A late night rambling of a rabbit hole I found myself in.

[rogueslayer452]

It's not a secret that the true crime online community is quite controversial for numerous reasons. From being horribly invasive and exploitative to spreading misinformation, whether intentionally or accidentally from not doing proper research, and even treating real life people of these serious and horrific events as something fictional or even something to idolize, it's understandable that people are uneasy and disgusted with the unethical and deplorable way some in the true crime community have conducted themselves in various online spaces by crossing that line in taking things too far.

It is also understandable why people gravitate towards these kinds of topics. I, myself, am no stranger to the subject of true crime and unsolved mysteries, having watching shows such as City Confidential and Forensic Files and even watched some YouTube videos covering similar topics every now and again. There is an inherent fascination, or rather morbid curiosity, surrounding it. Not only of being aware of certain cases (as one would naturally be if you're watching news coverage in real time) but also trying to understand the why. Why would someone do something like this? What is going through someone's head? Could they have been helped? What could have been done differently? It's the same thought process one might have when watching a horror movie, which is probably where the line blurs for some who do unfortunately treat true crime as something fictional to fixate on, or similar to that of a "train wreck" or "car crash" incident where your curiosity to such disasters lead to some viewing it as a spectacle than anything. While it is natural to try to understand the darker side of human nature and the psychological elements of that to better understand our world and who we are as human beings, there needs to be an understanding of boundaries and practicing basic decency, respect, and sensitivity when approaching these particular topics. Sadly, this doesn't always happen by those who are just looking to monetize content.

Whether it be in official documentaries or YouTube videos or any kind of online post, it's best to take them with a grain of salt since most of them are done with a certain bias, and doing your own research by cross referencing information is better to get the full picture than just relying on the words of a singular source.

Comments

[wearing_tearing]

Sadly, this doesn't always happen by those who are just looking to monetize content.
Yup!!! I've become very selective of the kind of true crime content I consume because of that. Official documentaries can be as harmful as online speculation sometimes.

[naushika]

It's so true. I loooove true crime and spent some time in that community, and I eventually left because I couldn't take how far the bad seeds would take it. The worst, in my opinion, was the off the wall theories people would come up with that pointed the finger at innocent people, or even VICTIMS. It could get so bad sometimes. These are real people, not characters on tv. Stick to tv if you want to make up theories about how they are secretly evil murderers.

[elizalavelle]

I think this is why, while I do enjoy the true crime community in terms of reading books about it or watching documentaries etc, I do not want to be in the fandom-y part. For me I think it's an anxiety thing that makes me like learning about crimes as it helps me feel more ready to deal with bad things if they happen to me.

I appreciate the more recent push from idolizing the criminals to being more victim centric and noting that the killers are just losers and we don't need to give them attention.

Excellent point about bias. I think that gets forgotten a lot and people think a single documentary is gospel about what happened rather than being one angle of it.

I'm seeing a disturbing lack of media savvy online right now around that Good American Family tv show. So many comments where people don't understand that the show is fictional, that those are actors so of course their Natalia looks older, the actress can't de-age herself and makeup and wardrobe only go so far, a lot of people didn't get the gimmick they were doing of showing one side of the story first and then the other and were talking about the first half of the show as if it was the truth. It makes me realize that as a society we are getting a lot more dumb.

*I didn't even watch the show, I've just seen clips online and didn't like how exploitative it felt. But I at least tracked what the show was doing and what the real case was vs the fictionalized show.

[silverusagi]

I can't say that I was ever really in the true crime community, I never got into the whole youtube side of it. I did listen to a true crime podcast for over a year, but eventually I just got so tired of the formula of the episodes. And not that documentaries and news organizations aren't trying to make money, but there is something a little off putting to me about everyone and their dog having a youtube channel about real life murders, when everything online has to be ~content.