Entertainment, Journalism, and Advocacy: Competing Motivations in the True Crime Podcast Ecosystem

by Lindsey A. Sherrill

Overview

In this book, Lindsey A. Sherrill explores the exponential growth of true crime podcasting, including the role of the ubiquitous Serial podcast in the growth of the industry. Using both demographic population analysis and interviews with podcast hosts and producers, Sherill demonstrates that true crime podcasts exist as hybrid organizations, with diverse goals ranging from entertainment to criminal justice reform advocacy to journalistic inquiry. These competing motivations of podcast producers are explored, along with the ethical quandaries that emerge in the process of telling true crime stories. Sherrill traces true crime podcasting back to the infancy of the medium and examines the influences, innovations, and events that created the true crime podcast ecosystem, as well as its influence on real cases in the United States. Scholars of communication, sociology, and media studies will find this book of particular interest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666906035
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/21/2024
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lindsey A. Sherrill is assistant professor of business communication at the University of North Alabama.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Adnan, Melinda, and Me

Chapter 2: True Crime, Podcasting, and the Serial Effect

Chapter 3: Understanding Organizational Growth and Social Movements

Chapter 4: Understanding the True Crime Podcast Ecosystem

Chapter 5: Ecology and Podcasts as Maintenance Organizations

Chapter 6: True Crime Podcasts and Social Movement Approaches

Chapter 7: Podcasts as Legitimated Hybrid Organizations

Chapter 8: Still Obsessed: Lessons from the True Crime Podcast Ecosystem

References

Appendix: True Crime Podcasts 2005-2022

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In this volume, Dr. Sherrill artfully retells the history of podcasts as a form of entertainment, media and journalism. In doing so, this book captures an important moment in media history and simultaneously builds organizational theory to help explain how podcasts came to be so influential in today’s media landscape.”

Matthew S. Weber

Sherrill presents her research into "goal oriented" true- crime podcasts as organization models. She employs two lenses: organizational ecology and social movement theory. Sherrill collected data by interviewing a dozen authors and hosts of true-crime podcasts, including Rabia Chaudry of Undisclosed and Steven Pacheco of Trace Evidence…. This book is best suited for researchers looking at motivation, evolutionary patterns, or legitimizing strategies within podcasts. Though it is not necessarily geared toward students of the genre, this volume may nevertheless inform those thinking about entering the true-crime podcasting universe themselves. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty.

Choice Reviews

"An illuminating analysis of the flourishing true crime podcast genre – the author’s infectious enthusiasm is tempered by careful ethical considerations."

Siobhán McHugh