File(s) under permanent embargo
The digital pillory: media shaming of 'ordinary' people for minor crimes
This paper discusses the intensified role of the media in shaming ‘ordinary' people when they commit minor offences. We argue that shaming is a powerful cultural practice assumed by the news media in western societies after it was all but phased out as a formal punishment imposed by the judiciary during the early nineteenth century. While shaming is no longer a physically brutal practice, we reconceptualize the idea of a ‘lasting mark of shame' at the hands of the media in the digital age. We argue that this form of shaming should be considered through a lens of media power to highlight its symbolic and disciplinary dimensions. We also discuss the role new and traditional media forms play in shaming alongside formal punishments imposed by the judiciary. While ‘ordinary' people armed with digital tools increase the degree of disciplinary surveillance in wider social space, traditional news media continue to play a particularly powerful role in shaming because of their symbolic power to contextualize information generated in social and new media circles and their privileged position to other fields of power.
History
Journal
Continuum: journal of media & cultural studiesVolume
28Issue
1Pagination
101 - 111Publisher
RoutledgeLocation
Abingdon, EnglandPublisher DOI
ISSN
1030-4312eISSN
1469-3666Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2013, Taylor & FrancisUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC