Highway of Tears

After watching the 48 Hours episode on the Highway of Tears and the How Stuff Works video on the same topic, I've noticed a few differences. Of course, a documentary is going to have a contrast to a YouTube video, despite being about the same topic. The documentary focuses on a few particular cases, especially the one of Madison Scott. In the How Stuff Works video, it doesn't go into any particular case. However, it does address the astonishing number of Aboriginal women as victims as well as an overview of what qualifies as a Highway of Tears case. 

I think because of the lack of focus on the other official Highway of Tears cases, the 48 Hours episode likely wanted to tell more about the vanishing of Madison Scott instead. I think that by doing this they avoided talking about the real issue here which is why there are so many of the Highway of Tears cases still unsolved and unrecorded. I would say about 80 percent of the documentary was about Madison Scott, and though her case is a tragedy, the reporters failed to address the other cases well enough. I think the show did this because the three cases were the cases with the most prior information and leads, because the other cases weren't investigated enough or even had enough coverage of those crimes- which is a very prevalent issue today. I think if the investigators had focused on other cases- specifically ones with Aboriginal women as victims, as they make up over half of the victims.

The audience that reality crime shows appeal to are interested in the topic and have something to learn, whether that be from a social justice angle or to cater to morbid curiosity from an audience. When it comes to demographics, people interested in reality crime shows tend to be thrill seeking, and there are more young adults and middle aged people who are interested in it rather than very young people or older people. Going off of the Uses and Gratification Theory, it's safe to say that people who are interested in True Crime stories are often interested because of the slight entertainment factor due to the morbid curiosity many of us have. Audience members could also be interested because they want to learn more about the topic from a social justice or psychological perspective.

Some techniques used in the episode to keep watchers interested would include letting out small bits of information at a time, so the audience can anticipate what's going to happen. The language used in the episode is quite grim, but is also intriguing because of the structure of the writing, like having cliff hangers at the end of a bit. It is also a heavy topic, and they enhance the emotional factor by having interviews with the victims friends and family (for example, in Madison Scott's case, her parents are still hoping she'll come back home).

As for the "values" expressed to the audience in the 48 Hours episode on the Highway of Tears, I think that the reporters/producers/editors communicated values that included things such as hope for future, communities coming together, but also expressed the lack of closure with these cases in a clever way. This could potentially be motivating for the audience and could bring more attention to cases like these. I think the creators framed the story in such a way that could have not only an emotional reaction from the audience but an empathetic one as well, I think the personal interviews with friends and family did a good job of that.