Challenging Representation and Genre in True Crime Media
The Power of Disruptive Storytelling
Challenging Representation and Genre in True Crime Media
The Power of Disruptive Storytelling
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Description
Contributors explore how true crime media creators and audiences can disrupt traditional approaches to storytelling in the creation, promotion, and consumption of the genre, raising critical questions about power structures including ethics, representation, and voice.
Traditional approaches to true crime narratives follow a formulaic story arc that is often exploitative in nature, typically foregrounding the lived experiences of the perpetrator and the rationalizations for their crimes and told through the lens of law enforcement. Contributors qualitatively analyze a variety of digitally mediated true crime content including news discourses, podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left, and television series like The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story to illuminate the significant limitations of this approach.
Rather than taking a negative stance, however, this volume instead emphasizes the possibilities that this genre has to offer by challenging scholars, practitioners, and educators to rethink their own place in the current landscape. How can we as creators, consumers, and critics harness true crime narratives in ways that honor victims and communities, uphold accurate and respectful representations, challenge dominant narratives within criminal justice, and ultimately transform the true crime genre through innovation?
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Victoria McDermott (University of Alaska, USA), Amy R. May (University of Alaska, USA), and Leandra H. Hernández (University of Utah, USA)
Part I: Cultural Storytelling, Community, and Survival
1. Chisme Saves Lives: Cultivating Survival through Spectral Storytelling
Shantel Martinez (Independent Scholar, USA) and Darby Martinez Stapleton (Northwestern University, USA)
2. Echoes of Justice: Indigenous vs. non-Indigenous Podcasters in the Realm of True Crime
Marissa Kildow (University of Alaska, USA)
Part II: Inclusion and Representation
3. Marginalized Narratives in True Crime
Zazil Reyes Garcia (University of the Incarnate Word, USA) and Diana Isabel Martínez (Pepperdine University, USA)
4. Queerness, Madness, and Monstrosity in True Crime: The Case of Aileen Wuornos
Emily Krebs (Fordham University, USA), Leandra H. Hernández (University of Utah, USA), and Gabrielle Y. Garza (University of Utah, USA)
Part III: Challenging Dominant Narratives in the Criminal Justice System
5. Screams, Shots, and Sirens: Analyzing the Rhetorical Significance of Narrative Aurality within News Discourses of Police Violence
Joshua Guitar (Kean University, USA), Ridimerb Diaz-Ramirez (Kean University, USA), and Natalia Szabla (Kean University, USA)
6. "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.”: Analyzing the Sociopolitical Framing in The People v. O.J. Simpson: An American Crime Story
Olivia Truban (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA) and Mary Jane Taylor (University of North Texas, USA)
Part IV: Genre Toppling and Innovation
7. Murder is Boring: A True Crime Podcast Analysis of Expectancy Violations
Shelby Kreigh (University of Alaska, USA)
8. Bloody Valentine: How Podcast But Make It Scary Flips the Script on Romance Film Genre Semiotics
Matt Jardin (University of Alaska, USA)
9. Parasocial Relationships and True Crime Podcasts: The Last Podcast on the Left, When Parasocial Relationships Go Too Far
Victoria McDermott (University of Alaska, USA), Connor McDermott (University of Virginia, USA), and Maria Blevins (Utah Valley University, USA)
Conclusion
Victoria McDermott (University of Alaska, USA), Amy R. May (University of Alaska, USA), and Leandra H. Hernández (University of Utah, USA)
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Index
Product details
| Published | Aug 06 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 9781978767911 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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