A local Melbournian, Jill Meagher was attacked and murdered at Sydney Street last year. The footage of the attack was caught on the CCTV in a bridal store. This issue has alarmed the society about the increasing rate of attacks happening around the community, especially towards women and whether if having CCTV around the streets would keep everyone safe from attacks. “Cameras’ eye on the streets is little more than pie in the sky” published on The Age, October the 6th 2012 was an opinion piece written in an authoritative, logical and confident tone by James Martin, a criminologist.
He declares that “CCTV is not necessarily the answer to making our streets safer” and instead of wasting money on these technological devices that is sometimes “powerless”, the government should figure out a solution that will solve the root of the problem. In contrast, an editorial by an unknown writer “Watching out for each other” published Herald Sun, October the 5th 2012 asserts that there should be more CCTV devices on the streets because CCTVs help the community to “watch out for each other” in an emotive, dramatic and concerned tone.
Accompanying these two articles, a cartoon by Mark Knight emphasises the important use of a CCTV around the community through his expression of his drawings. “Cameras’ eye on the streets is little more than pie in the sky” the use of this saying aims to highlight his point of view to his readers by making them feel that these CCTVs are useless and unnecessary. Martin also uses inclusive language throughout his article to intend to engage with his readers.
Martin’s use of sentences like “…. making OUR streets safer” , “We should consider…” and “…preventing crimes that disturb us the most…”will have an impact on his readers by making himself a part of the community, and shows that the writer himself cares just as much just everyone else does. This also invites his readers to be included to his side of the argument.
Using a formal, knowledgeable language, Martin argues strongly about CCTVs is “technology that is …” This point was supported by a few number of evidences provided in his article “studies in Britain…” and “Research in Australia…” the appeal to authority positions the reader to give the viewpoint serious consideration, since specialled knowledge reassures the reader about the reliability of the information provided. After a series of professional evidences, Martin then attacks several disadvantages and weaknesses of public CCTVs.
“The absence of sounds”, “Typically delayed response” and “offenders who know they are in publicly monitored zone are likely to conceal their identities away from the camera” etc. This series of attacks of the weaknesses alarms his readers of the “ugly” side of CCTVs, allowing them to feel unsure of the actual function and purpose of having CCTVs on the streets. In Martin’s article he questioned his readers “is that man talking to a girlfriend or intimidating a vulnerable stranger… ” The appeals to reason and logic expresses the view to his readers that with the absence of sound, CCTVs are sometimes misleading and useless when it comes to potential dangerous situations.
This obvious, straightforward statement will cause an effect on his readers by stating common sense. The repetition of the idea that CCTVs are a waste of money and does not always provide sufficient evidence to crime scenes strongly lay the spotlight on his contention readers are reminded repeatedly and being suggested to that “CCTV is not necessarily the answer to making our streets safer. ” To conclude his article, Martin distresses his readers that if the government has not planned a strategy or solution to solve the root of the problem, the attacks will not be stopped by having more CCTV on the streets.
This will make his readers to feel concerned and worried about their own safety and will therefore put pressure on the government in order for them to come up with a solution. In comparison to the first article, the editorial “Watching out for each other” approaches the readers by using hyperbole while the first article has more of a sense of logic. In his article “millions of people… ”, “Tens of thousands of people marched down Sydney Road…” the exaggeration positions his readers to respond emotionally and be more likely to accept his argument, leaving a powerful, emotive impact on his readers.
The use of emotive language throughout his article aimed to engage with his readers emotions and feelings, “outpouring of emotion…”,”people’s emotions ran wild” draws his readers attention to their feelings towards the sadness of the unfortunate event that happened to Jill Meagher. The editor inserts a number of rhetorical questions in his article such as “How could it happen? ” “Why did it happen? ” allows his readers to answer the question, the answer will be self-evident and therefore the reader will have to agree with it. Unlike James Martin who made his readers to agree with him by providing professional evidences in his articles.
The editor described Jill Meagher as a “funny, happy, laughing girl”, “beautiful, funny girl who was never happier than when she was making other people laugh” and showed a photo of her father waving goodbye to her daughter makes the readers feel sympathy towards Jill Meagher and her family. The contention of the article was only mentioned in one paragraph of the article. While in from the previous article, James Martin hinted and mentioned his contention repeatedly throughout the whole article. Nevertheless, the cartoon by Mark Knight showed great emotions through the focus of the cartoon, young lady’s facial expression.
The sad, depressed face showed great pain and sorrow, and the roses on the floor showed the large amount of people who shows sympathy, care and concern about this issue, causing the readers to feel their pain and sadness as well through this visual image. The image was drawn according to CCTVs footage, with hints that Mark Knight’s contends that CCTV should be put up to keep ourselves away from danger. These three texts provided approached the issue of safety issues on the streets from different perspectives and has different styles and approaches to convince the reader to share and agree with their viewpoint.
James Martin’s article has strong evidences to support his point of view about CCTVs is not the answer to the safety issues on the streets; the unknown editor’s emotional, dramatically inputs of language to engage with his readers feelings in order to pass his views of that we should have more CCTVs on the streets to protect us from danger across to the readers; and last but not least, Mark Knight’s cartoon with a simple, straightforward and meaningful drawing of the “shrine” of Jill Meagher, agreeing with CCTV’s role in this community that is watching out for each other.
