This study explores the true crime documentary Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story and aims to investigate the protagonist Cyntoia Brown in relation to how her character and story is represented. Due to the consistent rise of awareness in equal rights, as well as the steady increase of black representation in popular television, one might think that it would reflect positively in mass media. Although there have been few changes to representation, the findings that are to be presented suggest otherwise. Narratives within television still heavily relies on stereotyping and following societal norms, which this study desires to expose through a discourse analysis.

I denna studie har vi undersökt hur manliga och kvinnliga innehållsproducenter av fyra svenska true crime-podcastprogram har representerat gärningsperson, offer och deras anhöriga. I studien undersöktes också hur producenterna uttryckt personliga åsikter och hur de använt sig av musik. Att kritiskt granska producenterna är relevant eftersom tidigare studier har visat att de har ett stort inflytande på både samhället och sina lyssnare. Genom en semiotisk textanalys studerades innehållet i podcastprogrammen utifrån teorierna kunskapssociologi, genus och representation. Resultatet visar att manliga och kvinnliga innehållsproducenter representerade de involverade i mordfallen på liknande sätt men att det finns skillnader i hur manliga och kvinnliga innehållsproducenter uttryckt personliga åsikter. I de studerade podcastprogrammen har vi också identifierat två underkategorier i true crime-genren, ”pratprogram” och ”dokumentär”. / In this study, we have examined how male and female content producers of four Swedish true crime podcasts have represented perpetrators, victims and their relatives. The study also examined how producers expressed personal opinions and how they used music. A critical review of these producers is relevant because previous studies have shown they have a great influence on both society and their listeners. The content of the podcasts was studied based on the theories of Sociology of Knowledge, Gender and Representation, using a Semiotic Text Analysis. The results show that male and female content producers represented those involved in the true crime cases in similar ways, but that there are differences in how male and female content producers expressed personal opinions. We have also identified two subcategories in the true crime genre, namely "Talk Show" and "Documentary".

True crime has established itself as a genre with a huge amount of dedicated viewers worldwide,and has gone from ”trash culture” to big, Emmy award-winning productions. Consumers of thegenre has evolved from passively watching the series on the couch, to actively getting engaged in thecase over internet forums as ”digital detectives”. In combination with the technological developmentand the growth of the media, including the shift in power this has contributed to, we now face newchallenges that society has not yet been able to address. The genres influence on its consumers iswidely debated, as is the influence of today’s media climate on our perception of the world, andstudies that address why we expose ourself to this type of content have been written about anddocumented in numerous ways. However, there is no account of the consumers’ own understandingof the relationship between the media, increased opportunities of communication and the genres'growing popularity. This study aims to investigate how today’s media climate and the digital culturewe live in have contributed to the phenomenon that true crime is, and what factors causethe consumers to evolve from passive to active. The documentary Making a Murderer serves asbasis for the study, it is available in two seasons and depicts the murder of Teresa Halbach.To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative method approach was used. As part of the pilotstudy a focus group was conducted, which was then supplemented with personal interviews. Thedata that emerged in these studies were processed and analyzed thematically with the support of thedocumented theories. From the themes and patterns that were developed, conclusions could bewritten, the sub-questions could be answered and the purpose of the study was fulfilled. I came tothe conclusion that mediatization and convergence culture can be assumed to play a major part inthe emergence of digital detectives, as well as in the development of a relatively new form of spoilerculture in which collective intelligence is used to reform society. Furthermore, I found a concernamong the consumers about how dangerous it can be if media and civilians act as judges insociety, and how the possible lack of source criticism can affect the public’s perception of the world.In order for consumers to evolve from passive to active, and for them to be affected on an emotionallevel, a real and detailed picture of the case needs to be portrayed, with socio-economic factors aswell as an insight into the protagonist’s life.

Studien innefattar hur Aftonbladet och Expressen har framställt två kända kriminella svenska män, Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt, i sina artiklar. I studien undersöks mediebilden av Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt, har de blivit framställda som brottslingar och som kändisar? Artiklar om Clark Olofsson är hämtade från år 1972, 1979, 2008 samt 2009. Artiklarna om Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt är hämtade från 1979, 1995,1996 samt från 2016. Studien genomförs genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys och en kvalitativ textanalys för att kunna undersöka ett stort antal artiklar och även djupdyka i några utvalda texter. Studien analyserar artiklar från tre historiska nedslag för varje individ, vilket skapar ett bredare perspektiv om hur Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt har framställts i kvällstidningarna. Årtalen som granskas är valda utefter vilka år som media rapporterat mest om Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt. Materialet är hämtat från Kungliga Biblioteket i Stockholm. Studien innefattar gestaltningsteorin som grundteori, dagordningsteorin, nyhetsvärderingsteorin och the thrill. Tillsammans skapar teorierna en helhetsbild av relationen mellan media och brott. Studiens resultat visar att framställningen av Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt skiljer sig åt beroende på vilket årtal som granskas. I kvällspressen har en omfattande del av all rapportering handlat om Lars-Inge Svartenbrandts och Clark Olofssons kriminella handlingar, men många artiklar är även vinklade åt deras privatliv. Kvällstidningarnas intresse för Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt är synligt genom de årtal som har granskats. Resultatet pekar på att även om de oftast framställs som brottslingar i artiklarna så leder den massiva rapporteringen om Clark Olofsson och Lars-Inge Svartenbrandt till att de får en kändisstatus.

The popularity of true crime podcasts has increased in recent years. The majority of truecrime content consists of stories with female victims and male perpetrators, and can therefore be described as portraying men’s violence against women. This study aimed to identify what discourses about men’s violence against women that are constructed in true crime podcasts. The study has utilized critical discourse analysis, focusing on three dimensions of men’s violence against women: the female victim, the male perpetrator and the nature of the violence. The results of the study showed, among other things, that the male perpertrator was constructed as a deviant being, striving for sexual satisfaction. At the same time, the female victim was idealised, described as beautiful and caring. The podcasts also constructed a discourse of men’s violence against women as primarly consisting of phsysical and sexual violence. The results of the study have been analyzed using Connell’s theory on gender, which demonstrated that true crime podcasts reconstruct many gender norms that confirm the prevailing gender order. Furthermore, the results have been analyzed using Rafter’s theory on popular criminology, which presents true crime podcasts as an important dimension of our cultural understanding of crime. From the perspective of popular criminology, the discourses found in the result of this study contribute to the understanding of our society’s political direction and implementations of policies regarding men’s violence against women. / <p>2022-01-31</p>

The purpose of this research paper is to take a closer look at the movie “Extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile”, which is a movie based on true events and life of serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of how serial killers are portrayed in movies and through which perspective the story is told. To get closer to our purpose we saw to two research questions, firstly how is the character Ted Bundy portrayed through semiotic resources? The second question we asked ourselves is; how can the different types of choices the production make contribute to further romanticizing of a serial killer? To answer these questions we used a multimodal critical discourse analysis method which focuses a lot on the visual elements such as a character's clothing, the way they speak and carry themselves and so on. To carry out the study we analyzed the characters in the movie, how they acted toward each other, what scenes were chosen to be shown in the movie and which parts of the real story were left out and what seemed to be the main focus in the movie. To achieve the purpose of the study the characters have been analyzed, mainly Ted Bundy. But also the different types of active choices the production made to embody Bundy and the events. Like the choice of events and how the story generally relates to reality. The results we got from our research is that the character Ted Bundy in the movie is highly romanticized when you see the way he is portrayed and what kind of scenes were focused on. It also became quite clear that the story is told through Liz’s perspective causing it to be told out of a biased and compromised angle.  Our conclusion is that it is quite clear when reading the results that there are tendencies to romanticize the main character even when it comes to serial killers based on real people.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how crime victims are portrayed in the true crime genre, specifically podcasts, in order to find out what opportunities the receivers have for meaning making regarding victims. The study analyzes a total of four podcast episodes produced by P3 Dokumentär and Jakten på mördaren which are two very large podcasts in Sweden based on listeners. The theoretical framework consists of the framing theory and victimology. It is a qualitative study based on a rhetorical model which consists of various tools and concepts, such as context, forms of appellations and figure of speech. The results showed that the victims are portrayed based on their personality and appearance. Two of the episodes had a more detailed description overall about the victim, while the other two episodes focused more on the murderer and how the crime unfolded. The essay concludes that all the episodes consist of appellations, such as ethos and pathos to convince the audience, gain their trust and reach their emotions. There were different kinds of framing in all the episodes, and it told us a lot about how the producer of the episode wanted to portray the victim. We established some linguistic patterns that connected to previous studies made for similar purposes. Some linguistic patterns were that the victims often were portrayed innocent and as an underdog regardless how the story of the crime went. The details about the murder, the crime scene and the victim were ingoing and very figuratively described.

Opravdové zločiny" focuses on a currently prevalent genre of true crime and the phenomenon motivation to listen to the podcast Opravdové zločiny and participate in other related activities. the entertaining Czech true crime podcast "Opravdové zločiny" in order to identi

I denna uppsats används kriminologisk narrativ metod i syfte att undersöka hur gängkriminella kvinnor framställs i media utifrån ett genusvetenskapligt ramverk. Det empiriska materialet som vi använt för analysen är dokumentärserien Gängkrigen och kvinnorna vilken Karwan Faraj är redaktör samt producent av. Gängkrigen och kvinnorna är en svensk true crime-dokumentärserie i tre delar där vi som åskådare får följa Karwan Faraj som även agerar undersökande journalist i möten med sex kvinnor involverade i gängkriminalitet. Medias framställning av kriminella kvinnor bryter mot den normativa femininiteten vilket lockar till sig många fascinerade åskådare och producerar en säljande samt underhållande historia. Vår analys visar att kvinnornas framställning i dokumentärserien ges utifrån ett manligt perspektiv vilket i sin tur skapar ett ramverk för åskådarnas generella förståelse av gängkriminella kvinnor. De framställs av Karwan Faraj med aktiva roller inom de kriminella gängmiljöerna. För att kvinnorna inte ska bli ett alltför skrämmande samhällshot tonas deras roll som gängkriminell ned genom att dessutom försätta dem i brottsoffer- samt moderskapsrollen. Denna analys ger inte en helhetsbild för hur gängkriminella kvinnor framställs i svensk media utan det är vår tolkning av ett empiriskt material som redogörs för, vilken är en av många som kan göras. Vidare vill vi förtydliga att vi förhåller oss kritiska till den framställning av kvinnorna vi tolkat att Faraj förmedlar. Vi ämnar inte reproducera dessa normativa genusföreställningar trots att denna sort av analys medför just en sådan risk. Studiens bidrag syftar till att öka förståelsen samt medvetenheten kring dokumentärfilmers sanningsanspråk samt tolkningsföreträde. Det genusvetenskapliga ramverket möjliggjorde för oss att kritiskt granska hur kön och genus konstrueras i relation till kvinnors brottslighet utifrån den västerländska normativa föreställningen kring hur kvinnan bör vara. Denna studie utgår från en socialkonstruktivistisk utgångspunkt då vi studerar framställningar och därmed sociala konstruktioner av verkligheten och identiteter.

I denna uppsats har syftet varit att studera hur seriemördaren Jeffrey Dahmer och hans offer porträtteras i den nyproducerade Netflix-serien Dahmer - Monster: Berättelsen om Jeffrey Dahmer (2022a). Detta motiveras av intresset att få en bredare förståelse för hur verkliga händelser skildras i true crime-genren. Frågeställningen som legat till grund för denna studie är: “Hur skildras Jeffrey Dahmer som mer eller mindre (o)mänsklig, och hur skildras detta i relation till hans offer?”. Som teoretiskt ramverk har Goffmans framing-teori, det intersektionella perspektivet och Christies ideala offer använts. Mot denna bakgrund bestod det analyserade materialet av 10 stycken avsnitt som bearbetades utifrån en tematisk innehållsanalys, med inriktning på det semiotiska och paratextuella i materialet. Resultatet delades in i tre övergripande teman; Den fördömde/De fördömda, Att flörta med det groteska och Rödluvan och den (o)stygga vargen. Studiens resultat visar att Jeffrey skildras som mer mänsklig än omänsklig och att det konkurrerar med skildringen av hans offer och deras offerskap.