CSTonline

Chapter proposals for edited collection #TrueCrime: Digital Culture,
Ethics and True Crime Audiences

Proposals due by Thursday 1st February 2024.

The hashtag [\#truecrime](https://cstonline.net/tag/truecrime/){.hashtag
.u-tag .u-category rel="tag"} currently has 50.7 billion views on TikTok
and 1.3 million posts on Instagram. Reddit's 'True Crime Forum' boasts
over 2.6 million 'detectives', and the most-watched true crime videos on
YouTube achieve in the region of 30 million views. Elsewhere, true crime
fans flock to X (formerly known as Twitter), Tumblr and Facebook to join
growing communities of like-minded enthusiasts. This level of social
media activity---which ranges from acts of liking, sharing and
commenting to posting original content such as reaction videos, true
crime-themed makeup tutorials and scathing critiques of the genre's more
troubling aspects---is of little surprise. As Tanya Horeck (2019, 130)
suggests, true crime plays upon viewers' affective responses in order to
heighten their interest in and consumption of stories. Audiences'
increasing sense of participation and their conviction that they can
play a vital role in effecting meaningful social change is, Horeck
notes, characteristic of true crime outputs shaped by online media
networks in the digital era.

Much scholarship has focused on long-form modes of storytelling in the
professionalised sectors of the true crime industry. Fewer, however,
have considered the user-generated productions that circulate on
platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and X. In the mainstream media, the
ethical pitfalls of the low-threshold styles of content creation that
typify social media true crime have made headlines due to the activities
of digital sleuths, many of whom are also aspiring true crime
influencers (Kircher and Hampton, 2021). One of the best-known examples
of such problematic armchair detecting occurred with the social media
frenzy surrounding the disappearance of
[\#vanlife](https://cstonline.net/tag/vanlife/){.hashtag .u-tag
.u-category rel="tag"} micro-influencer Gabby Petito in 2021, with
TikTokers poring over Petito's social media accounts, focusing on
minuscule details and perpetuating endless speculation as to her
whereabouts and her fate. Bethan Jones notes that the actions of these
social media users blurred 'the lines between websleuthing and fandom,
and the increasing treatment of the \[Petito\] case as a fictional
narrative puts true crime fandom on the cusp of appropriate and
inappropriate behavior' (2023, 176). Yet, as we have argued elsewhere
(Hobbs and Hoffman, 2022, forthcoming), social media also has the
potential to offer true crime consumers and producers alternative
avenues of expression that are both individually empowering and
potentially genre-changing. The same low thresholds that allow for
conjecture and conspiracy also afford audiences space for critique and
analysis. The accessibility of social media apps has provided new voices
with room for expression and recognition, and, to that end, there has
been a substantial increase in visibility for true crime content
creators who are themselves survivors of crime and/or who are from
historically marginalised groups underrepresented in the wider true
crime genre. The range of user-generated materials available also
affords consumers access to content that aligns with their personal,
political and cultural preferences in ways unimaginable before the
advent of digital media.

Editors Simon Hobbs (University of Portsmouth, UK) and Megan Hoffman
(Independent Scholar) invite submissions for a peer-reviewed edited
collection to be proposed for Palgrave's 'Fan Studies' series. We are
looking for chapters of 6000-8000 words on true crime's presence on any
major social networking website, and we particularly welcome pieces that
focus on the ethical implications of such outputs.

**Possible subjects may include, but are not limited to: **

- The ethics of true crime content on social media

- Regulation and censorship of true crime content on social media

- Social media true crime narratives in a post-#MeToo culture

- Social media sleuthing

- The true crime influencer as internet personality

- True crime fan communities and consumption practices on social media

- The role of true crime fan production on social media

- The use of social media by crime victims and survivors

- Social media as a space to share true crime stories from marginalised
  voices

- True crime-related activism on social media

- Social media as a platform for criticising true crime genre
  conventions

- True crime genre hybrids on social media ('true crime and...')

- Gender and social media true crime

- Race and social media true crime

- Doom scrolling and true crime

- The role of subcultural capital, likes and shares in social media true
  crime

- The representation of social media use in other true crime narratives

### Deadlines {#deadlines dir="ltr"}

Please send proposals of up to 500 words, plus a short biography of no
more than 100 words including your name, affiliation and professional
email address,
to **[truecrimeaudiences@gmail.com](mailto:truecrimeaudiences@gmail.com){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}** by Thursday 1st February 2024. Authors will be
notified of the outcome by Thursday 29th February 2024. Full chapters
will be 6000-8000 words in length.

 

#### References {#references dir="ltr"}

Hobbs, Simon, and Megan Hoffman. Forthcoming. "It's Not All R@p!s+\$,
M!rd3r3r\$ and Ki!!3r\$: True Crime Activism on TikTok." In True Crime
and Women: Writers, Readers, and Representations, edited by Lili Pâquet
and Rosemary Williamson. Abingdon, England; New York, NY: Routledge.

Hobbs, Simon, and Megan Hoffman. 2022. "'True Crime and . . .': The
Hybridisation of True Crime Narratives on YouTube." Crime Fiction
Studies 3, no.1:
26-41. [https://doi.org/10.3366/cfs.2022.0058](https://doi.org/10.3366/cfs.2022.0058){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

Horeck, Tanya. 2019. Justice on Demand: True Crime in the Digital
Streaming Era. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Jones, Bethan. 2023. "Forensic Fandom: True Crime, Citizen Investigation
and Social Media." In True Crime in American Media, edited by George S.
Larke-Walsh, 163-79. Abingdon, England; New York, NY: Routledge.

Kircher, Madison Malone, and Rachelle Hampton. 2021. "Did True Crime
Influencers Really Help Solve The Death Of Gabby Petito?." Slate,
September 22,
2021. [https://slate.com/culture/2021/09/gabby-petito-tiktok-interview-icymi.html](https://slate.com/culture/2021/09/gabby-petito-tiktok-interview-icymi.html){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

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‘True Crime and…’: The Hybridisation of True Crime Narratives on YouTube

Chapter proposals for edited collection #TrueCrime: Digital Culture, Ethics and True Crime Audiences Proposals due by Thursday 1st February 2024. The hashtag #truecrime currently has 50.7 billion views on TikTok and 1.3 million posts on Instagram. Reddit’s ‘True Crime Forum’ boasts over 2.6 million ‘detectives’, and the most-watched true crime videos on YouTube achieve in the region of 30 million views.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

CfP: edited collection “#TrueCrime: Digital Culture, Ethics and True Crime Audiences”. Deadline: Feb 01, 2024