Hypodermic Needle Theory

Making A
Murderer

Introduction
Making A Murderer is a documentary web
series that was exclusively streamed on Netflix
in 2015. It follows the story of Steven Avery who
was arrested in 2005 in connection with the
murder of Teresa Halbach and was convicted in
2007. He had previously served 18 years in
prison for the sexual assault and attempted
murder of Penny Beernsten before being cleared
of the charges in 2003. The documentary
features actuality footage and pictures from the
trial, conducted police interviews, evidence,
news reports and personal interviews. It also
covers the trial of Stevens nephew, Brendan

Premise
The documentary strongly favours Steven
Averys position of innocence in relation to the
charge of murder. It begins with the injustice
towards Steven at the fault of the Manitowoc
Police Department in the original conviction and
the subsequent conflict of interest with the
county police investigating the murder of
Halbach. This sets the tone in the documentary
that there was distrust between the Avery family
and the Manitowoc Police Department following
his previous imprisonment.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

This is a theory that a media text has an
intended idea that will be injected into the
passive audience, where it will either be
accepted or rejected.

The Implied Ideology

The documentarians have stated in an interview with
Rolling Stones that their intended idea behind the
documentary was to test the justice system and to
see if it had improved in the 20 years since Stevens
original conviction. They go on to say that they had
requested the involvement of Ken Kratz and Halbachs
family to maintain diversity but ultimately they both
declined. As a result, the documentary could only
make use of the people who were willing to
participate, which were those favourable towards
Steven. This made it a perceptually biased piece of
work that could easily persuade the audience that
Steven was innocent.

Outcomes
As a result of watching the show the audience can be expected to
fall under one of three outcomes.

For
Indifferent
Against

For They accept the shows

implied ideology that Steven is
innocent and should not be in
prison.
Indifferent They cant make a
decision whether they believe he
is guilty or not which could be
the result of conflicted evidence.
Against They reject the shows
implied ideology that Steven is
innocent and believe he was
correctly sentenced.

Outcomes
For
The audience that is supportive of Steven Avery believe
that following the false sexual assault and attempted
murder conviction that pieces of evidence and testimony
was corrupt. A clear indication of this is the involvement of
police officers from the original conviction that were part of
the $36 million lawsuit. Another indication is the recorded
interview of Brendan Dassey where it is quite obvious that
Brendan is being coerced by the police to give a confession
without any adult or legal representation. This is highly
significant as Brendan a low IQ with learning difficulties and
his confession played a large part in the prosecutions case.
Questions also arise with some of the evidence including
the blood vial, key and the bullet.

Outcomes
Indifferent
The indifferent audience essentially remains
uncertain with their overall opinion towards
Stevens innocence or guilt. There is some sort of
conflicted evidence that is preventing them from
making a clear solid decision. They acknowledge
that some of the evidence is questionable but
there is the underlying belief that the justice
system works.

Outcomes
Against
The audience that are unsupportive of Steven
Avery believe that evidence presented is
correct, untampered and unplanted. They
accept that he was guilty and the prosecutions
case was valid. They do not believe that
Brendan Dassey was coerced to make a false
confession and accept what he said as truth.
They are able to identify problems within the
documentary such as its biased nature, missing
key evidence and wrongful importance on the
issue of the blood vial.

Fan Culture
The series became immensely popular following
its release and became a widely discussed topic
amongst the general public with many TV and
radio shows hosting experts who gave their
opinion on the documentary. Those in support of
Avery went to change.org and signed a petition
to the white house. Over 500,000 signatures
requested President Obama pardon Avery.
However in response, President Obama stated
that he had authority to act in a state case.