‘My Favourite Genre Is Missing People’: Exploring How Listeners Experience True Crime Podcasts in Australia

Abstract

In Australia, the public is increasingly accessing stories about crime, violence and harm via true crime podcasts (TCPs). Despite the proliferation of these sources, TCPs have received limited attention in criminological media research. To address this gap, this article outlines findings from a recent research project that examined Australian listeners’ perspectives of TCPs. To explore how listeners relate to TCPs and the factors shaping the podcasts they gravitate towards, this vignette study asked participants to read two podcast summaries, choose which they would prefer to listen to and write about what informed their decision. The analysis of these accounts presented in this article provides insight into which TCP narratives listeners recognise as meaningful and how these texts produce and entrench different ways of experiencing and understanding crime.