How do true crime podcasts impact public interest in criminal cases?

True crime fans know the feeling: Whether you’re coming home from work, folding laundry, or getting ready for bed, once you press play on your favorite podcast, you’re immersed in a captivating story of criminal investigation and psychology. human.

True crime stories feature the incredible resilience of survivors and the satisfaction of knowing justice has been served. They have the power to generate incredible public interest in criminal cases that mobilize people around the world. But they also describe the gruesome details of humanity at its worst.

Although it seems like the genre is gaining popularity across all media, it has actually had a long-standing fan base for centuries, Kelli Boling, Ph.D., told Fox News Digital during a phone call. Boling is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and researches true crime podcasts and their audiences.

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Podchaser, a podcast database website that aims to aggregate podcast information from various platforms, has over 23,000 podcasts in its true crime category.

A Pew Research Center study found that true crime is the most common topic among top-ranked podcasts, and 34% of American adults who listened to a podcast in the past year say they regularly listen to true crime podcasts.

Although the true crime genre may not be new, it has only become more popular over time. People love learning about criminology, psychology, and the American justice system.

“He FOX True Crime Podcast with Emily Compagno“, for example, has 4.7 stars on Apple Podcasts and Compagno herself has 444,000 followers on Instagram.

Compagno has been praised for the depth of her reporting, her sensitivity and her ability to make complex topics easily understandable. Boling suggested that the educational aspect of true crime has enormous potential to bring about positive change.

He has covered cases including the Boston Marathon bomber, the murders of four college students in Idaho, the story of Holly Dunn and how she survived the railroad killer, and more.

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Boling cited cases in which podcasts became so popular that fans waited outside courthouses while trials took place inside, even causing a trial to change venues due to the scope of local coverage.

Hae Min Lee Murder

The first season of the “Serial” podcast focused on the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, for which her boyfriend Adnan Masud Syed was convicted and jailed before a series of appeals took the case to the Supreme Court.

“There were fanatics in the Baltimore courthouse and in the United States Supreme Court absolutely advocating for his release. Not only that… he was released and had a job waiting for him at a local university. So the public perception of Adnan changed completely podcast,” Boling said.

Syed worked as a program associate at Georgetown University’s Justice and Prisons Initiative.

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“Serial” upended the true crime genre as the first major true crime publication to focus on the alleged perpetrator rather than the victim, whose family declined to speak to the host.

“[The host] centered the defendant’s voice, literally. His voice was focused on every episode of the podcast through her phone interviews with him,” Boling said.

In fact, the public had come to believe that Syed was innocent after hearing “Serial,” and Syed now has a large base of people defending his name. Charges against Syed were dropped, but later reinstated due to a procedural violation.

Murder of Cooper Harris

The second season of the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s “Breakdown” podcast covered the story of Justin Ross Harris, who was tried for the murder of his young son, Cooper, when he was left in a hot car for hours.

Harris maintains it was an accident and his wife testified on his behalf even after “Breakdown” made public the fact that Ross was cheating on her with a 16-year-old girl.

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“So when that comes out, we all hate him now, right? That doesn’t make him a murderer… The judge in that trial, Judge Mary Staley, actually granted a change of venue because of the coverage prior to the trial that had already occurred. and because I knew the Atlanta Journal Constitution would cover it as a live podcast,” Boling told Fox News Digital.

Crime scene investigators gather evidence after police shot a man near Northwest Seventh Court and 57th Street in Miami on March 7, 2024. (Al Díaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Ultimately, Harris’ conviction was overturned by ruling that her affair, which was presented as motivation to kill her son, had an unfair prejudicial effect on the jury.

“Did it change our opinion about that dad? Absolutely… Did it change the opinion of the defense, of the prosecution? Probably. But yes, podcasts have a very powerful way of impacting.” [these cases]. And I think a lot of this has to do with the audio side of the media,” Boling said.

Boling emphasized the unique position of true crime as a medium that is assumed to be, by definition, true, but that is framed as a narrative.

“Well, we’ve been sitting around campfires telling stories for centuries, right? We’re drawn into the story and we get emotionally invested in a way that maybe we wouldn’t watching a documentary,” he said.

“We feel like we have a relationship with the hosts. We feel like we know the defendant well enough to go to the courthouse, take a day off, and put a sign outside for him.”

The accessibility of true crime creators to their fans is also unique among the media and, especially when reporting on a case as it unfolds, inevitably leads to some fans conducting their own investigations without being held to any set of standards. .

Fans have the opportunity to interact with each other and with real crime creators on Internet forums, but in the past amateur sleuths have posted personal information of people involved in ongoing cases and even turned on relatives of the deceased.

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This feeling of involvement, of following a case step by step, is enhanced by the medium itself. Listening to a podcast is an intimate form of media consumption; It’s just you and the host, who speaks directly into your ear if you’re using headphones.

And when a detailed picture of a perpetrator or victim is presented, it’s easy to see why listeners become personally invested in the outcomes of cases they’ve been following so closely for so long.

Boling explained that “Serial” was the first major true crime publication to focus on the alleged perpetrator rather than the victim, whose family declined interviews.

“So from an ethical standpoint, the question is, should he continue to cover the story? He did… and it completely changed the genre, and I think, unfortunately, it opened the door to a lot of unethical productions,” he said. Boling.

Journalists and lawyers who create true crime podcasts have ethical codes to follow, but there is no accepted ethical standard across the genre.

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New episodes of “The FOX True Crime Podcast w/ Emily Compagno” are released every Tuesday, along with additional episodes every Thursday. (Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)

Boling spoke of the “celebrification” of famous murderers, such as Jeffery Dahmer in the dramatization of their crimes on Netflix. She says producers of several true crime projects she has spoken to in her research suggest focusing on the “why” when choosing a case to cover.

“Why are you doing this? Why is it important to tell this story? I think that’s where the ethical conversation begins. Do we need another documentary about Dahmer? We don’t need it. That story has been shot down a million times,” Boling he told Fox News Digital.

Boling expressed concern about the implications of turning criminals into celebrities and the effects on victims’ families. He stressed that production companies can do whatever they want, but suggested that the positive side of true crime is its educational potential.

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“What are people going to learn from this? What are we going to prevent? Who are we going to educate? What kind of legislation are we going to push for?”

Boling’s upcoming research aims to investigate the state of ethics in true crime podcasting and suggest a set of guidelines.

It’s uncharted territory, but in a world where Evan Peters won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Jeffery Dahmer and where there is a thriving market for the possessions of serial killers, he returned to the idea of ​​carefully considering the motivations for creating any specific piece. of true criminal means.

“How can we work to achieve the good part of true crime, which is education, healing and finding closure for friends and family? The good comes out of it.”