Proposals are invited for an
interdisciplinary conference at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on Friday 29th May 2020.
Book your free place on the conference
website:
New Confirmed Keynotes
New Confirmed Keynotes
Dr Sarah Moore‘s research is concerned
with gender and risk, she has published work on media representation of date
rape and student beliefs concerning drug-facilitated sexual assault. Sarah is
the author of Crime and the Media (2014, Palgrave
Macmillan)
Dr Jane Monckton-Smith has published on interpersonal violence, stalking,
coercive control, domestic abuse and homicide prevention. Jane is also the
author of the Homicide Timeline – the 8 stages.
About the Conference
Modern audiences demonstrate and 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
Abstracts
Please
submit a maximum 500-word abstract by Friday 14th February 2020 to
Dr Maria
Mellins, maria.mellins@stmarys.ac.uk
St Mary’s University, Waldegrave Road,
Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. TW1 4SX.
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