Crime, Justice, & Media

Catalog description

This course examines media narratives of crime and justice in the United States. We will analyze and discuss how these narratives impact incarceration, sentencing, policing and criminal justice policy. We will also consider how to produce new narratives, stories of redemption, through meetings and interviews with men and women who have or are serving life-without-parole sentences in Pennsylvania prisons, their families and advocacy groups lobbying for criminal justice reform. The course includes at least one group visit to a prison, accompanied by the instructor, to talk to men serving life sentences. Media production experience is helpful, but not required.