Namely, while the popular Ramsey case narratives often focus on a sexualized child growing up in a corrupt family system, the vidders tend to explicitly reject this interpretation, centering their narratives on an inherently innocent child figure who is thriving in a healthy and loving environment. Although I do not deny that a remix may serve this purpose, I point out that a relationship between a remix, its source materials as well as the mainstream culture may be much more complicated.ĤEven though the authors of JonBenét remixes use a new media platform and tools to challenge the narratives promoted by mainstream media, their actual goal is a simultaneous sustaining rather than subverting of the preferred cultural narratives of a childhood ideal.
For this reason, a remix has attracted a considerable amount of attention of researchers involved with feminist studies, queer studies or broadly understood social justice. New media researchers often view an online remix as a polemical device challenging narratives and values propagated in the mainstream media and mainstream culture. First and foremost-considering its digital character-I attempt to present my material in light of the long-established as well as the newest studies of fandom and remix. Ironically then, as I try to reveal, the academic observations regarding the mainstream media narratives often apply to their remix “counter-narratives” as well, lending credence to the larger claim that contradictory media representations of children and childhood are an epitome of a far-reaching, cultural problem.ģMy material and selected methods place my research at an intersection of new media studies, childhood studies, as well as studies on death and memorialization. By placing my findings in the context of research conducted by scholars interested in the mainstream media portrayals of the Ramsey case, I also attempt to show that the outcome of this online activism does not correspond fully with the intent, as the videos in question are quite often riddled with contradictions, coming close to complicity with the narratives which their authors try to subvert. I briefly analyze not only the videos’ content but also focus on various community strategies and efforts which facilitate video creation in the first place. Over the years, JonBenét’s pageant-style images-showing her wearing heavy make-up and costumes deemed inappropriate for a child-have been continuously used for commercial purposes, attracting the audience with a promise of scandal and mystery.ĢIn this article, I take a look at an Internet community which-through the means of YouTube remixes-attempts to challenge the sensational narratives popularized in the mainstream media in order to rehabilitate the Ramsey family and recontextualize JonBenét herself. Writing for the Newsweek’s special edition, JonBenét: Twenty Years Later, Jeremy Brown aptly observes that, “ther high-profile murder cases, such as Caylee Anthony and Laci Peterson, have come and gone, but 20 years after her death, JonBenét’s murder still haunts the nation.” The case’s notoriety has often been attributed to its sensational media coverage which accentuated the girl’s participation in controversial child beauty pageants as well as the family’s speculated involvement in her death.
THE JONBENET LYRICS TV
To this date, her still-unsolved killing has inspired numerous articles, books, documentaries, and TV movies. Throughout more than two decades which followed her murder, this previously unknown six-year-old has been referred to as-among others-“America’s most famous little girl” (Oates, “JonBenét Ramsey”) and even “the most famous murdered child in history” (Mills and Tracey).
1On Decema little girl named JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her upscale home.
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