The True Crime Club’s Instagram posts are absurd.
Posts are made each week to highlight which cases will be discussed at their meetings. Given the nature of the topics discussed within the club, you would think respect and humility would be in high regard when making posts online. Sadly, this is not the case.
Their Instagram posts offer an unsettling level of irony. The juxtaposition of the unserious presentation of the crimes and the sad reality of said topics is jarring.
Something interesting about the posts is how the cases (all murders for some reason) are presented in the same format as YouTube clickbait.
“If you’re curious *emoji* to see what a hammer *emoji* (and screwdriver *emoji*) can do whilst in pursuit of murder + rampage. You won’t want to miss tonight’s meeting! We will HAVE A KAHOOT *emoji* this week with a gift card prize *emoji* for the winner *emoji*”
There are multiple captions formatted like this.
The excessive use of emojis, flat humor and advertising for snacks and prizes offered at each meeting is used often — as if to mock the victims and nullify any hope that there will be a critical discussion of the crimes.
As for the content of the photos, they use actual photos of the victims and/or murderers as background images and highlighted words in the foreground describing the event.
Something about the contrast between the photos of victims and the promotion of Kahoot games and prizes all in the same post just doesn’t sit right with me.
The social media manager is adhering to a formula popularized by YouTube’s algorithm that incentivizes salacious language and busy thumbnails that catch people’s attention.
An added layer of irony here stems from the fact that they don’t need to do this. True crime is such a niche yet popular topic among college students.
It’s one of those clubs that could form in a vacuum and sustain a decent number of members, negating any reason to make such distasteful posts (even if they were struggling to find members it wouldn’t be morally permissible to use clickbait tactics given the nature of the topics discussed).
True crime handles the trauma of real people who have families that may see the podcasts, videos and Netflix specials, possibly re-traumatizing them.
Since our only exposure to such events is often from behind a screen, we are affectively distanced from the actual magnitude of the situation.
The screens don’t just provide a comfortable distance, they subconsciously make it hard for us to separate the facts from the fiction, we get enamored by the narrative presented and lose humanity.
The families of the victims are then never considered and those who consume true crime content will never have to explain their morbid fascination to them.
Despite this unfortunate reality, the genre of true crime (and the club) has the potential to bring awareness to critical issues in our society. Especially pertaining to social justice, intersectionality, and the stigmatization of people struggling with mental illnesses who commit serious offenses.
Aside from awareness, the club could offer a critical examination of the genre of true crime, its ethical implications, and why people consume such media. This would facilitate much-needed conversation about the genre.
Another way to ground discussion is to find ways to help the community. The creation of conflict resolution programs, implementation of implicit bias training programs, and volunteering in marginalized communities would be far more constructive than the current agenda.
Overall, I think conversations around death should be perceptive and handled with an informed compassion.
For us as a society to move closer toward authentic justice, we must be empathetic and critical of the institutions that mediate the relationship between us, our health and society.
