What role do the media play in La Haine?

What role do the media play in La Haine?

La Haine’s representation of the media in La Haine is a very negative one; they act as an institution as an extension of the state and their agenda. This is best demonstrated in a scene early on in the first part of the film, as a news van pulls up above La Haine’s trio of characters as they talk arbitrarily and time passes. The opening tracking shot towards them positions them in their roles in the plot as well as in their friendship group. Said is the mediator between Hubert and Vinz and positioned so here in this shot. There is a quick flash transition at the beginning of this scene, emphasising the passage of time when there is little for the trio to do in the projects.

The news van is framed from a low angle, immediately connoting their dominance over the characters below. The media here is keeping their distance, apathetic to the people lower than them, literally. It’s an ‘us and them’ philosophy made spatially on the screen, with fences between the two parties separating them. Even as they are spoken to by the female news reporter, the cameraman alongside her is filming their every action, lending her words more hostility and invasiveness than if she were alone. They are constantly being manipulated here, as they are helpless to being filmed from above; a place of safety for the news van.

The next shot is an unusual one, unusual because it is a low angle shot again.