Crime Narratives in non-fiction documentaries: The success of true crime in VOD platforms
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Published:
Dec 1, 2020
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Romero Domínguez, L. R. . (2020). Crime Narratives in non-fiction documentaries: : The success of true crime in VOD platforms. Revista Panamericana De Comunicación, 2(2), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.21555/rpc.v0i2.2332
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Abstract
This paper explores the evolution experimented by non-fiction true crime documentaries in the VOD platforms. Through a bibliographical review and examples taken from the most popular documentaries, we focus on the most relevant changes that have transformed this genre in the context of online streaming platforms. We will also discuss whether these shifts can be considered as a strategy to distance the genre from the sensationalist crime realities of the 80s and 90s on traditional television.
Article Details
Keywords:
Crime | Story | True crime | VOD platforms | Non-fiction | Sensationalism
References
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Buozis, M. (2017). Giving voice to the accused: Serial and the critical potential of true crime. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 14(3), 254-270. doi:10.1080/14791420.2017.1287410
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Jeffries, S. (2017). ‘We’re all car-crash snoopers now’: the truth about the TV true-crime wave. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com
Kort-Butler, L. A. & Sittner Hartshorn, K. J. (2011). Watching the Detectives: Crime Programming, Fear of Crime, and Attitudes about the Criminal Justice System. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(1), 36-55. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2010.01191.x
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MacCay, A. (2019). The problem with the true crime. https://www.mcgilltribune.com
Mason, P. (ed.) (2003). Criminal Visions: Media Representations of Crime and Justice. Cullompton, Devon. Willan.
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https://www.theguardian.com/
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Pâquet, L. (2018). Literary forensic rhetoric: maps, emotional assent, and rhetorical space in Serial and Making a Murderer. Law and Humanities, 12(1), 71-92. doi:10.1080/17521483.2018.1457243
Partridge, P. C. H. (2018). Did He Do It?: Judging the Suspect-Protagonist in True Crime Documentaries. https://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu
Phillips, B. M. (2017). «You want it all to happen now!»: The Jinx, The Imposter, and Re-enacting the Digital Thriller in True Crime Documentaries. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu
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Redmon, D. (2017). Documentary criminology: Girl Model as a case study. Crime, Media, Culture, 13(3), 357-374. doi:10.1177/1741659016653994
Rowe, M. (2013). Just like a TV show: Public criminology and the media coverage of ‘hunt for Britain’s most wanted man’. Crime, Media, Culture, 9(1), 23-38. doi:10.1177/1741659012438298
Seltzer, M. (2004). The Crime System. Critical Inquiry, 30(3), 557-583. https://www.jstor.org
Tinker, R. (2018). Guilty Pleasure: A Case Study of True Crime’s Resurgence in a Binge Consumption Era. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 9(1), 95-107. https://www.elon.edu
Warmedal, M. (2018). The future of high-quality documentaries reaching a world audience. Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). https://gijn.org
Wiest, J.B. (2009). Creating cultural monsters: a critical analysis of the representation of serial murderers in America. doi=10.1.1.428.4224&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Wiltenburg, J. (2004). True crime: the origins of modern sensationalism. The American Historical Review, 109(5), 1377-1404. doi:10.1086/530930
Yardley, E., Kelly, E., & Robinson-Edwards, S. (2019). Forever trapped in the imaginary of late capitalism? The serialized true crime podcast as a wake-up call in times of criminological slumber. Crime, Media, Culture, 15(3), 503-521. doi:10.1177/1741659018799375
Yardley, E., Wilson, D. & Kennedy, M. (2017). “TO ME ITS [SIC] REAL LIFE”: Secondary Victims of Homicide in Newer Media. Victims & Offenders, 12(3), 467-496. doi:10.1080/15564886.2015.1105896
Young, A. (2010). The scene of the crime. Is there such a thing as ‘just looking’? In Hayward, K. & Presdee, T.L.M. (eds.), Framing crime: Cultural criminology. Routledge (83-97).
Bell, V. (2008). The burden of sensation and the ethics of form: watching ‘Capturing the Friedmans’. Theory Culture & Society, 25(3). doi:10.1177/0263276408090659
Biressi, A. (2004) Inside/out: private trauma and public knowledge in true crime documentary. Screen, 45(4), 401-412. doi:10.1093/screen/45.4.401
Boda, Z. & Szabó, G. (2011). The media and attitudes towards crime and the justice system: A qualitative approach. European Journal of Criminology, 8(4), 329–342. doi:10.1177/1477370811411455
Boling K. S. & Hull, K. (2018). Undisclosed Information-Serial Is My Favorite Murder: Examining Motivations in the True Crime Podcast Audience. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 25(1), 92-108. doi:10.1080/19376529.2017.1370714
Boling, K. S. (2019). True crime podcasting: journalism, justice or entertainment? Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 17(2), 161-178. doi:10.1386/rjao_00003_1
Bregant, J. (2019). The Justice Project: Protecting the Guilty in the Era of Innocence. https://papers.ssrn.com
Brinker, F. (2015). NBC’s Hannibal and the politics of audience engagement. In Däwes, B., Ganser, A. & Poppenhagen, N. (eds.), Trangressive Television. Politics and crime in 21st-century American TV series. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag WINTER Heidelberg (Volume 264, 303-328).
Bruzzi, S. (2016). Making a genre: the case of the contemporary true crime documentary. Law and Humanities, 10(2), 249 280. doi:10.1080/17521483.2016.1233741
Buozis, M. (2017). Giving voice to the accused: Serial and the critical potential of true crime. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 14(3), 254-270. doi:10.1080/14791420.2017.1287410
D’Addario, D. (2019). Inside the True-Crime boom taking over prestige TV. Variety. https://variety.com
Däwes, B., Ganser, A. & Poppenhagen, N. (eds.) (2015). Trangressive Television. Politics and crime in 21st-century American TV series. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag WINTER Heidelberg (Volume 264).
Doughty, K. A. (2018). Exploring the Existence of a “Documentary Effect”: Examination of True Crime Documentaries on Judgments of Evidence Manipulation and Perceptions of Police. https://repository.asu.edu
Doyle, A. (2006). How not to think about crime in the media. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 48(6), 867-885. doi:10.3138/cjccj.48.6.867
Eschholz, S. (2003). Crime on Television. Journal of the Institute of Justice and International Studies, 2, 9-18. Recuperado de https://www.researchgate.net
Fishman, M. & Cavender, G. (eds.) (1998). Entertaining crime. Television reality programs. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Fuhs, K. (2018) ‘The dramatic idea of justice’: wrongful conviction, documentary television, and The Court of Last Resort. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 38(1), 179-197. doi:10.1080/01439685.2016.1258845
Golob, B. (2018). Un-making a murderer: new media’s impact on (potential) wrongful conviction cases. California Western Law Review, 54(1), 137-150. https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu
Gregoriou, C (2010). Language, ideology and identity in serial killer narratives. New York, NY: Routledge.
Haggerty, K. D. (2009). Modern serial killers. Crime, Media, Culture, 5(2), 168-187. doi:10.1177/1741659009335714
Hernandez, M. A. (2019). True Injustice: Cultures of Violence and Stories of Resistance in the New True Crime. IdeaFest, 3. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu
Hibbett, M. (2018). Audible Killings: Capitalist Motivation, Character Construction, and the Effects of Representation in True Crime Podcasts. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu
Hodo, Ch. (2019). Why podcasting is the next wave of journalism and true crime reporting. Localprofile. https://localprofile.com
Horeck, T. (2014). ‘A film that will rock you to your core’: Emotion and affect in Dear Zachary and the real crime documentary. Crime, Media, Culture, 10(2), 151-167. doi:10.1177/1741659014540293
Horeck, T. (2019). Justice on demand. True crime in the digital streaming era. http://books.google.com/books
Jarvis, B. (2007). Monsters Inc.: Serial killers and consumer culture. Crime, Media, Culture, 3(3), 326-344. doi:10.1177/1741659007082469
Jeffries, S. (2017). ‘We’re all car-crash snoopers now’: the truth about the TV true-crime wave. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com
Kort-Butler, L. A. & Sittner Hartshorn, K. J. (2011). Watching the Detectives: Crime Programming, Fear of Crime, and Attitudes about the Criminal Justice System. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(1), 36-55. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2010.01191.x
Lorente, N. (2019). El caso Alcàsser (Netflix): un crimen lleno de verdades y mentiras, casi 26 años después. El Confidencial. https://www.elconfidencial.com
MacCay, A. (2019). The problem with the true crime. https://www.mcgilltribune.com
Mason, P. (ed.) (2003). Criminal Visions: Media Representations of Crime and Justice. Cullompton, Devon. Willan.
Mumford, G. (2016). Making a Murderer: the Netflix documentary beating TV dramas at its own game. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Nabi, R. L., Biely, E. N., Morgan, S. J., & Stitt, C. R. (2009). Reality-Based Television Programming and the Psychology of Its Appeal. Media Psychology, 5(4), 303-330. doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0504_01
Nelson, H. (2018). 52 great True-Crime podcasts. The post-Serial boom. Vulture. https://www.vulture.com
Pâquet, L. (2018). Literary forensic rhetoric: maps, emotional assent, and rhetorical space in Serial and Making a Murderer. Law and Humanities, 12(1), 71-92. doi:10.1080/17521483.2018.1457243
Partridge, P. C. H. (2018). Did He Do It?: Judging the Suspect-Protagonist in True Crime Documentaries. https://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu
Phillips, B. M. (2017). «You want it all to happen now!»: The Jinx, The Imposter, and Re-enacting the Digital Thriller in True Crime Documentaries. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu
Presser, L. (2016). Criminology and the narrative turn. Crime, Media, Culture, 12(2), 137-151. doi:10.1177/1741659015626203
Punnett, I.C. (2018). Toward a theory of true crime narratives. A textual analysis. Routledge.
Redacción AV451 (2017). ‘Lo que la verdad esconde: el caso Asunta’ – estreno 24 de mayo en Antena 3. Audiovisual451.com. https://www.audiovisual451.com/lo-que-la-verdad-esconde-el-caso-asunta-estreno-24-de-mayo-en-antena-3/
Redmon, D. (2017). Documentary criminology: Girl Model as a case study. Crime, Media, Culture, 13(3), 357-374. doi:10.1177/1741659016653994
Rowe, M. (2013). Just like a TV show: Public criminology and the media coverage of ‘hunt for Britain’s most wanted man’. Crime, Media, Culture, 9(1), 23-38. doi:10.1177/1741659012438298
Seltzer, M. (2004). The Crime System. Critical Inquiry, 30(3), 557-583. https://www.jstor.org
Tinker, R. (2018). Guilty Pleasure: A Case Study of True Crime’s Resurgence in a Binge Consumption Era. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 9(1), 95-107. https://www.elon.edu
Warmedal, M. (2018). The future of high-quality documentaries reaching a world audience. Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). https://gijn.org
Wiest, J.B. (2009). Creating cultural monsters: a critical analysis of the representation of serial murderers in America. doi=10.1.1.428.4224&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Wiltenburg, J. (2004). True crime: the origins of modern sensationalism. The American Historical Review, 109(5), 1377-1404. doi:10.1086/530930
Yardley, E., Kelly, E., & Robinson-Edwards, S. (2019). Forever trapped in the imaginary of late capitalism? The serialized true crime podcast as a wake-up call in times of criminological slumber. Crime, Media, Culture, 15(3), 503-521. doi:10.1177/1741659018799375
Yardley, E., Wilson, D. & Kennedy, M. (2017). “TO ME ITS [SIC] REAL LIFE”: Secondary Victims of Homicide in Newer Media. Victims & Offenders, 12(3), 467-496. doi:10.1080/15564886.2015.1105896
Young, A. (2010). The scene of the crime. Is there such a thing as ‘just looking’? In Hayward, K. & Presdee, T.L.M. (eds.), Framing crime: Cultural criminology. Routledge (83-97).