PROSPECTUS +
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Exercise 4: Prospective brainstorming

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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?

• This particular piece analyzes how True Crime developed from the late 1600s into the late 1900s. Particularly, it focuses on how true crime started with the “Bloody Code” in England, which executed people for their crimes. At first, it began as a type of awareness about state power and how it conflicted with many people’s morals. Eventually, people began to sell news stories on crime, crime fiction, and crime biography works. People wanted to be informed and understand why the criminal’s mind worked the way it did. Later, with the industrial revolution and the advancements in police forces, forensics, detectives, and prosecution, crime became more about celebrating the detective and their sleuthing work. Crime fiction and texts rapidly increased during this period of time, with Truman Capote making a notable contribution to the genre with his In Cold Blood.

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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?

• One article I read talked about how women might particularly consume true crime content because they feel they relate to it and can learn survival skills. Some psychologists argue that what is most addicting to true-crime series is the stance of the voyeur and the idea that it is invasive--yet one still feels removed.

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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.

• Furthermore, I will be looking at the Serial podcast and how the host of the podcast asked about teenagers’ sex habits, drug-use, and showed up unannounced to their doors. I speak about how she tells the story as if we are there with her, with phone calls to the convicted Adnan, and how she describes him as a nice guy who she couldn’t believe would do such a thing. I also want to talk about how Hae Min Lee’s loved ones suffered when Serial sparked cries of support for her killer.

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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.

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

This American Life. "Serial." Season 1, 3 Oct. 2014, Spotify.     

     open.spotify.com/show/5wMPFS9B5V7gg6hZ3UZ7hf?si=7531963e00cc4b29.

Serial is one of the most popular True Crime podcasts that many marks as the start of their True Crime craze. The first season details the murder of Hae Min Lee, a high school senior whose ex-boyfriend Adnan was convicted. The host, Sarah Koenig, takes us through her journey as she investigates the case for an entire year. She believes that the trial did not convict on adequate evidence--especially considering the absence of physical evidence and one, questionable primary witness. The season is full of interviews, excerpts from the case, phone calls with Adnan, and conversations with people directly involved and experts--making us feel as if we are investigating right with Koenig. Koenig generally believes that Adnan did not receive a fair trial, regardless of if he were guilty or not, and empathizes with him throughout the series.

I am nearly done with the first season of Serial, and although Koenig makes quite a case for Adnan’s potential innocence, she also tries to be relatively objective and makes care of him as well. However, she definitely humanizes and emphasizes the emotions of Adnan. While Koenig’s storytelling makes me go back and forth between who did it, it definitely makes me question the legal system as well as the ethics of some of her work--which includes just showing up unannounced at people’s homes for interviews. Many fans of Serial believe they have the authority and the knowledge to determine who is guilty--and even supported a retrial for Adnan recently. The aftermath of the virality of the podcast was also quite extreme, as many of the main “characters” in Hae Min Lee’s murder did not appreciate the stalking and attention, including Hae’s family. This really goes hand-in-hand with my topic as I try to analyze what makes these podcasts so entertaining and hooking, and how people who are involved feel about their widespread attention.

 

Sommers, Zach. "Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and

      Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons." Journal of Criminal

      Law and Criminology, vol. 106, no. 4, Spring 2016, scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7586&context=jclc.

In "Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons" Zach Sommers, analyzes media news coverage of missing people on racial and gender lines--arguing that white women are much more likely to be represented by the news when they go missing. Sommers describes case studies as to how two cases can be eerily similar, but one of a young Black man will receive no attention whereas one of a young white woman will be closely tracked on national media outlets. Sommers specifically focuses his analysis on abduction in internet sources but tracks media representation across juveniles and adults. His piece provides evidence for both racial and gender disparities and then presents empirical research based on the findings and then tries to explain the findings. In his analysis, Sommers even uses a z-test formula to compare the findings of it certain racial or gender groups receive more intense news coverage. He found that 33% of media data on missing persons is made up of white females and that close to 70% of news coverage on missing persons is white people.

I think that this source is quite persuasive, because although lengthy, it is a thorough investigation of media news coverage bias, and is broken into many parts. I think that the credible evidence comes from FBI coverage as well as the media so that the media coverage could be compared with a “reputable” source. Of course, we should also take into account the bias of people whose missing person cases are reported in the first place, as many indigenous people who go missing are likely not represented in FBI data. I think that this source is relevant in terms of the concept of Missing White Woman Syndrome, particularly because I am focussing on the case study of Gabby Petito--a young, white woman. A unique concept that comes from this source is that the idea that women are more dependent and needy than men (they need to be saved/rescued) could contribute to the disproportionate representation of missing persons in terms of gender composition.

 

Chan, Melissa. "'Real People Keep Getting Re-traumatized.' The Human Cost of

     Binge-Watching True Crime Series." Time, 24 Apr. 2020,

     time.com/5825475/true-crime-victim-families/.

In the Time article, “Real People Keep Getting Re-Traumatized” Melissa Chan writes about families who have been directly affected by True Crime shows and books that were made about their traumas. She interviews Mindy Pendleton, for instance, whose son’s murder was depicted on I am a Killer, with a story that sympathized with the murderer. Pendleton and her family begged Netflix not to produce the show, and they ended up doing so anyways without a family perspective or interview. Chan describes how these shows are a breach of privacy and do not require consent to be produced--which is problematic in many ways. These families describe how this form of media and the mass attention it receives can be traumatizing. Chan also describes the rise of True Crime and how it is connected with women viewers. She also illustrates examples from Making A Murderer and Serial podcast.

I think that this article is particularly relevant because it references some of the other sources I am analyzing, such as the Serial podcast. It also tackles the question of how these forms of true crime media can be problematic for the people involved--in a very persuasive way. By focusing on case studies and by interviewing members of the victim’s families, the author communicates how grief is affected by true crime. Furthermore, the article brings up how women are more likely to consume true crime media, which I plan to do a horizontal deep dive in. I think that it raises quite a few points besides the main argument on trauma. Furthermore, the case studies that the article mentions are nice to have in handy for more horizontal dives.

 

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. Stoneman and Packer approach the topic by focusing on and analyzing three recent true-crime documentaries. They talk 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 in how true crime can be entertaining for them.

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 enjoy how the article is focusing on three true-crime films, which I would love to watch myself as part of the research project. I think that the author is quite persuasive because he is not just using his opinion, he is applying psychological terms--which I find quite interesting. I wanted to do a horizontal dive on the psychological effects of these documentaries, especially looking at them from an ethics point of view.

 

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.

“True Crime: The Reinvention of a Genre” by Rachel Frank gives a detailed historical timeline of the development of the true-crime genre into what it is today. Frank starts in the 1700s and talks about how the development of newspapers and fiction gave rise to profitable crime pamphlets, crime publications, and crime fiction with commentary on the “bloody code”. With the industrial revolution then came advancements and the professionalism in police, detectives, and prosecutors which led to detective novels. Frank notes famous authors such as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and eventually Truman Capote as noteworthy contributors to the genre. Capote, in particular, changed the genre by creating a sense of authorial intimacy and developing the spiritual condition of the killer--something that is very much present in modern-day true crime.

This source isn’t necessarily as persuasive as it is informative. We can see, by looking at a detailed account of true crime’s history, just how much it has changed going into the digital age. This source was useful to me because it goes to demonstrates that true crime has been a firm feature of pop culture for quite some time and that it adapts and reinvents over time. As Frank explains, there will always be a market for murder. I think that this source will be particularly helpful for me to see how social media, mass media, documentaries, podcasts etc have further reinvented this genre and have led to unprecedented opportunities for stalking, invasiveness, etc.

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Romano, Aja. "Gabby Petito’s disappearance, and why it was absolutely everywhere,

     explained." Vox, 21 Sept. 2021,

     www.vox.com/22684204/gabby-petito-missing-updates-internet-web-sleuthing.

Romano Aja in “Gabby Petito’s disappearance, and why it was absolutely everywhere, Explained” gives an intriguing account of why Gabby Petito’s disappearance, in particular, went completely viral on social media. Romano first describes the timeline of Petito’s disappearance--which occurred during a documented “Van Life” road trip. This case had a huge social media response on police bodycam footage from an encounter between Petito and Laundrie that occurred before Petito’s suspected murder. And, the case’s many conspiracy theories and frame-by-frame dissections made it an extreme version of the online sleuthing trend that has been popular in social media. Romano analyzes the benefits of a missing person going so viral, as well as the many negatives that come with it. And, she also describes Maura Murray--a related case that is known to have started the Websleuths trend.

This source was useful to me because it described Gabby Petito in the context of the web sleuthing trend, which I was not too familiar with before Petito. Petito serves as a very strong case study into looking at web sleuthing because of her archetype as the missing young white petite woman who also happened to have quite a social media following. In her case, people had actually helped find evidence that led to the finding of her body--something pretty rare in true crime cases. Furthermore, Romano mentions that Petito went missing just days after a lesbian couple was murdered in a similar area--but garnered close to no media attention. It points me in the direction of further investigating the Missing White Woman Syndrome and predecessors of web sleuthing trend.

 

Roseman, Katherine. "How the Case of Gabrielle Petito Galvanized the Internet." The New York

     Times, 20 Sept. 2021,

     www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/style/gabby-petito-case-tiktok-social-media.html.

This New York Times article, by Katherine Roseman, outlines how amateur detectives sparked the virality and national attention of Gabby Petito. In particular, Roseman describes Paris Campbell, one of the people who turned Petito’s case into a social media sensation. She read the case very early, before it went viral, and created over forty videos with updates on the case that reached millions of views--including Petito’s family members. Because of this media attention, Kyle and Jenn Bethune--a couple who was traveling and vlogging for YouTube--dug through their video footage and found a clip of Petito’s van which helped the investigators. Furthermore, besides coverage on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the case received attention from CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, and other huge media outlets. Lastly, Roseman goes over some of the popular podcasts that covered Petito’s story including “Affirmative Murder”, “Crime Junkie”, and “Inhuman”.

This article is persuasive in helping me understand the timeline and the main contributors who made Petito go viral. Roseman’s use of TikTok videos, interviews, and Youtube content helps sell her argument by showing us the very videos that were key to the social media storm. I think that this article was also particularly useful because I am analyzing how true crime media affects the families of victims and their grieving process, and Roseman gets one of Petito’s cousins describing that they are appreciative of the media’s attention. This perspective definitely opposes most of the evidence that I have gathered from families, so I think that it is key to get both sides of the argument.

 

Eversley, Melanie. "When women of color disappear, who says their names?" The Guardian, 4

     Oct. 2021,

     www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/04/when-women-of-color-disappear-who-says-their-         names.

This long-form by Melanie Eversley analyzes the Missing White Woman Syndrome, stating that the issue is complex, historical, and structural. In particular, a director of Women and Gender Studies describes that femininity and whiteness are central to understanding the ways in which patriarchy intersects without ideas about who is valued. She argues that the media mirrors the way in which our society creates racist and patriarchal beliefs about femininity. Particularly, she describes historical moments of colonialism and slavery and how this made people view Black and indigenous women as unfeminine and devalued. Eversley describes how this is related to pretty privilege and algorithmic bias that deems white, skinny women as most beautiful.

This piece is essential to my understanding of why Missing White Woman Syndrome occurs, and what it has to do with who our society values and sees as worthy of attention. It even includes a short interview with Zach Sommers, whose piece on MWWS I cite as well. I think that it is interesting how Eversley argues that MWWS has so much to do with portrayals of innocence and femininity and how this leads to us feeling sympathetic for the victims. She is very persuasive, in that she cites reputable scholars and also incorporates data. I think that it really is starting another horizontal dive for me, as I plan on looking at this from a sociological perspective and also looking into organizations that study missing Black and Indigenous people.