Gadgets Today: Positive Aspects of Sensationalism

For the purpose of this paper, sensationalism refers more specifically to the language and images used by the media in order to trigger emotional reactions that hook readers into a story. Often times, morality comes into question due to the use and nature of sensationalism. Nonetheless, the moral lines between good and bad uses of sensationalism are often blurred. In terms of the Bruce MacArthur case, it is clear that the media heavily relies on the use of sensationalism as a technique in both the form of imagery and text.

However, sensationalism ought to not be associated with manipulation and negativity as long as the media takes responsibility in drawing out the positive aspects of it.

Historically, sensationalism was never really associated with the negative, manipulative and commercial ploy that it is commonly known for in modern times. In fact, research indicates that sensationalism was more of a way for people to interpret the meaning of crimes and other breaches of social bond (Wiltenburg, 2004).

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Often times, these interpretations led to the overlapping of religious and political themes within the sensationalized content (Wiltenburg, 2004). Therefore, sensationalism’s beginnings point to the fact that the technique was not typically associated with manipulating the masses. Albeit, the church was most likely using these occurrences to promote religious faith. However, another argument could be made that the technique was used to interpret the meaning of murder, rape, and other atrocious breaches of social bond. In doing so, these religious interpretations may have unintentionally or intentionally gave meaning to acts that were little understood at the time.

In turn, this most likely provided people with a sense of comfort in knowing that something so horrible such as murder had some sort of deeper religious life purpose tied to it. This is to say that murder was made to look like it had some sort of deeper life purpose than just an arbitrary act of extreme violence. Unintentionally or intentionally, sensationalism could be argued to have somewhat of a positive outcome. So therefore, it is possible that sensationalism may be used for the positive rather than the negative in some cases.

Sensationalism is a powerful technique that can be used for good and for bad, so it is essential that the media takes responsibility for their publications. First, sensationalism is known for its impressive ability to persuade people through the use of emotionally charged content (Wiltenburg, 2004). For instance, studies show that sensationalism, or in other words biased language, has the ability to increase and trigger stereotyping “outgroups” (Vaes, Latrofa, Suitner, & Arcuri, 2017). Evidently, this demonstrates the power of sensationalism. It shows that if the media does not take responsibility for their use of sensationalism, negative outcomes can occur. However, the argument here is that if the media takes responsibility for the use of sensationalism, then sensationalism can achieve positive results as well. Ultimately, the outcome depends on the interpretation of the reader, but more importantly the media and journalist’s ability and efforts to use the power of sensationalism for good rather than bad.

Sensationalism can be used in a positive way through drawing people into a story so that they are subsequently enlightened by facts instead of just purely emotional content. For example, the media draws the reader into the story in this case by using language such as “hiding under the nose of Police in the heart of Toronto… master of duplicity… dismembering and burying his victims” (Gallant, Hunter, & Isai, 2018). Contrastingly, the article then goes onto say dismemberment only occurs in a rare percentage of cases. Moreover, if it does actually happen, then it most commonly occurs out of a necessity for functionality rather than fantasy (Gallant, Hunter, & Isai, 2018). The media also provides a factual list of “what we know so far” at the end of the article in order to provide details and updates on the case (Gallant, Hunter, & Isai, 2018). In essence, this clearly shows how the media is representing crime through a sensationalized manner. This is evident due to the media using vivid descriptions and concrete wording to portray Bruce as a stealthy sadistic Santa-like murderer in the city of Toronto. This is to say that the media is using sensationalism as a technique to trigger an emotional response in the reader. In turn, the reader is now hooked to the story because emotions resonate with people. In reality, serial killers are rare. Bruce McArthur is not a monster but a man that has some serious issues who has caused a lot of loss, pain, and grief for everybody involved.

Overall, the media actually did a good job in utilizing sensationalism to capture the reader’s attention, but then also immediately provided facts and information afterwards to enlighten the reader. Another use of sensationalism is that it is sometimes employed at the very beginning of an article just to draw readers into that story. For example, Connor’s article uses the title “Alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur hit with 8th murder charge (Connor, 2018). Graham (2018) states “From Santa to Serial Killer” (p. 1). As well, Graham (2018) also writes “A friendly gardener and mall Santa, McArthur may also have been the worst ever serial killer of gay men” (p. 1). Although tragic, the sensationalized title and introductions most likely shocked viewers into reading the story. In doing so, this led to a more positive outcome because it created more awareness around such a tragic case. This example also illustrates how the media uses the sorts of textual language to paint a picture of a man from friendly Santa into a serial killer is a prime example of sensationalism. It’s basically using the same emotionally charged language for material as any well written horror film would do; turn the innocent image of Santa into a cold-blooded devilish murderer. Terrifying! This is to say that using the emotionally charged language is designed for the purpose of capture the reader’s attention. Yet, it is most definitely is not the most accurate depiction of crime in our society. All in all, sensationalism was arguably used positively in this case due to the fact it pulled people into the story so that a nexus could be made between the serial killer Bruce McArthur and problems within the gay community. As the aforementioned points out, sensationalism can be used to link news coverage to larger social issues.

For example, this news article by CBC news shines light on the fact that the gay community has not been treated well by the Police, historically (Hooper, 2018). The article goes onto touch upon the fact that the gay community has experienced a lack of policing in terms of the investigation of murder cases starting from the 1970’s (Hooper, 2018). Essentially, sensationalism around the Bruce McArthur case allowed for the discovery of problematic issues within the gay community. These issues may not have been explored by the mainstream if sensationalism was not employed by the media in the Bruce McArthur case. Therefore, sensationalism does in fact have some positive aspects after all as long as the media takes journalistic responsibility. In contrast, sensationalism may also be used in the form of imagery, which visibly produces more negative outcomes than its textual counterpart. Case in point is that sensationalized imagery is often times used to uphold and portray a certain narrative within society (Cowart, Saunders, & Blackstone, 2016). Furthermore, there is quite an apparent distinction between the representation of certain races and ethnicities within these media coverages (Cowart, Saunders, & Blackstone, 2016). An argument can be made that some media outlets have invested interests in maintaining the power of the majority through the use of imagery. This is to say that marginalized, and/or minority groups, are often times depicted in such a way that leaves them vulnerable to viewers long-lasting negative impressions. As such this may even be considered a process of racialization. The argument here is that media sources must improve upon their use of sensationalism in the form of imagery so as to give a better representation of minority groups.

The media uses sensationalism in the form of imagery to depict Bruce McArthur and his victims in a negative way. In one media article, imagery from a photo shows the white serial killer Bruce McArthur smiling on bright sunny day in what seems to be a family trip to Niagara Falls (Dunham, 2018). Contrastingly, another photo depicts the victim’s identities as if they are prisoner mugshots, especially 7 out of 8 victim photos whom seem to be from Middle Eastern or similar background (Ward, 2018). Evidently, the media is using sensationalism in the form of imagery to paint a picture of the serial killer as a nice, gregarious, and friendly white man. On the other hand, the victims are being portrayed in a way that makes them appear as if they are the criminals for an extremely questionable reason. For emphasis, Bruce McArthur is the serial killer, not the victim. Nonetheless, the media has not released any ‘mugshots’ or poor-quality photos of him. All in all, it is rather odd how the media is framing this narrative through sensationalized imagery in seemingly favor of Bruce McArthur. This definitely raises concern as to whether or not the media is attempting to uphold a certain problematic narrative in society.

Conclusively, in terms of the Bruce MacArthur case, it is clear that the media heavily relies on this use of sensationalism as a technique in both the form of imagery and text. However, sensationalism ought to not be associated with manipulation and negativity as long as the media takes responsibility in drawing out the positive aspects of it. Historically, sensationalism was not used as a technique or ploy to draw readers into a story. However, the lines between good and bad uses of sensationalism still remain ambiguous. Overall, this paper has shown that there are many textual ways in which the media can use sensationalism in a positive way. However, it is apparent that the media still needs to improve upon using sensationalized imagery to achieve positive outcomes. Conclusively, the aim of this paper was to give a more positive reference point to the use of sensationalism rather than the negative association. Of course, the scope of this paper was limited, but hopefully this somehow adds value to the conversation and discourse around sensationalism.