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Hybrid history and the retrial of the painful past

Australian National University, Australia

If ‘the primary impetus’ of reality television is to entertain (Holmes and Jermyn, 2004: 2), what ethical implications flow from its inherently hybrid aesthetics? This article addresses this question by examining the 2002 televised ‘retrial’ of Louis Riel, a man executed by the Canadian government in 1885. The retrial's producers encouraged viewers to vote (through a website) on the merits of Riel's conviction ‘according to the laws of Canada today’. As an aesthetic form that diverted and informed the audience, the programme was a test of ‘post-documentary's’ ethical dimensions. In this case it was not hybridity of form and intent that undermined the programme's potential to effect corrective justice; rather the deliberate insertion of false information about the death penalty's application misrepresented the criminal justice past and present.

Key Words: aesthetics • capital punishment • ethics • reality television • re-enactment

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Strange, C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?