Casey Anthony: in People and TIME Magazine

By: Nikki Garberg (People) and Maria Smith (TIME)

On July 5^th, 2011, Casey Anthony was acquitted of all charges in a federal courtroom in Orlando, Florida. Her crime: killing her 2 year old daughter Caylee Anthony by using Chloroform to make her go to sleep then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her mouth and nose and later buried her remains. Caylee was killed in June of 2008.

In case you don’t know who Casey Anthony is or what the trial was about here’s a short video explaining basically what it’s about: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1031182071001_2080685,00.html

Though the trial may not be occurring currently, the story of Casey Anthony and the highly controversial verdict she received in court is still debated to this day. People Magazine, a media source known for its up-to-date gossip on popular people and issues, has closely followed the Casey Anthony trial since 2008. One major feature of People Magazine is keeping the general public informed on the lives of countless celebrities.

Wanting to stay ahead of its competitors, People Magazine seized the opportunity to report on Casey Anthony by publishing several articles on the events leading to her trial and the aftermath of the final verdict. As a result, Casey Anthony was portrayed as a celebrity-like person in the magazine. From an article published on September, 21 2011 titled “Casey Anthony: Hiding Out in Fear,” People Magazine quotes a Department of Corrections spokeswoman referring to Casey Anthony as “one of the most hated women in America.” Though it may not be initially obvious, this “title” given to Casey Anthony by the Department of Corrections spokeswomen reflects a “celebrity-like” status. In other words, it sums up the fact that Casey Anthony is widely known, talked about and followed closely by large part of the population. All of these factors relating directly to popularity embody the definition of a celebrity, which happens to be People Magazine’s main focus.

On another note, as I stated above, People Magazine has a goal of keeping the general public informed on the lives of celebrities. This seems obvious by now, but who really is the “general public?” For People Magazine, the general public tends to lean toward the younger generations. While celebrity gossip is interesting to teenagers and young adults, middle-aged and older adults may find a news outlet such as CNN to be more informative. While there is always crossover of older people liking things geared more towards younger people (and vice versa), People Magazine is attempting to cater to the younger culture. As seen on the cover from People Magazine’s September 2011 edition, Casey Anthony’s photo can be seen next Kirstie Alley, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Katy Perry, who all happen to be celebrity figures.

A main topic that reoccurs several times throughout the numerous articles published by People Magazine about Casey Anthony addresses her whereabouts, and more specifically where she went after she was acquitted of murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter. Just as the paparazzi follow celebrities, People Magazine attempts to follow Casey Anthony.

The word “sighting” in the screenshot above screams paparazzi. Casey Anthony is being portrayed as an elusive and mysterious person who can’t seem to be pinpointed at an exact location. Being it human nature to pursue gathering information on the unknown, people are intrigued by the mystery of Casey Anthony’s current location and more generally, her life since the trial.

If you’re still not convinced that People Magazine aims to market Casey Anthony as a celebrity, check out their book Outrage. People Magazine went as far as writing a book on the uproar of the public after the verdict of Casey Anthony’s trial was delivered.

In the screenshot above, the magazine boasts about having “unparalleled access at key moments of the case” to further market their book. In short, People Magazine views Casey Anthony as no more than another celebrity and uses the popularity of her story as a marketing tactic.

All of America watched the court case unravel month by month, year by year, you honestly couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about it, seeing it, or being affected by it. Literally, almost every major news station was talking about it, NBC, Nancy Grace, ABC, CBS, and more. But one might ask why was everybody in America obsessed with this case? Why was every tv station blowing it up? At about the same time Casey was being questioned on the disappearance of her daughter, there were other women making headlines as well for killing their kids: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2078030,00.html “Mothers Who Kill” by Time Mag. In the animal world, mothers sometimes abandon their children because they can’t take care of them or plain ol just don’t want them.

Time Magazine is a good source of information for just about everyone, it covers everything that’s happening in the U.S. to World News including business, entertainment, science, travel, and people events. At first glance, you might think, “Wow. Time covers everything” and when you read their articles you’re like “Interesting stuff, they tell everything so eloquently, it makes sense…” Time is also affiliated with CNN, Life, and CNN Money. What you may uncover if you look at how Time is built, how they writes, what they write about, what they deem newsworthy, is all connected to American values, morals, and laws. Ten Commandments are covered in their stories, especially the ‘shall not steal/kill/fight with neighbors/etc’ with stories that contain war, murder, money, etc. TIME only shows us stories that we’re interested in and from a certain point of view, from an American voice.

TIME potrays Casey Anthony as a “manipulative women who behaved callously after the disappearance of her child. May wind up a free woman in name only, shackled instead by a devastating reputation created during her many months in the national spotlight”, a quote directly taken from an article titled “Casey Anthony Release: will she be in danger after prison” (July 15, 2011). TIME paints her as a carefree mother who ‘partied days after the killing of her child’…the things you only ever read about Casey Anthony is negative, I’m guessing TIME is against pro-choice when it comes to abortion. The articles were sometimes lengthy and sometimes short, depended a lot on what they were writing about for the Anthony trial, anything including evidence (Casey’s mom and dad’s testimonials, physical evidence of Caylee’s disappearance, and the Crime Scene Investigators) were lengthy, later as the trial was coming to a halt (finally!) the media focused more on what the American people thought about it. TIME even tries to get people’s attention on other things related to the Anthony trial with links during the articles like: “why forensic evidence not enough to convict casey Anthony”, “moms who kill”, “are americans obsessed with the casey Anthony case?”, “see why most child abuse goes unreported”, etc.

Analysis:

Upon comparing TIME Magazine and People Magazine, we found several differences in the target audience, rhetoric, politics of representation and subjectivity. In Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, James Curran and Jean Seaton talk about a significant period of growth for media in Great Britain. A “radical press” emerged in Great Britain, which was the first media outlet to give the working class people a sense of community. As Curran and Seaton say, it “unified the national working class” because it spoke about issues they sincerely cared about and could identify with. This relates directly to the way in which People Magazine presents their articles. By marketing the subjects in the stories they follow as celebrities, the magazine speaks to the younger side of the population who tend to have more of an interest in celebrity gossip. In contrast, TIME magazine targets the working class people, anyone who has kids, and anyone interested in world affairs/entertainment, U.S. breaking news, basically everyone except for the younger people.

In terms of rhetoric, People Magazine attempts to argue its targeted, young audience into thinking Casey Anthony is an elusive, mysterious figure. The magazine wants to keep its readers constantly intrigued and wanting to know more about her whereabouts. In addition to portraying Casey Anthony as a mysterious figure, they also argue the viewer into believing she is a cold person who shows little emotion. People Magazine’s photos of Casey Anthony show nothing other than a woman with a blank expression. Moreover, in TIME, they paint the portrayal of Casey as this horrible guilty woman who lies constantly and who is going to have this devastating reputation over her head for the rest of her life, reminiscent of the Scarlet Letter where Hester Prynne is alienated by her entire community because she had a child out of wedlock with the town’s pastor, which was a huge controversy.

When thinking about the politics of representation, Hegel and Ranke believe that there is one correct way to tell and view events of history. In terms of People Magazine, news about celebrities has always been and probably will always be presented as gossip. Seldom do you see a story about a famous person that does not have some kind of “juicy detail” that trashes their reputation, career or way of life. Casey Anthony, being marketed as a celebrity by People Magazine, is written about in a way that aims to expose each and every negative aspect of her life and her as a person. TIME magazine does it’s best to exploit her story and her as a person, “decharacterizing” the woman who killed her little girl, TIME represents this story and action as a big no-no further setting the morals of the American citizens and ideals.

Lastly, when taking a look at subjectivity and the position People Magazine is asking its readers to take on the story of Casey Anthony, we found that the magazine wants one to “follow the majority.” Almost all of the stories People Magazine publishes on Casey Anthony talk about things pertaining to her being guilty in the murder of her two-year-old daughter. So, in short, the People Magazine wants its readers to agree that Casey Anthony is in fact guilty, regardless of what the final verdict was. The same goes for TIME Magazine in sense that its writers want their readers to concur on Casey Anthony’s guilt. To sum up, this is the only similarity we found between TIME and People Magazine. Neither of the magazines argue her innocence.