ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the enduring relationship between true crime and audio media. We explore the ways that audio-only media have offered unique opportunities for true crime stories during their time as ‘new’ media. In the 1930s, commercial broadcast radio offered a new cultural space that allowed police forces to control their own image and celebrate their successful development as modern, scientifically, and technologically sophisticated crime fighters. In the new millennium, podcasts have emerged as a space to expand the focus of true crime storytelling to explore shifting notions of justice. While there are significant differences between the two forms, shaped by their different historical and industry contexts, we argue that there are also a number of persistent threads that tie these forms together, including their focus on the pursuit of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ of the investigation as key to their audience appeal, an appeal to a public service agenda, and the ways they foster audience participation in the excitement and spectacle of the dramatic stories. Finally, both are strongly shaped by the intimacy of conversation and modes of address unique to audio-only media.
