True-crime as content and women
Women are becoming notorious producers of the genre and honestly, I love it.
WARNING: may contain an overload of recommendations
According to The Daily Jstor, the fascination with true-crime dates back to the 16th century, when British authors and producers would publish articles about murders, taking advantage of the newly-invented printed press and the rise of literacy rates. Publishers would report anything from bloody, gore details to police work and legal proceedings, once/if the criminal was caught.
But true-crime really took off as a genre in the 1980’s America, especially with the “creation” of the term serial killers.
A decade or so later, it would be the time for true-crime TV shows to shine, which is the case with the shows such as Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, and Dateline as well as the broadcasting TV channel Investigation Discovery.
To an extent, specialists agree it’s alright to like some true crime, that it’s normal and part of human nature but one thing that has been more noticeable than ever is how much true-crime women consume.
A 2010 study showed that 70% of Amazon reviews for true-crime books are written by women. On top of that, it’s suggested that women are often the victims, not the culprits in true-crime, which somehow makes them more “connected” to their story.
Now, it seems the genre has found its place for entertainment in the “digital era”. And, thankfully (but not surprisingly), female creators found their place to shine.
YouTube’s latest guidelines updates have clearly shown the platform is trying to remain as PG as possible, but true-crime oriented channels show that it’s worth it to lean towards more thrilling topics…
Although Buzzfeed took it and added a fun twist to the genre, the true-crime content created and shared online goes beyond professional producers.
In the YouTube true-crime community, a big part of independent channels is owned by young women who dedicate their time to studying, researching, and reading about cases to present to their audience, in their own fashion. These creators also prefer to be very solemn and discreet with their storytelling, afraid they may come off as disrespectful to their audience or crime victims (however, a few individuals here and there will complain that Eleanor Neale is wearing mascara and that it’s disrespectful, obviously), which makes this type of content very homogeneous, but still very popular.
Unsurprisingly, podcasts, one of the most popular types of media content of 2020, also have their own corner for true-crime lovers.
But the thing with True Crime Podcasts is how much they differ from each other, in format — while most of true-crime YouTube channels are run by individuals, true-crime podcasts may have amateur solo producers, they may be produced professionally or not, recorded by a couple of friends in small studio apartments.
With this in mind, you’d think the genre would be saturated by now, you can only tell one story so many times, but the reality is that no, it’s not.
Yes, the crimes of Ted Bundy will remain the same, doesn’t matter how many times his story is repeated but the way each creator presents it is what makes it so fascinating, you just want to keep listening to the same gruesome, horrible, bloody story over and over but told from different people.
While many appreciate Parcast’s well-researched, professional, serious productions, it is warming to listen to Kristine (ATWWD) talk about John Wayne Gacy while giggling about the absurdity of it all with her co-host, Em, who tells paranormal tales. If you’re a skeptic and also want to keep things light and non-paranormal, Morbid may be the thing for you. If you are not that much into crimes per se, but you still have a thing for the dark side of life, you may want to try The Morbid Curiosity Podcast, which covers everything that, as the name says, sparkles human’s morbid curiosity.
Female creators are using new media and platforms to re-create the genre in a way that’s palatable to consume in our daily lives. Here’s, to hoping other genres will go through a similar recycling process.