The Murder Media Podcast

This week, Stella chats about two of her favourite podcasts: All Killa No Filla and The Last Podcast on the Left, and picking up from episode 5, their approaches to the Jeffrey Dahmer story. Told via the skills of stand up comedians, observational and sketch comedy, and improvisation, these podcasts re-present this well-worn story with a dark wit, woven into meticulous research. Episode 7 takes the fundamentals of how true crime is understood to deal with grisly details and subversive characters, yet at the same time, uphold law and order. What happens then, when these fundamentals collide with comedy?

Sources:

Gaynor, S. M. (2023). ‘Bones are life!’ True crime podcasting, self-promotion and the vernaculars of Instragram with Cult Liter, in, Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, vol 22(1), pp. 1-16 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405702.2023.2281581

Sherrill, L. A. (2020). The Serial Effect and the True Crime podcast ecosystem, in Journalism Practice, vol 16(7), pp. 1473-1494 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2020.1852884

The Last Podcast on the Left – Episodes 122, 123, and 124 cover Jeffrey Dahmer.

All Kille No Filla – Episode 10, Jeffrey Dahmer. This is a very early episode of All Killa, and the audio quality is a little muffled.  

Both podcasts are available via iTunes and Spotify.

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

This week Stella is joined by fellow academic and all round legend, Dr Shellie McMurdo. We tackle the same questions from episode 4, and get to the bottom of such condundrums as:

What do we actually mean by celebrity? 

Could we take Bundy in a fight? 

Is Bundy as famous as Mr Blobby? 

Shellie is the author of Blood on the Lens: Trauma and Anxiety in American Found Footage cinema, published in 2022 with Edinburgh University Press. 

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-blood-on-the-lens.html

Shellie's article on Tate in American Horror Story and its links to Columbine, can be found here: 

McMurdo, S. (2019). 'It's a filthy goddamn helpless world': Reimagining Columbine, Tate Langdon, and the spectre of school shooters, in European Journal of American Culture, vol 38(1), pp. 57-69

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

This week Stella examines a true crime comedy podcast, Cult Liter, with a close look at the episode that covers Jeffrey Dahmer. Exploring how true crime develops across digital media, Stella unpacks what drives users over on Instagram, and what happens when the drive to gain likes and follows, collides with Dahmer’s grisly tale.

Sources:

Caldeira, S. P. (2020). ‘It’s not just Instagram models:’ Exploring the gendered political potential of young women’s Instagram use, in Media and Communication, vol 9(2), pp. 5-15

Dumas, T., Maxwell-Smith, M., Davis, J., & Giulietti, P. (2017). Lying or longing for likes? Narcissism, peer-belonging, loneliness and normative versus deceptive like-seeking on Instagram in emerging adulthood, in Computers and Human Behavior, vol 71, pp. 1-10

Gaynor, S. M. (2023). “Bones are life!” true crime podcasting, self-promotion and the vernaculars of Instagram with Cult Liter, in Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Communication, vol 22(4), pp. 1-16 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405702.2023.2281581

Hancock, D., & McMurtry, L., (2017). Cycles upon cycles, stories upon stories: Contemporary audio media and podcast horror’s new frights, in Palgrave Communications, vol 3(1), pp. 1-8

Hand, R., Hancock, D., & McCullum, V. (2019). Beware the untruths: Podcast horror in Trump’s America, in McCullum, V. (Ed). Make America Hate Again: Trump-era Horror and the Politics of Fear. Routledge

Horeck, T. (2019). Justice on Demand: True Crime in the Digital Streaming Era. Wayne State University Press

Schmid, D. (2005). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. University of Chicago Press

Seltzer, M. (1998). Serial Killers: Death and Life in America’s Wound Culture. Routledge.

Sheldon, P. (2015). Social Media: Principles and Applications. Lexington Books

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

In episode 4 I am joined by Laura, my best mate of over two decades. We've always chatted between ourselves about true crime and cults, and this week we discuss where our interest in true crime started, what we watch and don't watch, and get to the really hard hitting issues, such as:

Why do we want to know the details of these crimes? 

Is true crime making inroads into inclusivity and diversity?

And is Jeffrey Dahmer as famous as Beyonce? 

Join us for a bit of a laugh as we scrutinize our own engagement with murder media content.  

If you want to puzzle over these questions too, and join in over on Instagram or Facebook, here is what I asked:

• Where did your love / like of true crime start? Do you remember what you first watched or read?

Note: When Laura mentions a Netflix documentary and recent news story, the name we meant is Lori Vallow, not Valentine. And that documentary is Sins of Our Mother, which can be found on Netflix.

I also realised when editing that I didn't introduce myself: I am your host, Dr Stella Marie Gaynor.

One more note: The sound isn't the best in this episode: Two people and one mic isn't the most ideal set up. 

Also mentioned:

Stolen: The Search for Jermain. This podcast is hosted by Connie Walker, and can be found on Spotify and all the usual podcast places. 

Klebold, S. (2016). A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the aftermath of the Columbine Tragedy. Ebury Publishing

Schmid, D. (2005). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. The University of Chicago Press

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

Lets finally be done with Mr Billy Bullshi*t, AKA Ted Bundy. In this episode, we look at the story when its is told by women. We'll look at an episode of the My Favorite Murder podcast, the brilliant documentary series from Trish Wood, Falling for a Killer, and we'll finish up with a more detailed look at Bailey Sarian's Murder, Mystery and Makeup series, and her episode on Ted. 

We'll explore the story when it is told with empathy, grief, and with a little more respect for the women directly connected to the story. 

You can find Falling for a Killer on Prime Video; My Favorite Murder in all the usual podcast places, and Bailey Sarian's channel is over on YouTube. 

Edit: That interview I mention with Bailey Sarian in The Guardian... it's not The Guardian! It was with BBC News. Linked below. 

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Sources: 

Bruzzi, S. (2016). 'Making a genre: the case of the contemporary true crime documentary,' in Law and Humanities, vol 10(2), pp. 249-280

Gaynor, S.M. (2023). “What Else Can I Add?”: Inverting the Narrative through Female Perspectives in Falling For A Killer, My Favorite Murder, and Murder, Mystery & Makeup, in Larke-Walsh, G. S. (ed). True Crime in American Media. Routledge, pp. 180-195

Greer, A. (2018). 'Murder, She Spoke: the femake voice's ethics of evocation and spatialisation in the true crime podcast,' in Sound Studies, vol 3(2), pp. 152-164

Horecks, T. (2019). Justice on Demand: True Crime in the Digital Streaming Era. Wayne State University Press

Jordan, D. (2022). 'The YouTuber making millions from true crime and make-up,' BBC News. July 22. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61948546 

Seltzer, M. (1998). Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture. Routledge. 

The quotes from Wanda Sykes can be found in:

Willet, C. & Willet, J. (2019). Uproarious: How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth. University of Minnesota Press

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended

In the second episode, Stella takes a long hard look at Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, exploring the documentary form, the title credits, and a brilliant article from Bryann McCann. 

Sources:

Aufderheide, P. (2007). Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (Netflix, Berlinger, 2019). 

Gaynor, S.M. (2022). ‘Better the Devil You Know: Nostalgia for the Captured Killer in Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,’ in Robinson, B. A, B., & Daigle, C. (eds). Serial Killers in Contemporary Television: Familiar Monsters in Post-9/11 Culture. Routledge, pp. 135-153

McCann, B. J. (2021). 'Duplicity and the Depraved Uncanny in Mediations of Ted Bundy.' Women's Studies in Communication. Vol 44(3), pp. 340-359

Murley, J. (2009). The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture. Praeger Publishers.

Simpson, P. (2003). 'America's Scariest Home Videos: Serial Killers and Reality Television,' PostScript 22, vol2, 103

Smith, V. L. (2011). 'Our Serial Killers, Our Superheroes, and Ourselves: Showtime's Dexter,' Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol 28(5), pp. 390-400

Watson, T. J. (2013). 'Rethinking History Through Documentary: Paradise Lost and the Documented Case of "The West Memphis Three,"' in Mee, L. &. Walker, J. (Eds). Cinema, Television & History. Cambridge Scholars Publishers. 

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

Welcome to The Murder Media Podcast! This week Stella introduces the podcast, the project and has a chat about true crime in its forms across screen media. From the execution sermons of the 17th century, to the crime and makeup trend on YouTube, this week’s episode begins to unpack the varying forms of Murder Media.

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at [email protected], or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

Sources:

Gaynor, S.M. (2022). Rethinking Horror in the New Economies of Television. Palgrave MacMillan

Gaynor, S.M. (2022). ‘Better the Devil You Know: Nostalgia for the Captured Killer in Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,’ in Robinson, B. A, B., & Daigle, C. (eds). Serial Killers in Contemporary Television: Familiar Monsters in Post-9/11 Culture. Routledge, pp. 135-153.

Gaynor, S.M. (2023). “What Else Can I Add?”: Inverting the Narrative through Female Perspectives in Falling For A Killer, My Favorite Murder, and Murder, Mystery & Makeup, in Larke-Walsh, G. S. (ed). True Crime in American Media. Routledge, pp. 180-195.

Gaynor, S.M. (2023). “Bones are life!”: True Crime Podcasting, self-promotion and the vernaculars of Instagram with Cult Liter,’ Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, Vol 22(1), pp. 1-16

Murley, J. (2009). The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture. Praeger Publishers.

Punnett, I, C. (2018). Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives: A Textual Analysis. Routledge.

Seay, S. (2009). Hanging Between Heaven and Earth: Capital Crime, Execution Preaching, and Theology in Early New England. Northern Illinois University Press

Music:

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.