiciary is an impartial and independent body whose job is to apply the law equally and fairly to all persons regardless of class, race or gender. However, what is lost in this metaphor is that justice is not always adversarial and can be achieved through alternative methods to dispute resolution such as mediation and negotiation. Nevertheless, even if the media generates a fictional story, by using metaphors ‘taken from the real world’ the media is able to connect with the public. As a result, metaphors do not necessarily have to be accurate in order for the media to be able to unite with the public through common experience. Another way the media is able to connect with the public in disseminating information about the law is by turning ‘readers or viewers into judges, providing them with all the material necessary for them to make the judgments themselves’. The facts, legal issues and judgments surrounding court-room type shows are introduced to the viewer as the media sees it and as such, there is no room for mediation, argument or debate. The media trial is presented in a story-like fashion like any good novelist, the media tailors the sequence of events and uses characters, imagery, and symbolism to guide its viewers into reaching a pre-determined judgment. By setting the stage and employing various theatrical tools, the media falsely leads its viewers into believing that the outcome of the media trial corresponds with their own opinions about the law and justice. Although the media is able to provide instantaneous justice, by compressing the complexities of a legal proceeding into a 30 minute clip, the media ignores the fact that ‘a trial is an extremely complex and sophisticated device’ and that just and fair decisions are reached only through careful consideration of all the facts, evidence and testimony. Thus, media trials have the ability to undermine the role of the judiciary and the public’s faith in the legal system, by impressing upon its viewers the belief that justice is easily ascertained without deliberation. Garapon elaborates on this point stating, ‘The trial is able to control the way in which the facts are presented, proved and interpreted. On the television, however, a ‘construction of reality’ is implicit and thus directly experienced and thus escapes both examination and discussion’. Hence, as Garapon further notes in ‘preferring seduction to reasoned argument’, the media are able to display a version of the truth ‘at the expense of truth itself’. Although the media’s main role is to entertain, the media is viewed by the public as a major distributor of legal information. Since the media uses various dramatic techniques to relate information regarding the law to its viewers, the public is generally unaware that the media simply has no regard for whether or not the information they are relaying is true or accurate. It is in this way that the distinction between fact and fiction becomes harder for the public to discern. The public adopts the media’s conception of legal reality and as a result views the law in a negative light and loses confidence in the criminal justice system. This is not to suggest that all media content is based on false assumptions or inaccurate facts, but more often then not accounts of the law are misapprehensions of the truth. Is there a valid reason for concern over distorted media portrayals of the law? All research in respect of the effect media has on popular conceptions of the law suggests that media portrayals of the law, whether they are based on fact or fiction, present a distorted version of legal reality. As noted earlier, the media’s power to distort the law and present fictions as legal truths causes anxiety in the legal community. Again, the concern is that media misrepresentations about the law may destroy the public’s faith in the legal system. The administration of justice and the independence of the judiciary are important values that safeguard the fundamental rights of every individual in society. Without these principles, justice, fairness and equality would cease to exist and society would revert back to a state of war where everyone fends for themselves. The media, as the voice of public opinion, ought to be troubled by the role they play and the influence they have in undermining the public’s confidence in the legal system. This is particularly so when examining the media’s power over the public from an effects-based approach. The effects model suggests that media users are like sponges in that they simply absorb media content without any reflection or analysis. This is disconcerting given that some researchers have suggested that information from the media and other sources are absorbed into the mind and filed into ‘bins’ and that when making ‘heuristic judgments’, people extract the information from these bins and ‘often fail to consider that the information extracted could be from fictitious sources’. Based on this approach, individuals who have not learned to decipher between fact and fiction, are in danger of formulating erroneous beliefs about the law that are based on stereotypes, half-truths and clichà ©s. On the other hand, it can be argued that because viewers and readers are generally ‘media-savvy’ they are cognizant of the media’s power to mislead and as such do not rely on media generated content about the law when making value judgments about the legal system. As Lieve Gies notes, ‘Most individuals are sufficiently ‘media-savvy’ to be aware that newspapers and television cannot always be regarded as the most reliable or authoritative sources of knowledge. People are capable of detecting the media’s deceptions and distortions, which means that they are not prepared to put all their eggs in the media’s basket’. Thus, instead of ‘simply absorbing the televised message like a sponge’, viewers and readers are able to ‘decode’ media communications and attach entirely new and different meanings to the media text. The idea that media users are capable of scrutinizing media content and are actively engaged in the construction of their own reality is based on the active audience approach to understanding media effects on the law. According to the active audience approach, media users are not merely cultural ‘dopes’ who submit to the media’s power without reflection and examination. A concern raised by advocates of the active audience approach is that media effects studies overlook the fact that audiences are able to maintain their own independence and views when engaging the media. Instead, research in this area generally starts from the presumption that ‘the media is to blame’. As is noted by David Gauntlett, ‘The problem with much media effects research, however, is that researchers have jumped straight to the second stage investigating the media and its possible ‘effects’ without even bothering with the first one, namely checking whether any notable suspects have in fact been affected’. Stuart Hall’s analysis of the media further suggests that any content received by viewers and readers through various media forms is hollow and meaningless until the viewer or reader ‘deciphers the text and assigns meaning to it’. Hall’s reception analysis model suggests that readers and viewers consciously refuse to give into media influences and instead attach their own set of values to the information being conveyed through media texts. However, as Gies points out, ‘The potential blind spot in reception analysis is that it may still end up giving the media too much preponderance and ignore other influential sources of knowledge’. Nevertheless, the thrust of the argument in both the active audience approach and the reception analysis model is that the media’s powers to shape one’s understanding of the law will vary depending on the meaning that one attaches to media messages which is dependent on one’s cultural perspective one’s class, race and gender. As is noted by Gies, ‘In constructionist analyses of media culture, it is the socio-cultural background of people, and not the media products they consume, which is seen as a more reliable predictor of how they construct social meaning’. For instance, in Canada, the majority of the images presented on the television depict a Western conception of reality. Since Canada is an ethically and culturally diverse country there are many citizens who have differing cultural perspectives and identities. It is therefore dif