DECADES OF DECEIT

      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.