Episode 5: Cult Liter and Jeffrey Dahmer: "Bones are life!"

This week Stella examines a true crime comedy podcast, Cult Liter, with a close look at the episode that covers Jeffrey Dahmer. Exploring how true crime develops across digital media, Stella unpacks what drives users over on Instagram, and what happens when the drive to gain likes and follows, collides with Dahmer’s grisly tale.

 

Sources:

 

Caldeira, S. P. (2020). ‘It’s not just Instagram models:’ Exploring the gendered political potential of young women’s Instagram use, in Media and Communication, vol 9(2), pp. 5-15

 

Dumas, T., Maxwell-Smith, M., Davis, J., & Giulietti, P. (2017). Lying or longing for likes? Narcissism, peer-belonging, loneliness and normative versus deceptive like-seeking on Instagram in emerging adulthood, in Computers and Human Behavior, vol 71, pp. 1-10

 

Gaynor, S. M. (2023). “Bones are life!” true crime podcasting, self-promotion and the vernaculars of Instagram with Cult Liter, in Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Communication, vol 22(4), pp. 1-16 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405702.2023.2281581

 

Hancock, D., & McMurtry, L., (2017). Cycles upon cycles, stories upon stories: Contemporary audio media and podcast horror’s new frights, in Palgrave Communications, vol 3(1), pp. 1-8

 

Hand, R., Hancock, D., & McCullum, V. (2019). Beware the untruths: Podcast horror in Trump’s America, in McCullum, V. (Ed). Make America Hate Again: Trump-era Horror and the Politics of Fear. Routledge

 

Horeck, T. (2019). Justice on Demand: True Crime in the Digital Streaming Era. Wayne State University Press

 

Schmid, D. (2005). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. University of Chicago Press

 

Seltzer, M. (1998). Serial Killers: Death and Life in America’s Wound Culture. Routledge.

 

Sheldon, P. (2015). Social Media: Principles and Applications. Lexington Books

 

Follow The Murder Media Project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or email directly at murdermedia81@gmail.com, or visit the website https://murdermedia81.wordpress.com/

 

 

Music:

 

Cybertruck by Mood Maze

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/cybertruck

License code: 2F2G6DAKEWYFVVC9

 

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/neon-desert

License code: VYEEJAZCIFRKWWPK

 

All music and trailer clips are used in the spirit of Fair Dealing (UK) and Fair Use (US Law). No copyright infringement intended.