There has been an increase in media coverage for different marginalized groups, as seen with more documentaries and movies being made about them. It is quite easy to assume that just because such marginalized people (such as sex workers) are brought into the public eye, they are being accurately represented; when in reality, only one side of their story is being shared with the world as a tool for entertainment to increase ratings and views. “Across the channels, ratings and revenues delivering programmes – entertainment and lifestyle – have increased, while news and analysis have shown a corresponding decline” (Thussu 104). This therefore leads to “infotainment” (Thussu 1) – material that aims to entertain and inform. Consequently leading to remembrance (from the media) being mutually exclusive to representation of marginalized people.
“Strategic silences” (Jiwani 899) are used in the media all the time. Specifically, missing Aboriginal sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) have moved between being “invisible” (Jiwani 899) (not seen at all) to “hypervisible” (Jiwani 899) (over-seen) as rebellious and deviant (e.g. only seen as drug addicts). In her memoir, Missing Sarah, Maggie De Vries, mentions how even though her sister, Sarah De Vries (a sex worker DTES) was a drug addict, she had many other parts to her personality that made her human…that made her relatable. However, the CBC documentary on missing women DTES, that featured Sarah, didn’t acknowledge the fact that she was so much more than just a sex worker and a drug addict – in the documentary, the last image that froze of Sarah was her high on drugs (shown by her eyes being unfocused) (Vries 254). Instead of showing how loving (Vries 30) kind (Vries 90) and high-spirited (Vries 254) Sarah was, the camera only took footage of Sarah being “out of it” (Vries 254) – an act of hypervisibility. Clearly, Sarah as well as all the sex workers DTES were misrepresented in that documentary, “Neither what Sarah did for a living nor her addiction was all she was” (Vries 148).
To increase ratings, the media – seen through the CBC documentary – makes individuals hypervisible and deliberately focuses on “juicy” (Thussu 150) (usually negative) aspects of a story and leaves out others aspects (usually positive) to increase ratings and entertain the public. In doing this, the media missuses it’s power and misrepresents marginalized groups such as the missing Aboriginal sex workers in Vancouver DTES. As Maggie De Vries said, “Rememberance is a powerful act, but it must be done right” (Vries 254). In the CBC documentary Sarah wasn’t remembered for who she truly was, but “re-membered” (Vries 254) – recreated to be a perfect fit in the narrow, hegemonic idea of what it means to be a sex worker in order to attract the public.
Works cited:
Jiwani, Yasmin. Young, Mary Lynn. “On representations.” Missing and Mudered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse, vol. 31, no. 4, 2006, pp. 898-900.
Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print
Thussu, Daya Kishan. News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007. Print.