As Surette says,
infotainment can be defined as the marketing of edited, highly formatted
information about the world entertainment media vehicles. Infotainment combines
aspects of news, entertainment, and advertising under a single umbrella. “Decades
of Deceit” is a good example of infotainment. 48 hours tells the story of how
Facebook-savvy investigator solved the case of the murderer and rape of Amy
Weidner, a teenage mom, twenty years after. Amy’s family and friends, recap
what happened from the day they found out Amy was dead until now. In this
analysis I will give a summary of “Decades of Deceit”, I will explain the
framework used by the producer, I will talk about the line between news and
entertainment, and I will explain the choices the producer made to get to the
audience.
Rodney Denk had kept the secret of the murderer and rape of Amy Weidner
for over twenty years when a detective saw something suspicious in Amy’s
Facebook page and decided to investigate. On July of 2012, detective Carter
found Amy’s killer by matching a palm print left at the murder scene with
Rodney Denk’s palm prints. Carter’s first step was talking to Amy’s mom, then
follow up on the stereo equipment that was stolen when the crime happened. When
following the lead, detective Carter started interviewing neighbors and friends
who lived close to Amy’s house, and Denk’s name popped out. When Carter went to
Denk’s house his mother told him he was not there. Denk has rented a car which
police were able to trace. When police faced him, he used a knife to cut his
wrist but he was taken to the hospital and he was stabilized. Denk was charged
and he admitted to the crime. He kept changing his argument so it is uncertain
if he acted alone or not.
Although the story is
about Amy’s murderer, the producer, Ruth Chenetz, decided to tell the story
using the framework of the Facebook-savvy investigator solving the case of a
teenage mom who was murdered two decades ago. The producer uses documentary-like
formatting, which as Surette says, encourages the acceptance of their
portrayals as accurate pictures of the world by the audiences. Clearly, the
line between news and entertainment is almost gone nowadays. Infotainment is now
mostly accepted as credible and realistic, and audiences don’t know how to
judge news or entertainment easily anymore.
As said in “Media, Crime,
and Criminal Justice” today a clear demarcation between news and entertainment
no longer exists, and media consumers are hared pressed to differentiate
crime-and-justice news from crime-and-justice entertainment. This is because
crime-and-justice entertainment has started to bring in real crimes, cops,
family members, friends, doctors and reliable interviewers that give what sound
like valid arguments and create a sense of credibility and security. “Decades
of deceit” used reliable sources such as the investigators who were in charged
of the case twenty years ago and the closest family members and friends.
One of the reasons
society has an erroneous view about law enforcement is because society is
continually exposed to crime content infotainment, generally showing how cops, investigators
and others, miss on clues or don’t catch the bad boys. “Decades of deceit” one
more time pictures a cop who didn’t do his job the way he was supposed to, a
cop that didn’t interview the people he was supposed to have interviewed,
making him look like a second-rate cop.
Victimization is the
process of being victimized or becoming a victim. The show talked about how
good of a girl she was, how she was a great student, very friendly, making the
audience feel close to the victim and therefore be engaged during the whole
show. The producer also uses footage
from before Amy was murdered to show how “normal” of a teenager she was.
One of the ideas about
crime “Decades of deceit” promotes is the idea of unresolved cases. There are
thousand of cases with no answers, but this one is different because it doesn’t
normally happen. If a case isn’t closed within a few years of the crime, police
usually dismiss it and move on. Amy’s case was one of a kind, and luckily for
the family, investigators reopened the case twenty years after, and caught the
responsible for her murderer.
The producer decided to
tell the story chronologically. After
Amy’s mom talks about how much she thinks about her everyday and shares some of
the best memories of her daughter, she starts talking about Amy’s pregnancy.
Afterwards the producer decided to talk about the robbery, followed by the
promising lead, the break in the case, and the closure of the case.
Chronological order is one of the best ways to tell a murderer story because it
follows the timing of events featured. It also uses extensive flashbacks within
the story to reflect Amy’s life and to take us back to the time it happened.
The language used is pretty formal. Everybody could be a suspect and the
narrator follows the mysterious language and tone appropriate for the
situation. The perspective used in the documentary is mostly from the point of
view of Amy’s family and friends. Only at the very end, the documentary
includes scenes with Rodney Denk explaining himself.
As said before, the documentary uses plenty of flashbacks, pictures,
videos, and interviews from before Amy died. Those flashbacks are a really
useful tool because it helps the producer to provide the audience with visual
information that couldn’t be incorporated into the documentary any other way.
The pictures used help to reveal information about Amy and her story. The
videos reveal thoughts, memories and emotional and physical information as
well. The use of the pictures and videos give the audience an insight and
understanding into Amy’s life. Some of
the pictures show Amy’s daughter first birthday party, they show the love Amy
had for her family and especially her daughter. Other pictures show how Amy’s
mom took care of the baby when she was dead, and how the parties weren’t as
happy as they were before Amy was with them.
The individuals involved are visually represented in their interviews
with the show’s producer, as well as in footage from two decades ago and
footage from when Rodney Denk confessed his crime. Law enforcement is
represented using interviews with the producer as well as with pictures from
the scene of the crime, and illustrating the environment of the police
department offices.
There are images that constantly repeat, such as the images of the crime
scene, which are really relevant to the story and give the audience an idea of
how it happened and helps to recreate the scenario. The palm print picture appears several times, because it was an important factor on the arrest of Denk.
As Surette says, infotainment mixes reconstructions, actors, and interviews and employ camera antes, music lighting, and sets to enhance their dramatic and entertainment elements. Although law and order, social control, and the point of view of law enforcement officials are important within stereotyped portraits of crimes, criminals, and victims, their point of view isn't the only one used. In "Decades of Deceit" there is a large amount of thoughts from Amy's family and friends. Although infotainment shows don't construct an accurate reality, this 48 hours infotainment show does a good job at capturing what the audience wants to see by capturing law enforcement points of views as well as family's point of views that make Amy's story dramatic and somehow credible.
Frank
establishes himself as one of the top importers of heroin in Manhattan. He does
it by buying heroin directly from the source in Asia and avoiding all the
intermediaries, getting the drug in the United States. His product is much better
than all the other drugs available on the street and it is much cheaper as
well. He has a powerful position and a very successful business until detective
Roberts catches him, then everything changes, and he is forced to give names
and help the police. 
