Flooding the Zone, Challenging State Secrecy: Newsmaking Criminology in Pandemic Times
Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times
ISBN: 978-1-80382-280-8, eISBN: 978-1-80382-279-2
Publication date: 6 April 2023
Abstract
Purpose – During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian jurisdictions have varied in terms of their reporting of COVID-19 cases among prisoners and prison staff. Engaging with literatures on the policing of criminological knowledge and prison opacity, this chapter examines how multiple approaches to newsmaking criminology including blog posts, op-ed writing, report publishing, and expert commentary can challenge state secrecy in ways that help generate proactive disclosure of additional information about the impact and management of the coronavirus behind prison walls.
Methodology/Approach – The authors explore how “flooding the zone” of public debates on pandemic management with the limited, incomplete data made available by authorities works as a knowledge mobilization and research strategy.
Findings – The analysis in this study reveals how a newsmaking criminology approach can help researchers access previously unpublished information from Canadian prison authorities that is crucial to understanding prison policy, practice, and outcomes related to COVID-19.
Originality/Value – This chapter highlights the value of newsmaking criminology as a means of communicating and mobilizing criminological knowledge, as well as generating data in the service of emancipatory research and advocacy.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
A longer version of this chapter was originally published in French under the title “Inonder l’espace médiatique, contester le manque de transparence de l’État: L’importance de la criminologie de l’actualité en temps de pandémie” in Volume 55, number 2 of Criminologie. We thank the reviewers for their comments that strengthened our original paper and the editor of this collection for comments that improved this version. This research was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Engage Grant (1008-2020-0238).
Citation
Piché, J. and Walby, K. (2023), "Flooding the Zone, Challenging State Secrecy: Newsmaking Criminology in Pandemic Times", Deflem, M. (Ed.) Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 28), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-613620230000028008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 Justin Piché and Kevin Walby