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#FreeBieber. The motto of a devoted Twitter army who still argue
that pop star Justin Bieber, even as he has been arrested
yet again
, is
somehow innocent. Now, #FreeBieber may seem harmless or mildly
amusing, but what if I told you that #FreeBieber could actually
represent something dark and dangerous? Something that has been
affecting every single one of us? We might think that the criminals
like Justin Bieber have no relevance to us, and we can continue living
our happy lives, untouched by glorified images of crime. Wrong. We
are exposed to the glorification of crime everywhere and we have
become tolerant, even awed by this idolisation. Looking again to
#FreeBieber. These fans were willing to completely dismiss the
severity of Bieber’s drink driving, to ignore the fact that he not only
endangered himself but all those around him. Now, we may not all
support Bieber’s continuous delinquent antics, but in some ways we
have all become that deluded Belieber, Tweeting in caps-lock. We
need to become aware that there are severe dangers that lie in the
glorification of crimes.
This glorification often stems from the media, who, whether we
notice it or not, have enough power to bend society to their will.
Schapelle Corby, convicted drug smuggler, was recently released on
parole fromBali’s Kerobokan Prison after nine years. The media has
practically imploded from excitement. Exclusive interviews were cast,
and Corby’s story has promptly been adapted into a feature film.
Let’s step back for a minute and look a bit more analytically at
Corby’s case. Why exactly is there so much hype surrounding her? If
it’s for how some people believe that imprisoning Corby was a
miscarriage of justice or was somehow racist, Corby attempted to
smuggle drugs into another country. Last time I checked, that’s a
crime, and that’s a fair enough reason to arrest her. But the portion
of the media praising Corby seem to be glossing over this little fact,
implying that crimes can be easily dismissed for an opportunity to
craft a falsely tragic hero. The turmoil surrounding Corby is
unfounded, but the media continues to blindly bestow unjustified
glory and push us to believe that we should do the same.
Some may argue, however, that we have enough sense to realise
that the media can be biased and irrational, so we aren’t that
influenced by their portrayal of crime. But our lines between fact
and fiction, between reasonable and ridiculous become blurred after
our overexposure to the media. We cannot naively believe that our
Glorification
Of Crime
Gillian Lim
Alan Patterson Public
Speaking Competition
Finalist
12