Sample analysis “True Crime”#
Why True Crime matters in Media Studies#
True crime has emerged as one of the most popular media genres of the digital age (Richards, 2023). Its popularity, especially among younger women, stems from a fascinating intersection of mystery, suspense, and real-world drama, often exploring the darker aspects of human nature, subcultures, and institutional systems like policing and journalism. (Sherrill, 2020) As a genre, true crime does not merely entertain but often invites audiences to engage with complex ethical, social, and political questions. (Peters, 2020) This also makes it a rich subject for Media Studies and the MA Digital Cultures in Maastricht.
Nicole Schanzmeyer’s MA thesis analysing podcast reviews and Reddit posts#
Nicole Schanzmeyer’s 2022/2023 MA thesis, Cultivating true crime: a critical look into audiences of true crime podcasts (available internally for UM members here), explored true crime mainly through the lens of cultivation theory. For this purpose, she collected both podcast reviews and Reddit posts to learn about listener perceptions. However, the topic can also be analyzed through feminist theory or a focus on the public sphere, two frameworks that we teach in Maastricht. The genre can both reinforce and challenge traditional gender roles, depending on how narratives are constructed and received. (Linke & Brune, 2025)Moreover, women may see engaging with crime as empowering in a world where they are often victims.
From the perspective of public sphere theory, true crime may function as a sphere where audiences collectively engage in debates about justice, ethics, and institutional accountability. Podcasts, in particular, create spaces for audiences to react and critique.
As the data set that Nicole collected on several highly popular true crime podcasts was too large to meaningfully code by hand, she used distant reading with Voyant Tools as the primary method. To create sub-corpora, she often clustered the podcast reviews by star-ratings, which allowed her to directly compare negative with positive perceptions.
Cited Works and Further Readings#
Linke, C., & Brune, L. (2025). Intimate yet exploitative: Representations of gender-based violence in platformed true crime narratives. Media and Communication, 13. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8964
Peters, F. (2020). True crime narratives. Crime Fiction Studies, 1(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.3366/cfs.2020.0005
Richards, E. (2023, July 17). True crime: Insight into the human fascination with the who-done-it. Social Science Space. https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2023/07/true-crime-insight-into-the-human-fascination-with-the-who-done-it/
Sherrill, L. A. (2020). The “Serial Effect” and the true crime podcast ecosystem. Journalism Practice, 16(7), 1473–1494. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1852884