Hearing and Seeing Crime: How True Crime Storytelling Represents Race and Gender (Dissertation Project)

My dissertation investigates how true crime podcasts and docuseries represent race and gender, and how these portrayals shape audience perceptions. Drawing on both critical cultural studies and social psychological theories, the project bridges representation and audience analysis. Study 1 uses computational text analysis, discourse analysis, and visual semiotics to document how victims, perpetrators, and authority figures are portrayed across hundreds of true crime episodes and trailers. Study 2 employs an experimental design to test how audio-only versus audiovisual modalities influence stereotype activation, using both implicit and explicit measures. Together, the project highlights how multimodal storytelling in true crime blurs the boundaries between journalism and entertainment, with profound implications for understanding media, inequality, and justice.

Dissertation Committee: Mary A. Bock (chair), Stephen D. Reese, Renita Coleman, Gina M. Masullo, and Ashwin Rajadesingan

Stay tuned for publication!