Society and Culture

Stage Two Society and Culture

Source Analysis

1. Describe in detail the ethical issue being reported on. Provide background information, different perspectives and questions being asked?

Both news stories have the base topic of the death of a Brazilian student, Roberto Laudisio Curti, after an encounter with New South Wales Police Officers with him resulting in being tasered, which ultimately lead to his death.

The two different perspectives show that Roberto was the victim of brutal force in the hands of the police officers involved and the opposing perspective side showing that Roberto was under the influence of drugs and resisted the force of the police leading to them having to restrain him.

Different questions were being asked in each report; the main questions being asked in the Channel 9 report were based around the police's misconduct and focused heavily on the life and family of Roberto Curti whereas the SBS report covered more informal and factual segments of the uses and dangers of tasers and did have much focus on the death of Roberto Curti.

2. Who were the authors of each report? In what ways could the channels responsible for publishing the report influence the types of information represented in the report? (Details of the reporter, programme, channel and website)

Channel 9 and SBS were the reporters of each report with each giving a different publishing approach. Channel 9 is a free to air channel and it is funded by advertisements. Channel 9 is more of a family based channel that shows news reports that are suitable for all ages and generally shows what the public want to see and hear. Their report focused briefly on the incident that occurred but blamed the Police involved throughout the whole segment. SBS showed a more factual presented segment. The government funds SBS so it shows a wider range of opinions and views on topics with a lot more sources as it is an intended international channel. SBS's segment was also biased with the viewer being swayed against taser use by the presentations of facts, relevant information and also stories based in America about the deaths and bad outcomes of tasers used by Police Officers. SBS were more based on the use of tasors and Channel 9 focused heavily on Roberto Curti and his family and used them to make the Police Officers look bad rather then the events that took place.

3. Who is the intended audience for these reports? How did the information presented in each report target that audience? (Age, gender, time it airs)

Channel 9 (60 minutes) is aired every Sundays at 7:30 pm so this report was aimed at a wide audience as this programme is directly after popular shows and at a time after most families' dinner. 60 Minutes caters to a wide audience, mostly adults over 30, as it delivers conservative segments. This report was definitely intended for anyone watching the news because it gave the stories baseline but also delivered a lot of 'family-friendly' segment time that would play on the viewer's emotions. Channel 9 used very conservative language and showed limited footage so that no offence could be taken by anyone as they have a wide audience base. SBS caters to older adults yet has segments appropriate for most ages and cultures, as SBS is a multi-cultural channel. The information was presented in a very fast-paced informative light and shows a lot of reliable information from a number of sources. This segment could be viewed by anyone in the world as it did not just focus on Roberto Curti but on tasors and there effect on other societies. We saw some international stories and views as the segment showed American footage just one minute in. It also featured a few American reporters as well as Australian reporters whereas Channel 9 only featured one Australian reporter.

4. When did the reports air on television in relation to key events for this issue and how did this affect the information the report presented about the issue? (Did anything important happen in relation to this issue after the report was completed which could have added vital information to the discussion)

The death of Roberto Curti occurred on the 18/3/2012 and Channel 9's segment aired on the 16/11/12 at 7:30pm. In that time span the Coroner declared a statement that the police officers involved acted out 'in a pack like mentality'. I think that the information supplied was biased and didn't supply the viewer with vital information regarding the events however it did give the viewer up-to-date events and information. SBS aired their report on the 29/5/12. The key events for this report were the brief mention of the tasering and death of Roberto Curti (occurred in March,2012) and the case of the man in America (occurred in 2008). As this report did not give us any information on Roberto Curti; no information could have been updated. A bigger impact on this report could have been made if there had been the discovery of conclusive testing of effects of using tasers as the reporter and key-speaker had difficulty locating any such evidence.

5. What was the focus for each report, what perspective of the report focus on? What were the similarities and differences between the focuses of the two reports?

Channel 9's report focused on Roberto's home life with the segment mainly revolving around his 2 sisters, his grandma and his life before his death. This report was mainly focused on the fact that this was the New South Wale's Police Force's fault. Channel 9 communicated this through excessive negative adjectives towards the Police Officers, statements from one witness in opposition to the Police Officers and comments from Roberto's family. It didn't focus too much on the actual events and what caused it, but mainly how the family felt about the events.

SBS only briefly focused on Roberto's event at the start of the segment and quickly moved pace and showed multiple parts in America involving the dangers, outcomes and stories of the use of tasers. SBS's focus was how dangerous taser's can be and the debate on whether or not they are 'safe' to use.

Both segments were biased in one direction, SBS for the fact that taser's aren't safe and Channel 9 showed us that the Police Officer's