The Lindy Chamberlain Case By Celeste Tsatsalmas

Background Information On the night of the 17th of August 1980, a nine week old baby Azaria Chamberlain was snatched by a dingo from her families camp sight in Uluru. The dingo was said to go into the tent and steal the baby, which apparently resulted in the death of Azaria even though no body was ever found. Her mother Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton was tried for murder and was imprisoned for three years. Lindy was released after a piece of clothing was found near a dingo lair and her case was reopened. Only recently in 2012 the Chamberlains chain of events was officially confirmed that a dingo did steal the baby. The media played a significant role in this event as it first supported the Chamberlains case and doubted the police investigation. The media took a turn when Lindy was charged and it turned into a very intense and sensational topic.

Newspaper Headlines: Source 1 The media has portrayed Lindy as guilty through the use of these headlines. They suggests that she killed her baby and tried to “plant” the babies jumpsuit in order to prove her innocence. This headline takes a biased approach to the issue from the beginning as it makes assumptions and twisted the readers views into believing she is guilty. Headlines are used very persuasively in this instance, as headlines generally engage the reader from the first moment. These headlines have positioned readers to believe that Lindy was guilty and the timing of these headlines lines did add to the readers perspective as Lindy was jailed at this time.

YouTube Clip: Source 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhAepaZX4BY This is a news report from 1986, which is 6 years after Azaria Chamberlains disappearance. The news report favours Lindy as is justifies her release quite significantly. The news report uses the persuasive technique of including expert opinions from Marshall Perron the Northern Territory Attorney General and Professor Vernon Pluekahan, a forensic scientist . These experts opinions situate readers so it is harder to argue against the favouring side of the issue, in this case is Lindy’s innocence. Also, the news report uses evidence to support their believes of her innocence and once again makes it hard for viewers to have differing opinions. The persuasive technique repetition is used frequently through out the clip by repeating the words free, released and evidence. All three words reiterate the news clips purpose of justifying Lindy’s innocence and it also empathises the fact that she is free. The tone of the news report is quite uplifting and positive which adds to the intention of making Lindy’s freedom a positive outcome.

Newspaper Article: Source 3 The third source and most current source is a newspaper article from the Herald Sun published on the 13th of June, 2012. which explains the finale verdict on the Chamberlain case. From the very beginning the sub heading of the article uses he persuasive techniques of description and emotive language. The techniques used convey to readers how dramatic and traumatising the issue is by using words and phrases such as “carried to her death” and “cried out”. The article also makes readers pity Lindy and her case by mentioning the shame they had to face from people making a mockery of them with dingo souvenirs. The article has evidential statements from Azaria’s death certificate which places to completely believe that Azaria’s death was by a dingo and Lindy is innocent Furthermore the article includes facts of other dingo attacks over past years which added to the articles intentions. At the bottom of the article their were comments left by readers, that were all in favour of the articles opinion on the case and felt “sorry” for all the trouble Lindy went through.