MELODRAMA: IN

COURT

AND IN TH

E MEDIA

ANKER ANALYSIS #1• Kent State shooting• Students protesting the Vietnam War• Escalating in violence and began involving the police

• Governor states at a Press Conference:• “They make definite plans of burning, destroying, and throwing

rocks at police, and at the National Guard and the Highway Patrol. This is when we're going to use every part of the law enforcement agency of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. We are going to eradicate the problem. … They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. Now I want to say this. They are not going to take over [the] campus. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America.”*melodramatic rhetoric

• Police tried to break up one of the protests, but students refused• Resorted to tear gas and the National guard

• When most of the crowd dispersed but some students continued to follow the guardsmen, they began firing at the students• 4 students killed, 9 wounded• 2 that were killed were not even protesting• Students were no closer than 70 feet from the guardsmen

• Melodrama: the National Guard saw themselves as good and the protesting students as evil• An issue like this cannot be viewed as black and white• Students have a right to protest• An escalation in violence should not lead to the shooting of unarmed protestors• Police intervention should be thought out logically, not in terms of melodrama,

which leads to more deaths• Anker: “Melodrama immediately foreclosed the asking of questions about

responsibility, morality, and long-term implications of government action.”• Hearing about the shootings in the media led to (violent) protests and

demonstrations throughout the country• Issues like this should be treated carefully, without melodrama, to avoid

further violence

ANKER ANALYSIS #2• Oklahoma City Bombing• Bombing of a federal building in 1995• Killed 168 and injured over 600 (including many children)

• Media:• Occurred on the second anniversary of the Waco siege• Some jumped to the conclusion that it was linked to the World Trade Center

bombing• This type of mass hysteria is what makes melodrama work (whether that’s good

or bad)• Video footage of decimated buildings as newscasters talk about links to the World

Trade Center• Video of injured/dying people as they talk about the tragedy

• Leads to incorrect assumptions and can lead to bad political decisions

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjLBf1k4ykA

WILLIAMS ANALYSIS #1• Michael Brown shooting in Missouri• Can be analyzed like Williams analyzes the King case• Brown, a black man, is shot and killed in broad daylight by Wilson, a

white police officer• As in the King case, the initial detainment was justified (Brown

suspected to have robbed a store)• Many people think it was completely unjustified for Wilson to

shoot him• Several shots were fired, Brown was unarmed, witnesses

account that he was surrendering• No video of the entire event, but video of Brown robbing the store

(questionable that he was suspected at the time that Wilson stopped him)

• Audio recording of gunshots (several shots with pauses)

• Riots and protests as in the King case• Huge racial divide, as the shooting is seen as injustice by whites

against blacks• Story of racial/class struggle

• Media attention has already persuaded people to take sides—when it goes to trial, it will be much like the King case

• The shooting has given Brown the moral authority that he didn’t have before his interaction with Wilson

• People watching this trial from home will undoubtedly demonize the jury for not making a race-independent verdict—however, this will be impossible

• Need to recognize the role that race plays in an issue such as this one

WILLIAMS ANALYSIS #2• Murder of Bobby Lambert in 1981• African American Gary Lee Graham was on a spree of robberies,

attempted murders, and rape• He pled guilty to armed robbery charges, and in prison attempted

to turn his life around, but always insisted that he did not murder Lambert

• Sentenced to death row for the murder of Lambert (who was, of course, a white man)• Obviously evidence against him, but none of the witnesses

testified who believed that Graham was not the killer• Lack of physical evidence and questionable legal representation

• Melodrama: Graham is seen by the jury and the public as the black man who raped a white woman- the quintessential villain of melodrama• Clouds judgment of the real case• Hearing about the trial through the media encourages the public to

take sides• More racial division (especially since it seems African Americans are

sentenced to death more often that whites)• The night of his execution, there were several protesters• The racial division led to conflict• Members of the Ku Klux Klan there in support of execution were

confronted by those who were protesting (like Birth of a Nation)• Several protestors were arrested• In this case, it seems that people were aware that race played a

role, but they disagreed on what it was and how to handle it

ISSUE #1: OVERMEDICATION OF COMPETITION HORSES

• Show horses, especially hunters, are realistically not built to do their jobs• Showing 2-3 weeks a month gives rise to normal wear and tear, and

unfortunately often results in injuries• They are also expected to perform consistently- you want a horse that’s

the same every day and easy to ride People medicate their horses to keep them sound and comfortable, and some

to make them easier to ride Kids’ horses are often medicated to make them “quieter”

USEF drug rules limit the dosage of certain drugs and when you can give them Random testing at every horse show

The USEF rules still allow people to give their horses a lot of medication- unfair to the horses For those that break the rules, it can become dangerous- lead to further

injuries or overdose

STORY: SMALL PONY DIES AT DEVON 2012HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2012/12/28/US/PONYS-DEATH-DRAWS-NOTICE-TO-DRUGS-IN-SHOW-RING.HTML?PAGEWANTED=ALL• Devon Horse Show: national final (big event for kids showing ponies)• One girl arrived at the horse show to see her trainer give a pony an injection• A few minutes later, the pony collapsed and died• His medication chart listed 15 different drugs• NSAIDS, steroids, muscle relaxants

• Never able to prove anything- could have been lung disease, incorrect IV injection, or the combination of drugs

• Melodrama: could bring attention to the horse show world• People don’t know much about it because it’s not always an issue of

unfair competition- it’s more worrisome that the horses are being treated no negligently

• Clearly a good and evil: those who have common sense and good horsemanship and those who don’t

ISSUE #2: HORSE SLAUGHTER

• Overpopulation of horses in the US• Breeding and Import

Older horses that no longer have useful jobs or are injured or sick/thousands of horses that never have homes

Banned in the US in 2007 by refusing to allocate money in the budget to inspect slaughterhouses

Same language in the 2014 appropriations bill“None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to pay the salaries or expenses of personnel to—(1) inspect horses under section 3 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 603);(2) inspect horses under section 903 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 1901 note; Public Law 104–127); or(3) implement or enforce section 352.19 of title 9, Code of Federal Regulations.”

• Since horses are no longer slaughtered in the US, they are now shipped from the US to other countries like Mexico and Canada

• Number of horses slaughtered in Mexico and Canada is exponentially increasing

• No transport regulation• Horses are slaughtered inhumanely (often are still conscious)• Melodrama: could bring attention to an issue that many

people think is resolved• Clearly a good vs. evil (murder is fundamentally evil)• This is an issue where any kind of “overreaction” to support animals

would be good• People need to be urged to take action or nothing will change

SOURCESBershadker, Matthew. “Time to Retire Horse Slaughter For Good.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 21

Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.Carter, Erica. “Sissi the Terrible: Melodrama, Victimhood, and and Imperial Nostalgia in the

Sissi Trilogy.” Screening War: Perspectives on German Suffering. By Paul Cooke and Marc Silberman. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010. 81-99. Print.

Charlton, Darrell, Jr. USDA Horse Slaughter Statistics 1989-2014. N.d. Raw data. N.p.Collins, Randall. “Social Movements and the Focus of Emotional Attention.” Passionate

Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. By Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2001. 27-44. Print.

H.R. 3547, 113 Cong. (2014) (enacted). Print.Jones, Megan Sanborn. Performing American Identity in Anti-Mormon Melodrama. New York:

Routledge, 2009. Print.Singer, Ben. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts. New York:

Columbia UP, 2001. Print.Smiley, Jane. “Why Horse Slaughter Is Necessary.” The New York Times. N.p., 1 May 2009.

Web. 22 Sept. 2014.United States. Government Accountability Office. Horse Welfare: Action Needed to Address

Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter: Report to Congressional Requesters. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001. Print.

http://marcbousquet.net/anker.pdf

http://www.capitalpunishmentincontext.org/cases/graham/trial

**Wikipedia