Aftermath of Murder: Survivor Stories aims to renegotiate the territory between media and murder
By Dharra Budicha
Photos by SFU PAMR
SFU alumnus Brent Stafford hopes his engaging multi-video series will raise public awareness of the relatively untold stories of homicide survivors. Stafford, a master’s graduate of SFU’s School of Communication and CEO of Shaky Egg Communications, his communication consultancy firm, recently produced Aftermath of Murder: Survivor Stories, an initiative of the BC Victims Homicide (BCVOH) group for Canada’s National Victims of Crime Awareness Week, which ran April 21-27.
A series of exclusive interviews with homicide survivors and members of the support and justice community, Aftermath of Murder: Survivor Stories aimed to “go behind the headlines as survivors share their stories about the loss, grief, trauma and hope for healing in the aftermath of murder.” Between 2007 and 2011, Stats Canada estimates that 493 homicides in BC directly impacted the lives of 60,000 people.
Participants in the series include SFU criminologist Brenda Morrison, speaking on the importance of restorative justice in helping heal homicide survivors, and SFU criminology master’s student Cristina Pastia, who lost her parents four years ago to murder in Romania.
After experiencing considerable outreach for survivors, what compelled these participants to take part in this series was the desire to share their experiences as “part of their healing,” Stafford explained.
“It was surprising how open they were about their journey through trauma. Some felt that healing was unachievable, and they were quite frank about it . . . [but now] they feel the project as a whole has renewed their faith.”
All five of the homicide survivors interviewed speak on how the media influenced and continues to influence them in their processes of healing.
The series, which can be viewed in its entirety online, is “a way to get back,” said Stafford. A 25-year veteran television news producer, Stafford highlights that the media plays a significant role in not only the portrayal of murder crimes, but also the ways in which homicide survivors deal with the trauma of losing a loved one.
“I’m very well aware of how the media profits from murder coverage . . . and tends to focus on the murder event and grizzly details and court trials and offenders,” he continued. “Rarely do we get a picture of the survivors.”
“The media is a double edge sword”, Stafford adds. “If you have a murder, the media can often have a very positive role in terms of the investigation and finding the killer. On the other side, the media’s voracious appetite for details of the murder can cause a significant amount of trauma for survivors.”
Aftermath of Murder: Survivor Stories is an attempt to help survivors regain control of such situations. Under conventional procedures, Stafford says, the media will often go to third party members to get some kind of reaction to a murder if the family chooses not to provide a representative to speak to the media. “It’s critically important that victim survivors drive the bus when it comes to the media,” Stafford added.
Stafford said the main challenge in producing the series was “negotiating the different news values . . . because the audience is different and the goals and strategies are different as well.” With media partners such as The Province, balancing values for high levels of viewership, yet staying true to the series’ purpose, proved possible.
“The school of communication is a dialectic school”, he concluded. “It focuses on language and the power of language as a communication tool more than a definition. Working alongside dialectical critical thinking . . . and negotiating the need to attract viewership, we specifically
built the program to provide stories that mainstream media doesn’t provide.”
