The Rise of True Crime Podcasts

Aug 10, 2024

5 min read

Throughout history, women have communicated orally; women's words have often been put down or thought of as lesser than men's language and pejoratively called "gossip." In Ancient times, this orality of language was seen as having a high social value. Still, as literacy rates increased and writing became our primary form of communication, orality became "gossip." Women's words are more narrative and emotionally directed (Adkins, 2002). Since the turn of the century, the internet has dominated our means of communicating with one another as it has changed commerce, dating, and even our day-to-day lives. Podcasts are one of the types of communication that have significantly increased over the last ten years. In 2013, only 12% of ages 12 and above had listened to a podcast. Fast forward to 2023; over 42% of the population 12 and above had listened to a podcast within the last month (Shearer, 2024). Podcasts have been growing as a way to disseminate information to the masses while creating a sense of intimacy between the host and the listener, which has only increased with the rise of social media and contact between the host and listener. True Crime podcasts have topped the charts in dedicated listenership and fanbase, but why?

During COVID-19, I became an avid user of the Clubhouse app, allowing hosts to open up dialogues between themselves and their listeners. Essentially, anyone who was a part of the club and joined in was allowed to raise their hand and speak to ask questions. This bit of connection in a world that was unconnected helped many of us survive quarantine, and I became trauma-bonded with my meditation group. So, I began to question whether the group and myself had a bond. Is there something like that with the True Crime podcast?

Many of the most popular True Crime podcasts are hosted by women and have an audience of primarily women, so to investigate thoroughly, we need to look at how women speak to each other. What is this idea of "gossip"? Throughout history, the way women use language has been often put down. When women gathered together to speak, it was frequently pejoratively called gossip, but that was because it was usually talking about men. The roots of gossip are based on protecting women. Gossip started to warn other women about problems, and many times, those problems were men, so it was no wonder men felt threatened by this form of female communication.

True Crime podcasts are predominantly about murder, and women are heavily invested in them. Women are the dominant gender in both hosting and listening to True Crime, and psychologically, it makes sense because many women claim that they listen to true crime in order to prevent the crime from happening to them! Kelli Bolling of Nevada State University is studying the effects of True Crime on women. Boling’s research focused on those women who have experienced domestic violence themselves, and she found that even though they are putting themselves in the same or similar situations, they have complete control, and "it becomes healing instead of traumatizing," says Bolling (2023).

While True Crime podcasts can be used in healing, Boling also notes that they can also retraumatize their victims or, worse exploit the victims and turn the killer into a celebrity. Bolling is searching for the best practices in how to use True Crime. “We’re at a critical place where the genre can become the lowest of the low, or it can take a stronger step in the direction of justice,” says Boling.

The interest in True Crime has gone a few steps further than just the Podcast. It has infiltrated our television culture in fictionalized stories, like Only Murders in the Building (2020-2024) and Based on a True Story (2023), where the protagonists are so obsessed with True Crime Podcasts that they go on to solve mysteries in their own lives. This not only encourages the audience to become obsessed with a podcast but also to become detectives.

Another interesting twist on the True Crime podcast can be seen on YouTube. Women's speech is taken to the next level in Bailey Sarian's series "Mystery Makeup and Murder Mondays," or MMM. In this series, Sarian not only describes in detail the various True Crime murders that you would see in her podcast, but she also does this while doing a "get ready with me" video where she puts makeup on like she is talking to a friend. It adds the ultimate touch of feminity to the gossip, and one feels like they are being let in on a story.

There has also been an increase in the mixing of True Crime and ASMR genres. ASMR is a type of video that is supposed to activate the autonomous sensory meridian response. In this reaction, one feels a tingling on the back of their head or even goosebumps. This is often created by the ASMR artist tapping or brushing on things, but whispers or a low speaking level frequently triggers it. So, the genre combination usually includes True Crime murder stories that are whispered to give tingles that eventually lead to sleep. One such ASMRtist is True Crime Time ASMR, and she posts video content twice a week where she whispers True Crime stories. Angel ASMR, another ASMRtist, takes True Crime ASMR to the next level by combining True Crime, ASMR, and wine in a show called "Wine and Crime."

True Crime Podcasts are a new form of media that continues to rise in popularity, especially among women. Through the research, I have found that it continues to evolve in a way that asks more women not just to relax while watching or listening, but the newest round of True Crime uses stereotypically female things to bond with women through the modernization of gossip.

References

Adkins, K. C. (2002). The real dirt: Gossip and feminist epistemology. Social

Epistemology, 16(3), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/0269172022000025598

angel ASMR. “ASMR - True Crime - H. H. Holmes.” YouTube, 14 Apr. 2021,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CssQmjwb_U.

Bailey Sarian. (2024, April 15). How Snapchat caught this parent killer red-handed | Mystery

& Makeup [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZg6gyuhIg

Boling, K. (2023). Studying impacts of true crime media – Research Report 2023. Research

at Nebraska. https://research.unl.edu/annualreport/2023/podcasts/

CONSPIRACY: Charles “Chuck” Morgan. (2024, July 11). audiochuck.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6dTO4eUbcFbo9l36JfbhzP?si=4095ddcaf7b24192

Hood, M. A. (2020). Desire and Knowledge: Feminist Epistemology in Carmen María