Incomplete sentences : exploitation and empowerment in American incarceration media
Name
1117771700-MIT.pdf
Size
7.85 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c3e73f7663800d233997ed2e2f90dfd1
Author(s)
Thompson, Rachel Paige.
Advisor(s)
Lisa Parks.
Alternative Title
Exploitation and empowerment in American incarceration media
Date Issued
2019
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Nearly 7 million individuals are currently under correctional supervision in America, with around 2.3 million confined in county, state, federal, and private correctional facilities. For those who are not currently and likely never will be incarcerated - including the majority of lawmakers and policymakers and myself - popular media in part defines our understandings of the American corrections system, from policing to the courts to imprisonment. In order to interrogate the ways in which such popular media can lift up or drown out the voices of those who are incarcerated, I critically analyze three case studies: a popular television show, an acclaimed podcast, and a recently released feature film with an accompanying documentary. Broadly, I argue that all texts constituting the incarceration media genre produce varying positionalities along an exploitation-empowerment spectrum, and by situating my chosen texts in dialogue with one another, I explore how these shifting relationships operate through popular mass media.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-107).
Subjects
Comparative Media Studies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
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