Niamh Jones — Group D, Scoop Troop
As much as I hate to admit it, I engage with true crime media. Don’t you? I am a passive viewer as well which is even worse than just engaging with the content in the first place. I’d love to say that I consume purely fictional crime media, with no interest in real life scenarios, but my curiosity for reality is too strong. I would like to blame my interest on the innate curiosity human behaviour has, but instead I suppose I am just plain nosey.
Growing up in a digitalised world where this content is so easily and quickly accessible there has been a surge of popularity surrounding it, sensationalising it massively. This has led to a proliferation of digital content: sparking new TV shows, podcasts and social media movements exemplifying people’s enjoyment of being a part of the conversation true crime can create. In contemporary society it is so normalised to consume true crime content, as it has become so heavily saturated: from watching livestreams of courtrooms, to listening to true crime podcasts and people publishing their own theories on social media. It’s almost at a point where it’s impossible to not hear or engage with this style of news storytelling.
The recent popularisation of true crime has made it a passive consumption of my everyday life and for others alike. For instance, listening to a crime podcast whilst brushing my teeth in the morning or watching a livestream of a courtroom whilst eating my dinner. Consuming this type of media now didn’t feel too different compared to catching up on the latest reality TV show episodes. Watching real, traumatic events unfold on our screens became like watching weekly episodes of a new and intriguing serial.
It is worrying how quickly we desensitise ourselves to real-world scenarios, willingly turning people’s lives and trauma into our own entertainment. Making up our own theories and spreading rumours on apps like TikTok with no real substantial evidence. As a society we are immortalising criminals and at times sensationalising their crimes. A question we should ask ourselves is: can we remember the victims’ names as well as we remember the murderers? I know what my answer would be.
The media at times can be argued to glamorise crime, portraying stories as a fascinating, new drama as opposed to what they truly are — a tragedy. An example of a tragic case being dissected for public opinion is the case of the Menendez Brothers, Lyle and Erik, who infamously murdered their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez. With their trial being one of the first to be televised in the 1990s, it became a phenomenon with people glamorising their wealth and physical attractiveness. The lines between entertainment and real life started becoming blurred. A total of 36 years on from the murders, the case is still being sensationalised by the media — for instance, through Netflix bringing out two new shows about the brothers. One show, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, was a dramatized re-telling of the story. It was heavily slammed by the brothers for being inaccurate and over-dramatizing events.
Social media then ran with this sensationalism. With Gen Z now aware of the case, it fuelled a new generation to keep the conversation going. A new movement coined “Menendez Movement” was sparked with many people arguing for the trial to be relooked at. Many people have looked at their crimes through a more sympathetic lens, due to their claims of being abused as children, with some social media users even editing courtroom footage of the brothers to sad music. Additionally, social media also drew attention to their appearance and mannerisms during the trials, with some even branding them the most attractive criminals. The brothers even had A-list celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, visiting them in jail and urging the public to re-evaluate their sentencing, bringing further attention to the case.
The glorification of conflict and the romanticism of the Menendez brothers reflects how society has shifted when examining crime and the justice system. Arguably, the sensationalism of some cases can be beneficial to re-evaluate how justice is served, educating people further. However, media can also glamorise crime, in a way that turns education into a dark obsession.
