The mediatisation of Madeleine McCann

Brian McNair
Professor of Journalism, Media and Communication at Queensland University of Technology


23 February 2014, 3.40am GMT


The mediatisation of Madeleine McCann


It is nearly seven years since a little blonde-haired British girl named Madeleine McCann disappeared from her bedroom in a holiday resort in Portugal. Madeleine, if she is alive, would be ten years old now, having spent the majority of her decade on earth separated from her family, parents Gerry and Kate McCann, and twin siblings Sean and Amelia.
What happened that night in the Algarve fishing village of Praia de Luz remains a mystery. Was Madeleine abducted while she slept, by a person or persons unknown, as her parents claim? Or, as the former head of the Portuguese investigating team alleges, did she die in apartment 5A of the Ocean Club complex, her body disposed of in an attempt to cover up negligence or worse?
Ongoing investigations by police teams in the United Kingdom and Portugal have failed to answer those questions, or to find evidence sufficiently compelling as to justify prosecutions in either country.
The case continues to be a focus of public, police and political attention as the seventh anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance approaches, and the trial of that same former investigator accused of libel by the McCanns comes to its conclusion in Lisbon on Tuesday. Ex-inspector Goncalo Amaral’s book, The Truth Of The Lie, based on police work before the case was ‘archived’ due to lack of evidence, advances the theory of Madeleine’s death – accidental or intentional - and hypothesises a staged abduction by the parents.
For this he is being sued for over one million euros in damages by the McCanns, who allege that his book derailed the search for their daughter when it was published in 2009. The closing statements and judge’s verdict on the case are due this week in Lisbon.
My interest in this sad story is both personal and professional. In the northern summer of 2005 I took my holidays at the Ocean Club, staying in the apartment directly above 5A where the McCanns resided in May 2007. A friend of my parents owned the apartment, and my extended family rented it and two other units in the complex for two weeks in July that year: my parents in one, my sister and her family in another, myself, my wife and my brother in the apartment above 5a.

Two weeks is enough time to get to know the Ocean Club resort, and the surrounding village of Praia de Luz, quite well. I ate in the Tapas restaurant, drank in Kelly’s bar, went inside the beautiful church at the village centre; I walked on the beach, and the streets leading to it from the Ocean Club. So when the news of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance broke on May 4 2007 it resonated and captured my attention like no other crime story I can remember.
Millions of people all over the world were similarly captivated, but my sense of proximity to the events gave me a specially good reason to follow the case. The fact that Gerry McCann was Glaswegian like me was another point of connection.
From my professional perspective as a media sociologist, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was an early example of the dramatic impact of the rise of the internet and 24-hour news channels on how human tragedies of this kind are reported and understood by the public.
The mediatisation of ‘Maddie’, as she became known to many, was unprecedented. It involved professional public relations practitioners, including former senior UK government specialists, in highly organized media management, or ‘crisis communication’, as one of the agencies involved characterised its services.
It engaged the British public in discussion like no previous case, not because the crime was unique (though it was rare – the most recent case of suspected abduction by a stranger of a British child while on holiday overseas had been that of Ben Needham in 1991), but because the emergence of social media – Twitter launched in 2007, Facebook in 2004 - provided a new and powerful platform for public sharing of information, opinion and argument about an ongoing criminal investigation.
From early in the investigation the McCanns proactively used the internet to issue appeals and information about Madeleine to a global online public, as did the police. Scotland yard’s Operation Grange, set up to investigate the crime in 2011, had its own hashtag and website.
The public used the internet to access, assess and discuss information about the case as it emerged, and to speculate on what had happened to the little girl. Their sources included a mass of official material produced by the police in both Portugal and the UK, digitized and made available online.

There were thousands of pages of transcripts of interviews and court testimony, detailed forensic reports, summaries of findings by investigating officers, court rulings such as that by the Portuguese Attorney General which formally ‘archived’ the Madeleine McCann investigation in 2009, all neatly categorized and searchable on sites such as xxxwww.mcannpjfiles.co.uk.
Never before in the history of the volatile relationship between crime, media and public had so many people had such easy access to so much primary official data relating to an unsolved, still active case.
By 2007 virtually all of the news media were online, operating around the clock with story updates, live feeds and real time coverage of events, commentary threads and links to research materials. The unfolding narrative of Madeleine McCann was covered as it was happening, which meant with glacial slowness, punctuated by bursts of police activity in the UK or Portugal. Seven years on, that remains the case.
There have been peaks and troughs in the level of media and public interest, corresponding to newsworthy developments such as the establishment of Operation Grange and the BBC Crimewatch ‘reconstruction’ of October 2013. The Lisbon libel trial of Goncalo Amaral has been such a catalyst, and its conclusion this week will drive the disappearance of Madeleine McCann back up the UK and Portuguese media and public agendas.
The tone and content of the coverage, and the public’s response to it on social media, will be determined in large part by the Portuguese judge’s verdict. If Amaral is found guilty, the McCanns account of what happened to their daughter will continue to set the news agenda. If it goes the other way, and Amaral is found not guilty of defaming the McCanns in his book, we can expect the world’s media to report his hypothesis and the supporting evidence more thoroughly than has been the case up until now.


http://theconversation.com/the-mediatisation-of-madeleine-mccann-23563

I wrote a comment inside link above:

"you people must understand this: gonçalo amaral had only one purpose: to gain dirty fame and fortune through lies, smears, defamation, unproven or insane theories, amaral was dining in the proximity of Praia da Luz when he received a phonecall about the abduction of Madeleine, but, instead of amaral showing his fat face in the resort, he took the path to his home, without showing any concern for the content of the phonecall, in the next day he woke up and decided to accuse innocents of something they never did, he didn´t even talked with the couple, he didn´even talked with the friends of the couple, his only interest was to know things that were not important to help find the child, instead, everytime amaral received clues that allows to find the child alive, he sent those clues to the garbage, but, only accepted those who were according his own insanity. he wrote books of lies, he even signed autographs like a celebrity, which was his only purpose, he tried once with Sky News to gain a huge amount of money, but Sky News declined his insanity. for amaral what only matters is to feed his lust or greed for easy or dirty fame using the most despicable ways to achieve it, amaral also drove a car drunk during night at high speed whis his minor daughter inside the car, without any concern for her safety, he also tortured in jail a innocent woman called Leonor Cipriano because she refused to bow to his own insanity, amaral also used members of his family to feed his lust for easy fame. this is what amaral truly is, amaral only cares for himself, he doesn´t even care if in the middle of his insanity he hurts innocent people whether are innocent children or their parents. this is the truth about him."

If it goes the other way, and Amaral is found not guilty of defaming the McCanns in his book, we can expect the world’s media to report his hypothesis and the supporting evidence more thoroughly than has been the case up until now.

I think he's wrong there. In the unlikely event of Gonzo winning his case, the UK press will put it down to corruption in the Portuguese justice system.

No-one respectable in the UK is going to touch Gonzo's garbage with a bargepole.

The public used the internet to access, assess and discuss information about the case as it emerged, and to speculate on what had happened to the little girl. Their sources included a mass of official material produced by the police in both Portugal and the UK, digitized and made available online.


He's totally missed an important point - that much of what the public is accessing isn't information, it's deliberate MIS-information.

And the PJ haven't put anything online.

They foolishly released DVDs and its amateur interpretations of those that is online.

more comments of mine inside link above:

"yes, it is true: gonçalo amaral hindered the search for the missing girl by publication of his book "The Truth Of The Lie", because, instead of finding her, he wasted his efforts, time, pursuing what was always his true purpose: to become a celebrity, to gain dirty money using the most disgusting ways to achieve it, at the expenses of innocents. thanks to his corruption, incompetence, lies, despicable behaviour, the golden hour which allowed to find the innocent child, which he also betrayed, was the golden hour lost.

we all know that the first hours or minutes are crucial to solve the cases of abductions, the pj under coordination or crap of amaral wasted too much time pursuing his insane madness or sick fantasies, amaral,also tried to jeopardise the friendly relations between both countries, he also attacked the British police when the police dismissed amaral´s insanity, which was one of the many causes that forced pj to expell amaral. but, amaral didn´t digested that fact, that is why he insisted in his madness following the moment he was sacked. "

"you call amaral a doctor. the only degree he have is the degree of corruption, incompetence, debts, fraud schemes, lies, smears, defamation, threats, torture."

Portuguese justice system: also too much bureaucracy.

the libel trial has only one issue: to stop amaral of spreading, lies, smears, defamation,

to gain dirty fame and fortune at the expenses of innocent parents,

also at the expenses of an innocent child, a child which can still be found alive.

It's a sloppy article, Pedro, written by someone I suspect of forker sympathies.

At NO point does he make it clear that the English version of the PJ files on the internet is not the correct, official version, from professional translators, but the work of amateur translators, all of whom are Gonc sympathisers.

FRUIT OF THE POISONED TREE.

Good to see you, Heri and others commenting - it's only a matter of time before the hatespammers and pro-Gonc trolls arrive on the site, sadly.

bb1, I agree with you.

"It's a sloppy article with forker sympathies.", another reason to expose amaral again.

bb1 wrote:If it goes the other way, and Amaral is found not guilty of defaming the McCanns in his book, we can expect the world’s media to report his hypothesis and the supporting evidence more thoroughly than has been the case up until now.

I think he's wrong there. In the unlikely event of Gonzo winning his case, the UK press will put it down to corruption in the Portuguese justice system.

No-one respectable in the UK is going to touch Gonzo's garbage with a bargepole.

Agree 100% with this post, Bonny.

If and that is a big if it does go in Gonc's favor, then all the true events concerning him, like the golden bullet tape etc, will probably surface in the media. They are sitting on a lot of awful things about him after all.   

Myths have picked up on something:

My interest in this sad story is both personal and professional. In the northern summer of 2005 I took my holidays at the Ocean Club, staying in the apartment directly above 5A where the McCanns resided in May 2007. A friend of my parents owned the apartment, and my extended family rented it and two other units in the complex for two weeks in July that year: my parents in one, my sister and her family in another, myself, my wife and my brother in the apartment above 5a.

So, where did the late Mrs Fenn go that summer, when her flat was taken over by this family?

Congratulations to Pedro and Heri - the McCann-haters and Gonzo supporters have seen your comments, and they're not happy.

It's always a good day when the haters are

Well said, Heri and pedro.

I see Hutton had to get in there coming across as a dim harridan.

R.V. Hutton Author
logged in via Twitter
In reply to Pedro Silva
Goncalo Amaral is a quiet, dignified, old fashioned thief taker, who has never given up on the victim in this case. All eyes should be focused on the libel trial in Lisbon, where the truth is still fighting its corner.


       

Let me sort that.

Amaral is an oafish, lying thief who even stole from his own brother and was convicted for such in a Portuguese civil court. He couldn't give a flying one about any 'victim' except when he's trying to pretend to be one, and all eyes are on the libel trial in Lisbon. Especially media eyes, because when he loses the UK media will be printing all the dirt they have on Gonzo.

Does his fan club imagine the tabloids don't know all about Gonzo, and his boozing, defrauding, girlfriends, threats, etc? Can't wait to see the Golden Bullets tape on the front of the Sunday Express.   

She has projected onto Gonc all the traits she dreams of in a man? So he is this wonderful larger than life fictional hero who will save her from the dark side.

That dope she is doing must be mind bending her brain like there is no tomorrow.   

It's scary how easy it is to fool a certain section of the population with propaganda, isn't it?

The Gonzo fans always remind me of the kind of deluded women that wrote love letters to Hitler, incapable of seeing him for what he was.

It is, Bonny. It's as though these women think they can love the evil out of these men who in turn will love them so much more for doing so.

Or something.....  

lily wrote:It is, Bonny.  It's as though these women think they can love the evil out of these men who in turn will love them so much more for doing so.  

Or something.....  

It's just the lure of touching 'greatness', and delusions. LL

Thanks for the explanation LL.   

ETA: What's great about Gonzo?     

lily wrote:Thanks for the explanation LL.   

ETA:  What's great about Gonzo?      

Nothing but he is in the public eye, as is bennett and other morons.   Women send love letters to Robert Mugabe,    they sent them to Gadaffi,  Stalin, Mubarak, and at present to Bashir al-Assad of Syria.  They send them to Manson, Bamber - it's the fame connection.  LL

They must be desperate to send letters to those types, LL.   

lily wrote:They must be desperate to send letters to those types, LL.    

I think one can lay it at the feet of the media today, of those 'reality' programs on TV, of the adulation and adoration Joe and Joan Public heap on actors, singers, sportsmen and women.  You live in the USA you know what I mean.   It's not quite as frenetic in the UK or Europe,   People send letters of adoration to fatty spoonbanger in N Korea.  LL

Re: Sunday Express - Burglary files to aid hunt for Madeleine McCann
Post Cristobell Today at 5:51 pm

We have all seen enough movies to know that when someone is 'Wanted' there is literally no place to hide blah blah blah blah blah

But fortunately, the majority of us are able to tell the difference between real-life and fiction, a quality sadly lacking in the armchair defectives.