FIMS Major Projects and Creative Projects
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2021
Abstract
In April of 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) launched their second ever “Mr. Big” operation: one that involves an intricate interrogation technique designed to elicit a confession from suspected criminals in cases where physical evidence cannot link the accused to the crime. The targets of this operation were suspected murderers Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay. The highly publicized case was discussed extensively through traditional news coverage, as well as in various stories of the true crime genre. Through the use of narrative theory, this paper examines the role of narrative in the retelling of the Rafay family murders. I aim to determine whether one genre (hard news crime coverage) is ostensibly more fact-based and unbiased than that of another (true crime stories) through an examination of who is quoted, how often and in what order they are quoted, along with which events are discussed in the coverage of the Rafay family murders. To do so, I examined 118 articles from the Vancouver Sun, and two episodes from the Netflix documentary series, The Confession Tapes. Ultimately, I discover that both sources put forth a narrative regarding the Rafay family murders, and there is not a clear difference in the fairness of coverage when comparing the two sources. I conclude with a discussion about the role of the true crime genre, and whether it should be considered more than mere “entertainment,” given its status in comparison to the Vancouver Sun’s coverage.
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Evidence Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Graphic Communications Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, Law and Society Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Social Justice Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons
