'So the justice system was to blame yet again': Discourses of betrayal and retribution on Facebook
RIS ID
141560
Abstract
There is a significant body of research exploring the participatory capacity of social media across a range of public arenas, including political movements, environmental issues, local government and non-profit advocacy. As interactive and user-generated spaces, social media offers dynamic potential to discuss, contest and engage in public life. This article contributes to the emerging field of research examining the opportunities for public engagement with criminal justice processes and issues through social media. In particular, the focus of this article is exploring how understandings of criminal justice institutions and criminal punishment are constructed and circulated within social media. To do so, the research draws on a case study of the Facebook response to the murder of Ms Gillian (Jill) Meagher and the arrest of Adrian Ernest Bayley in Victoria, Australia in 2012. Through a qualitative critical discourse analysis of 3200 posts on the Facebook page, RIP Jill Meagher, the article uncovers broader discourses on crime and justice facilitated by social media.1
Publication Details
K. P. Tubridy, ''So the justice system was to blame yet again': Discourses of betrayal and retribution on Facebook' (2018) 22 Media and Arts Law Review 382-402.