[Commlist] CFP Murder and True Crime Conference

*CFP: Murder and True Crime in the Media*

Proposals are invited for an interdisciplinary conference at St 
Mary’s University, Twickenham, to explore Murder and True Crime in the 
Media. The one-day conference is on *_Friday 29_**_^th _**_ May 2020._*

Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Dr Sarah Moore, author of /Crime and the 
Media /(2014, Palgrave Macmillan)

Modern audiences demonstrate an appetite for true crime, 
and particularly stories that involve murder. Whilst public fascination 
for true crime is not /new/, the genre has long dominated our 
entertainment industries, from biopics, whodunnits, to gangster 
films; interest in true crime is certainly /renewed/. One reason 
for the resurgence of popularity for true crime is Industrial. There is 
a recent influx of new content available. /Making a Murderer/ can be 
viewed through the lens of Netflix and binge-watching, Sarah Koenig’s 
/Serial/ is closely linked to an increase in podcast listeners. 
/Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil, and Vile/ and /Mindhunter/ both 
demonstrate the draw for well-known stars (such as Zac Efron) and 
personnel (David Fincher) to this genre.

Where there is scheduling, there is also a market. The people that 
‘demand’ on demand. Therefore, alongside these industrial contexts, 
there are a number of wider factors involved in the surge of murder 
content. Violent crimes, particularly murder, have ideal narrative 
structures with a ready-made story arc, ‘social order is disrupted by a 
deviant act, the guilty are sought and generally identified, and, 
finally, justice is done or thwarted’ (Auden in Moore, 2014: 177). They 
are enigma narratives that compel audiences to binge-watch the 
investigation so that they may finally achieve satisfaction in the form 
of closure. Some narratives are exoneration tales, using documentary as 
trial spaces that jurify the public (Bruzzi, 2016), others provide us 
with an opportunity to experience fear in a 
safe environment. David Altheide’s (2002) work on fear and the news and 
Ulrich Beck’s (1992) on /Risk Society/ demonstrates how a perceived lack 
of control over our lives has led to a preoccupation with safety and risk.

Through the consideration of murder in the press, documentaries, 
films and novels, this conference will interrogate the 
different representations of true crime and how these can contribute 
to important debates in contemporary culture and society. For 
instance, can analysis into victims shed light on the way that social 
groups are constructed in the media, and whether there is a process 
of selection occurring? How can the study of murder cases provide 
further insight into coercive control? How might 
the representations of crimes vary, from knife crime, organised 
crime, to the glamorisation or even celebrification of some serial 
killers?What are the ethical considerations when producing murder 
content and how do platforms such as podcasts and YouTube, pose issues 
of regulation?

Papers are invited from a broad range of disciplines including Media, 
Film, Criminology, Sociology, Law. Some focal points include (but are 
not limited to)

·The victims and/or survivors of murder

·Serial killers and/or mass murderers in the media

·Organised crime and human trafficking

·Murder in the news

·Policing and the murder investigation

·Domestic violence

·Coercive control

·True Crime trials – the use of documentary and podcasts as an 
alternative ‘trial space’ to either exonerate the falsely accused or 
announce culprits (and negotiations in-between)

·The platforms and technologies of true crime - 
Netflix, podcasts, YouTube, crime binge-watching (extending to issues of 
regulation)

·The ethical considerations involved in murder themed productivity

·Negotiating risk and fear in true crime

·Cultivation theory

Please submit a maximum 500-word abstract by *Friday 14**^th 
** February**2020* to Dr Maria Mellins, (maria.mellins /at/ stmarys.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(maria.mellins /at/ stmarys.ac.uk)>


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