"Losing Matt Shepard"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes Beth Loffreda's book, "Losing Matt Shepard". The paper discusses the media's role in the prejudiced feelings toward Matt Shepard, a gay student, following his murder. It then discusses how people across America responded to his murder and how the media's publicity of the murder contributed to this response. The paper briefly discusses gay rights at the time of the incident, in 1988 in the United States.

From the Paper:

"Uncovers how the residents of Laramie responded when Matt Shepard, a young gay student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally beaten and left to die by the side of the road in the fall of 1988. Loffreda's project investigates the media's manipulative role in publicizing the murder and how intense scrutiny transforms a usually quaint, subdued community into a hate crime capital. Eschewing the stereotypes and platitudes fed us by the media, Beth Loffreda interviews a wide range of the so-called ordinary people in Laramie and uncovers a wide array of complexities and prejudices."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Loffreda, Beth. Losing Matt Shepard. Columbia University Press. 2000, 15, October

More papers on "Losing Matt Shepard":

• Book Review # 95922 : "Losing Matthew Shepard"--A Review"
• Comparison Essay # 112383 : "Playwrights Sam Shepard and Amy Freed"
• Descriptive Essay # 146222 : "Good Shepard Medical Center - An Overview"

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