"Pack of Thieves?": The Visual Representation of Prisoners and Convicts in Dark Tourist Sites

Port Arthur, a heritage convict site in Tasmania Australia, sells a deck of cards and an accompanying book entitled "Pack of Thieves? 52 Port Arthur Lives." This paper explores how dark tourist sites use visual representations and individual stories of prisoners to engage, and ultimately educate, the visiting tourist. A number of Australian dark tourist sites including, Port Arthur; Richmond Gaol; Hobart Penitentiary; Hyde Park Barracks; The Old Melbourne Gaol; and Old Dubbo Gaol, are examined to highlight how different sites represent, and in essence "sell," preselected prisoners and their stories of incarceration. The paper also explores how visual representations of prisoners and convicts can sell merchandise. However, the desire to capture the convict or prisoner image to sell merchandise has now extended beyond the gift shop and beyond dark tourist activities. This chapter explores the impact of these actions through analyzing what happens when these organizations, which are presenting particular information to consumers that provide selective vantage points, can often sensationalize the reality of incarceration

War Narratives: Framing Our Understanding of the War on Terror

Unlike past American wars, the current war on terror has not been associated with a centrally proffered narrative providing some guidance and orientation for those administering government services under state-of-war conditions. War is as much a cultural endeavor as it is a military undertaking, and the absence of a clear sensemaking narrative was detected in this study of public administrators from three agencies with varying proximity to the conflict. Q-methodology was used to explore the way individuals processed the war narratives put forth by the Bush administration and reported in the media immediately following the September 11 attacks. Though no distinct state-of-war narratives were found among the public administrators in this study, there are clear indications that latent narratives reflecting local political and organizational task environments have emerged