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- Oct 2021
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www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
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an American woman studying abroad involved in some kind of sensational crime and she ends up in jail—and fictionalize everything around it.” But that story, my story, is not about an American woman studying abroad “involved in some kind of sensational crime.” It’s about an American woman not involved in a sensational crime, and yet wrongfully convicted of committing that crime.
Both the untrue aspect of Knox being somehow involved in the murder and the true aspect of her being wrongly convicted of the murder are "sensational." We live in a world where, as consumers, we are drawn to the most sensational content and then rewarded for our interest in it. Whether it is true or not, we seem to be endlessly fascinated by sensational material. Algorithmic formulas even reward us for that fascination as more engagement leads to further exposure. The privacy and respect of the actual person at the core of the sensationalism is sacrificed.
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