Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Case Study: The Paul Klein Incident

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Policing, Mental Illness and Media

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture ((PSCMC))

  • 564 Accesses

Abstract

Expanding on the theoretical concerns and practice-based challenges outlined in the previous sections of the book, this chapter focuses on the fatal police-involved shooting of a mentally ill man on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, in May 1998. The chapter includes an in-depth framing analysis of the news media coverage of the incident, primarily in print and online immediately following the fatal shooting and during the coronial inquest into Paul Klein’s death. The personal and professional reflections of a number of the individuals involved in and impacted by the incident also feature. While the case study is, in many aspects, representative of the examples selected for analysis in the Australian context and as part of the broader study, it lends itself as unique in that—not unlike the death of Roni Levi on Bondi Beach the year before—the Paul Klein incident was extensively and graphically recorded by media professionals, who were present at the scene of the shooting. In this way, the Paul Klein incident offers an interesting counterpoint to the contemporary media ecosystem wherein professional journalists are frequently trumped in their coverage of such news stories by the visuals captured by ordinary bystanders and citizen journalists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • A Current Affair. (1999, September 30). [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Channel Nine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agnew-Ryan, D. (1998, June 2). Blood-stained body ‘blasted across page’. [Letter to the Editor]. Illawarra Mercury, p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allan, S. (2013). Citizen witnessing. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amherst Community Television. (2010, March 30). CSSC encounters: Barbie Zelizer [Vodcast]. Amherst, MA: Amherst Community Television. Streamed online April 29, 2010, from http://204.213.244.104/Cablecast/Public/Show.aspx?ChannelID=1&ShowID=5589.

  • Barak, G. (1994). Between the waves: Mass mediated themes of crime and justice. Social Justice, 21(3), 133–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R. (1982). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography. New York: Hill & Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (1980). On looking. New York: First Vintage International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biber, K. (2019). In crime’s archive: The cultural afterlife of evidence. Abingdon, Oxon and New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blood, W., & Holland, K. (2004). Risky news, madness and public crisis: A case study of the reporting and portrayal of mental health and illness in the Australian press. Journalism, 5(3), 323–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. E. (1987). News photographs and the pornography of grief. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 2(2), 75–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgin, V. (1982). Thinking photography. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (2009). Frames of war: When is life grievable? London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, D. (2014, July 27). At front lines, bearing witness in real time. The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/business/media/at-front-lines-bearing-witness-in-real-time.html?_r=0.

  • Carty, L. (1998a, May 28). THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Victim’s mother cries out for neighbour’s help: ‘It’s Paul, he’s got a knife’. Illawarra Mercury, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, L. (1998b, May 28). THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Serenity shattered. Illawarra Mercury, p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, L. (1998c, May 30). Gun death family’s grief: Shooting victim ‘gentle and loving’. Illawarra Mercury, p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, L. (1998d, June 4). Berkeley tragedy aftermath: Priest attacks police shooting. Illawarra Mercury, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chermak, S. M., & Weiss, A. (2005). Maintaining legitimacy using external communication strategies: An analysis of police-media relations. Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(5), 501–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ‘Citizen Cullen’. (1998, September 3). Australian Story [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved April 7, 2011, from http://www.abc.net.au/austory/series3/9830.htm.

  • Clifford, K., & White, R. (2017). Media and crime: Content, context and consequence. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clifford, K., & White, R. (2020). Mediated representations of prisoner experience and public empathy. In M. Harmes, M. Harmes, & B. Harmes (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of incarceration in popular culture (pp. 265–287). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, R. (2010). Framing the pictures in our heads: Exploring the framing and agenda-setting effects of visual images. In P. D’Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis: Empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 233–261). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services. (1998). Final report of the mental health crisis intervention ad hoc advisory group: An examination of mental health crisis intervention practices and policies regarding the fatal use of firearms by police against people with mental illness [Whiteford Report]. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, E. (1999a, September 22). Fatal two minutes for an angry man. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, E. (1999b, September 25). Stopping someone dead. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, E. (1999c, December 21). Police should be tried for murder: Lawyer. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘COUNTDOWN TO TRAGEDY: The night terror came to a ‘perfect’ Berkeley street’. (1998, May 28). Illawarra Mercury, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cullen, P. (1998, May 30). When police shoot to kill… They’re damned if they do—And dead if they don’t. Illawarra Mercury, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, V. (1998). Police shootings 1990–1997. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 89. Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennis, J. (1999, September 24). Klein’s death took toll on family, police: Witnesses traumatised by violent images, inquest told. Illawarra Mercury, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, R. (1998, May 30). Capsicum spray still a hot issue. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, J., & boyd, d. (2021). Stop the presses? Moving from strategic silence to strategic amplification in a networked media ecosystem. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 333–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunreath-Cooper, A. (1998, June 6). Why must police shoot to kill? [Letter to the Editor]. Illawarra Mercury, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, T. (2014, July 26). ‘Reality of war’ laid bare in publication of graphic images of MH17, Gaza dead. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from https://www.smh.com.au/world/reality-of-war-laid-bare-in-publication-of-graphic-images-of-mh17-gaza-dead-20140725-zwow4.html.

  • Ericson, R. V. (1995). The news media and account ability in criminal justice. In P. C. Stenning (Ed.), Accountability for criminal justice (pp. 135–161). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Everymind. (2020). Communicating about a person with mental ill-health [Webpage]. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://mindframe.org.au/mental-health/communicating-about-mental-ill-health/mindframe-guidelines/communicating-about-a-persona-with-mental-ill-health.

  • Godlasky, A. (2020, January 22). What could trauma-informed journalism look like? NiemanReports. Cambridge, MA: Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://niemanreports.org/articles/what-could-trauma-informed-journalism-look-like/.

  • Gutsche, R. E., & Salkin, E. R. (2013). ‘It’s better than blaming a dead young man’: Creating mythical archetypes in local coverage of the Mississippi River drownings. Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism, 14(1), 61–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1981). The determination of news photographs. In S. Cohen & J. Young (Eds.), The manufacture of news: Social problems, deviance and the mass media (Revised ed.) (pp. 226–243). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hight, J., & Smyth, F. (2004). Tragedies & journalists: A guide for more effective coverage. Seattle, WA: Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschfield, P. J., & Simon, D. (2010). Legitimating police violence: Newspaper narratives of deadly force. Theoretical Criminology, 14(2), 155–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inquest into the Death of Paul Simon Klein. (1999, December 21). NSW State Coroner’s Court, Wollongong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. (1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, T. (1998, May 28). The quiet man who lost control. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, T., Kennedy, L., & Murphy, D. (1998, May 28). Officers had ‘no option but to shoot’. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawamoto, K. (2005). Best practices in trauma reporting: Ideas and insights from award-winning newspaper articles. Seattle, WA: Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keeble, T. (1998, May 27). SHOT DEAD: Police gun down Berkeley man. Illawarra Mercury, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kesic, D., Ducat, L. V., & Thomas, S. D. M. (2011). Using force: Australian newspaper depictions of contacts between the police and persons experiencing mental illness. Australian Psychologist, 47(4), 213–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitzinger, J., & Reilly, J. (1997). The rise and fall of risk reporting: Media coverage of human genetics research, ‘false memory syndrome’ and mad cow disease. European Journal of Communication, 12(3), 319–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, R. G. (2000). The politics of force: Media and the construction of police brutality. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardon, C. (1999a, September 18). Why did our son have to die? Parents want some answers from coroner, Berkeley shooting aftermath. Illawarra Mercury, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardon, C. (1999b, September 18). The death of ‘post’, a gentle giant: Family hopes inquiry will reveal the truth. Illawarra Mercury, p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardon, C. (1999c, September 18). The death of ‘post’, a gentle giant: Pretty slick for a big fellow. Illawarra Mercury, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardon, C. (1999d, September 18). The death of ‘post’, a gentle giant: Police ‘got it wrong’. Illawarra Mercury, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, J. (2001). Blue army: Paramilitary policing in Australia. Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MEAA. (2020). MEAA journalist code of ethics [Webpage]. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/.

  • Messaris, P., & Abraham, L. (2003). The role of images in framing news stories. In S. D. Reese, O. H. Gandy, & A. E. Grant (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (pp. 215–226). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, R. (2018). Becoming the news: How ordinary people respond to the media spotlight. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, A. (1998, July 4). Police are just doing their job [Letter to the Editor]. Illawarra Mercury, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (1998, June 2). Close-up picture an appalling ad for violence [Letter to the Editor]. Illawarra Mercury, p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirkis, J., Blood, R. W., Dare, A., & Holland, K. (2008). The media monitoring project changes in media reporting of suicide and mental health and illness in Australia: 2000/01–2006/07. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posetti, J. (2014, July 29). Is social media to blame for the increasingly graphic images in our newspapers? World News Publishing Focus [Blog post]. Paris: WAN-IFRA. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from https://blog.wan-ifra.org/2014/07/29/is-social-media-to-blame-for-the-increasingly-graphic-images-in-our-newspapers.

  • Rossall, P. (2011). News media representations of homelessness: Do economic news production pressures prevent journalists from adequately reporting complex social issues. eJournalist, 11(2), 95–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Laws, A. L., & Utne, T. (2019, April 24). Ethics guidelines for immersive journalism. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 6(28). https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00028.

  • Schwalbe, C. B. (2006). Remembering our shared past: Visually framing the Iraq war on U.S. news websites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(1), 264–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semetko, H. A., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2000). Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news. Journal of Communication, 50(2), 93–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sieff, E. (2003). Media frames of mental illnesses: The potential impact of negative frames. Journal of Mental Health, 12(3), 259–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tagg, J. (1988). The burden of representation: Essays on photographies and histories. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Education.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ‘THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Cops are ‘gung-ho’’. (1998, May 28). Illawarra Mercury, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Family pleads for full inquiry’. (1998, May 28). Illawarra Mercury, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Minister defends police shooting’. (1998, May 28). Illawarra Mercury, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘THE NIGHT TERROR CAME TO YORK ST: Police had to shoot to kill: Union’. (1998, May 28). Illawarra Mercury, p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2013). The strategic ritual of emotionality: A case study of Pulitzer-prize winning articles. Journalism, 14(1), 129–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1919). Politics as a vocation. In D. Owen & T. B. Strong (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of digital journalism (pp. 32–94). Trans. by R. Livingstone. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wischmann, L. (1987). Dying on the front page: Kent state and the Pulitzer Prize. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 2(2), 67–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, B. (2002). Photography, journalism and trauma. In B. Zelizer & S. Allan (Eds.), Journalism after september 11 (pp. 48–68). London and New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, B. (2005). Journalism through the camera’s eye. In S. Allan (Ed.), Journalism: Critical issues (pp. 167–176). Berkshire: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, B. (2010). About to die: How news images move the public. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, B. (2017). What journalism could be. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communication & Creative Arts, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Katrina Clifford

Authors
  1. Katrina Clifford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katrina Clifford .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Clifford, K. (2021). Case Study: The Paul Klein Incident. In: Policing, Mental Illness and Media. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61490-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61490-4_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-61489-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-61490-4

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation