Check out Mars and I and out Library Scavenger Hunt! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PySwE8Ke3WkGP_bavmGJOSTcrLA3gsmo2Q3gNh_veDQ/edit#slide=id.p
What complex issue/tension/idea might you explore for your Final Research Project?
The following big-picture topics and clusters are most interesting to me!
Tech and trolls, memes, and internet culture -- I like Jia Tolentino’s articles about Presentation of Self and Internet because they are very sociological and I think looking at these issues from that point of view is very interesting and necessary.
Tech and Gender and Social Norms -- I like the tyranny of the ideal woman article because it reminds me of the commercial culture from my hometown Walnut Creek.
Tech and Misinformation/Conspiracy--I think that conspiracy theories are often outrageous, a little funny at times, and very common and I want to understand how they develop and spiral out of control.
Tech and Society-- I haven’t really explored this one yet and I’m interested in the article about youth having less sex.
The combination of clusters that I would be interested in is technology + internet culture and tech + race/social justice.
The issue I would be interested in exploring is true crime and internet culture and its intersection with inequality in media representation.
How is internet culture both problematic and potentially helpful in true crime cases? How is the recent viral case of Gabby Petito an example of this? How does this true-crime culture infiltrate into other forms of social media behavior? How does this reflect inequities in who is the center of true crime (Missing White Woman Syndrome)?
Conceptual Key Words
True crime and internet culture
True crime and missing white woman
Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome NPR
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile and victim’s perspectives
Social media and true crime
True crime documentaries and desensitization
True crime and grieving
Internet culture and stalking
Gabby Petito and Internet culture
Missing Black transwomen
Missing Indigenous people
Missing people and media representation
Maura Murray and grieving
Missing people and news coverage bias
Three articles for the final project
Jensen, Bill. “Will the Internet Find Maura Murray?” Boston Magazine, vol. 52, no. 2, Boston
Magazine, 2014, p. 76–.
This article is about Maura Murray, a female nursing student who went missing in 2004--and many years later--her unsolved case is noted as a start of True Crime culture on the internet. The author, Bill Jensen, documents the amateur online detectives who attempt to solve this case through stalking, intense analytics, and harsh messages to the family. This could advance my project because I want to learn how Maura Murray became the case that kind of sparked true crime internet culture--why her? Was it her demographics? How does her situation relate to Gabby Petito’s?
The author approaches this topic as intensely detailed as he guides us through the scene of the crime and Maura’s actions beforehand as if he were a true crime fanatic. He has quotes from family members, making it a strong piece to talk about how families of missing people feel about true crime fanatics and how this affects their grieving. It differs from other articles because it tries to be quite objective and relies more on the family’s opinions rather than the author’s.
Franks, Rachel. “True Crime: The Regular Reinvention of a Genre.” Journal of Asia-Pacific
Pop Culture, vol. 1, no. 2, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016, pp. 239–54,
doi:10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.1.2.0239.
This article is about how true crime has developed to become such a huge part of popular culture and how it involves the public imagination. It describes the shifts of true crime across formats over time and how the genre reinvents itself through social changes. I think that this would advance my project because it will give me a background of the history of true crime and how it rose to the level it is at now in the internet. I could use a general background of it and I think this article will be helpful.
The author approaches this topic through different sections in the article--starting all the way back in the 1600s. I think it is much different than other articles in that is more scholarly and historical and less based on internet culture. I want to learn more about what true crime was before the internet so that I can understand how the internet changed the genre and what the effects of that are.
Stoneman, Ethan, and Joseph Packer. “Reel Cruelty: Voyeurism and Extra-Juridical Punishment
in True-Crime Documentaries.” Crime, Media, Culture, 2020, p. 174165902095359–, doi:10.1177/1741659020953596.
This article is about if the “civic and pedagogical functions” of true crime documentaries are necessary and beneficial enough to outweigh their downsides and potential harm. The article talks about the ethics of deriving pleasure from such documentaries and how these documentaries can also cause trauma. I think this will further my understanding and my project by allowing me to focus on the ethics of how technology and true crime can be problematic as well as beneficial. I also hope to learn about true crime documentaries--which are arguably invasive--just like internet crime sleuths.
The author approaches the topic by focusing on and analyzing three recent true-crime documentaries. The author talks about how these documentaries can create pleasure and entertainment--but also can be an injustice in their effects. The perspective differs because it talks about the benefits of true crime not in the way that random people can help solve cases--but as how true crime can be entertaining for them.
Books
I apologize but I could not find bibliographies for all of the books because not all of them were available online.
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