The scene with Pam Hobbs (Steve Branch’s mother) being interviewed by the news crew is often misinterpreted. IIRC, she had a nervous breakdown after her son’s death (Steve Branch) and had recently been released from a hospital. Your professor didn’t mention this?
From Joe Berlinger (one of the directors of Paradise Lost):
http://industrycentral.net/director_interviews/JOBE01.HTM
“That one scene where Pam Hobbs, the mother in the red dress says “I’m on TV!” when she’s interviewed by the local newscaster — that’s actually a very misunderstood scene. That scene was not so much about her wanting to be on TV as it was about the insensitivity of the media. Here was a woman who is obviously losing it, who is grieving, who has had a nervous breakdown. She is so clearly unbalanced, she’s just falling out of her dress and losing her mind. We were so amazed that the media was preying on her like vultures, and to us that’s what the scene is about. Most people think we were making a statement about how hard and cold the mother must be to be getting off on the fact she’s on TV, but to me it’s about how cold and calculating the local media was, because the local media played an awful role in this case.”