Library Exercises 4-6

Exercise 4: Prospective brainstorming

Historical Lens:

• I found a piece analyzing the history of True Crime as a genre, so I could look at how the public dealt with and reacted to true crime events before the internet. Did ordinary people attempt to figure out and investigate the true crimes of strangers? How were ordinary people notified of these crimes? How did the internet and social media change this?

Conceptual lens:

• I think it would be interesting to look at true crime from a Psychology perspective because I am very curious about this. For instance, how does watching or engaging with true crime affect people’s emotions, brain chemistry, etc? I wonder if true crime could traumatize people, or perhaps desensitize them. I am also interested as to why people get addicted to true crime and even create communities surrounding it from a psychological perspective. Is it because it’s suspenseful? Is it some sort of escapism? Do they feel detached from the situation (as if the victims are not real people with real families) or do they feel for them? How does true crime influence the grieving process for people whose family/friends are affected?

Case Study Lens:

• I think the case study lens definitely makes a lot of sense for studying true crime because there are a lot of particular cases of true crime that make for good analysis. In particular, I was planning on studying the Gabby Petito case, because this was a recent case that went viral on multiple forms of social media and raised a lot of questions about how random strangers on the internet could be both beneficial and detrimental to these cases. Furthermore, I was also looking into studying Maura Murray because she is known to some as the start of true crime culture, and although her case was in 2007--the internet picked up the case much later.

Some of the questions I am planning on exploring include:

• How is the media representation of true crime and missing persons biased? Who does it leave out and what are the effects of this?

  • I am planning on focusing particularly on how this bias leaves out marginalized communities such as indigenous people as well as Black trans women.

  • This also is related to the idea of the missing white women syndrome.

• How is internet culture both harmful and potentially beneficial to these missing person cases?

  • Looking particularly at grief, unhelpful conspiracy theories, and breaches of privacy

  • https://time.com/5825475/true-crime-victim-families/

    • This article looks at how true-crime makes families re-traumatized

  • Also looking at how this spreads awareness

  • How people find community and entertainment in true crime

  • https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/true-crime-ethics.html

  • https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/apr/12/are-true-crime-podcasts-exploitative

    • Are true crime podcasts and movies exploitative? Is it as simple as viewing someone’s pain for your pleasure?

    • One particular author describes that the stance of voyeur and as an observer is how the viewer gets “hooked”

    • Is it ethical to find entertainment and profit off of other people’s trauma and stories about crime?

    • How do the families feel about this?

    • How do survivors of true crime experiences feel about true crime media and documentaries?

  • And how true crime culture could help investigators find leads

    • What are some instances in which true crime culture actually helped solve crimes?

• Does social media encourage or perpetuate true crime culture? If so, how? Which platforms do this the most?

• What does true crime say about cops and investigators?

  • https://newrepublic.com/article/155801/favorite-murder-problem

  • I found an article that talks about how people actually find true crime stories self-soothing because many of the stories they hear on podcasts or on shows are well-resolved. They provide people assurance that justice will happen and that our world is stable, however, this could shield the fact that there is a lot of corruption, injustice, and inequity in the criminal justice system. I am also interested in flawed science and technology in the criminal justice system such as facial recognition systems. The article is about My Favorite Murder, a podcast talking about murder cases--that I plan on listening to. Apparently, talking about murders helps people’s anxiety about crime and the show also talks about mental health.

Exercise 5: searching for scholarly sources

1. Boling, Kelli S., and Kevin Hull. “Undisclosed Information-Serial Is My Favorite Murder:

Examining Motivations in the True Crime Podcast Audience.” Journal of Radio &

Audio Media, vol. 25, no. 1, Routledge, 2018, pp. 92–108,

doi:10.1080/19376529.2017.1370714.

Abstract: “This study explores the true crime podcast audience within the uses and gratifications theoretical frame. Using an online survey (n = 308), this study found that the true crime podcast audience is predominantly female (73%), and 3 motivations were prominent for users: entertainment, convenience, and boredom. Additionally, three motivating factors were found to be significantly more salient for females than for males: social interaction, escape, and voyeurism. Practical and theoretical implications for genre-specific media are discussed.”

2. Pâquet, Lili. “Seeking Justice Elsewhere: Informal and Formal Justice in the True Crime

Podcasts Trace and The Teacher’s Pet.” Crime, Media, Culture, 2020, p.

174165902095426–, doi:10.1177/1741659020954260.

Abstract: Following Carol Smart’s argument that feminists have reason to mistrust legal institutions and to seek justice elsewhere, this article suggests that contemporary Australian true crime podcasts offer women and their families alternatives to seek justice beyond formal systems. This article will examine the representation of women in two recent and popular Australian true crime podcasts that followed inconclusive investigations of murder cases. Trace (2017–2018) is a seven-episode true crime podcast by Rachael Brown for the ABC about the 1980 murder of Maria James in her Melbourne bookshop, where she lived with her two sons. The Teacher’s Pet by Hedley Thomas for The Australian is about the disappearance of Lynette Dawson from the northern beaches of Sydney in 1982, leaving behind her two daughters. Thomas explicitly accuses Dawson’s husband, former professional rugby player, Chris Dawson, of murdering her and disposing of her body. Both true crime podcasts represent women in ways that—while not always feminist—use the affordances of mass media to draw support from the public, effectively inviting the audience to perform as an alternate jury. In both cases, this jurified audience has then engendered changes in formal processes.

3. Yardley, Elizabeth, et al. “What’s the Deal with ‘websleuthing’? News Media

Representations of Amateur Detectives in Networked Spaces.” Crime, Media,

Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, SAGE Publications, 2018, pp. 81–109,

doi:10.1177/1741659016674045.

Abstract: This article explores websleuthing, a phenomenon widely discussed and debated in popular culture but little-researched by criminologists. Drawing upon a review of existing literature and analysis of news media representations, we argue that websleuthing is much more diverse than previously thought. Encompassing a wide range of motives, manifestations, activities, networked spaces and cases, websleuthing has a variety of impacts upon victims, secondary victims, suspects, criminal justice organisations and websleuths themselves. We conclude that websleuthing is the embodiment of true crime infotainment in a ‘wound culture’ (Seltzer, 2007, 2008) and as such, is deserving of more criminological scrutiny than has been the case to date.

Primary Sources

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCGsW41aQEw

   1. This is a youtube video of the police footage from the Gabby Petito case in which someone called the police with a domestic violence report on Gabby and her fiance accused of murdering her (Brian).

   2. This is an interesting video because it presents Brian as the victim. Gabby is shown crying, and then the police spend an extended time talking to Brian about what happened. People in the comments below say that he appears to be charming and likable and that’s what makes this case hard. The video itself has 15 million views, which goes to show how viral this case went that fifteen million people would click on the over-hour-long footage.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__reD_phfbg

   1. This is a primary source of video footage of the infamous video of O.J. Simpson trying on the gloves. This video is a centerpiece of true crime and is deeply analyzed and dissected by the true crime community. It is interesting to look at in terms of seeing how intensely normal people can dissect and analyze a piece of legal footage and disagree with the court.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5kAqoAA6ag

   1. This is an interview with Maura Murray’s father and talks about his grieving of the case and you can see how the media and news stories have affected that process. He talks about how he hopes there is a lead in the case years after it has happened. I think this video is interesting because it shows us how the process of grieving is affected for the families of victims of true crime.