“SUDDENLY, THE PODCAST WAS SEXY”: AN ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY APPROACH TO TRUE CRIME PODCAST PHENOMENA by LINDSEY A. SHERRILL WILSON LOWREY, COMMITTEE CHAIR MATTHEW BARNIDGE SUZANNE HORSLEY MIRIAM SWEENEY MATTHEW WEBER A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication & Information Sciences in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2019 Copyright Lindsey A. Sherrill 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT In recent years, true crime podcasting has exploded, both in number of podcasts and popular culture visibility. These podcasts act as organizations with maintenance orientations, such as mobilizing resources, competing with other organizations, increasing legitimacy, and focusing on sustaining foundings and preventing mortalities. This population also exhibits isomorphism and development of organizational form and identity. Some of these podcasts have social movement orientations as well, particularly in relation to criminal justice reform goals. As social movement organizations, they view listeners as constituents, mobilize resources, created relationship networks with similar organizations, and work to establish collective awareness and legitimacy. This study explores this media phenomenon from the perspective of organizational ecology and social movement theories using a mixed methods approach. A demography of true crime podcasts was conducted in order to find a sample approaching a population, identify dates of foundings and mortalities, and calculate population density over time. Content analysis of news articles mentioning “true crime podcasts” was conducted to measure public legitimacy of the true crime podcast population. Additionally, 12 true crime podcasters were interviewed, and their interviews were analyzed qualitatively to further explore this phenomenon in light of theory and emerging concepts. Evidence of true crime podcasts’ orientations as both maintenance and movement organizations was discovered, as well as the way these entities exist as hybrid or dual organizations. Emerging themes and motivations for true crime podcasters are also discussed. ii DEDICATION For Hae. You wrote in your diary, “Remember me forever.” We do. And for Cynthia Shackelford, mentor, teacher, friend, who literally tracked me down when I tried to give up journalism; who had the greatest laugh to ever grace this earth; who showed me who I wanted to be when I grew up. Thank you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the faculty members, colleagues, and friends who have helped me along the way with this project and throughout the doctoral process. First, thank you to my committee chair and advisor, Dr. Wilson Lowrey, for being the first person to not say “that’s not a thing,” when I pitched this crazy idea. You’ve never once told me to think or dream smaller (even when maybe I should have!), and I’m grateful for all of the support in this research and beyond. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Dr. Matthew Barnidge, Dr. Suzanne Horsley, Dr. Miriam Sweeney, and Dr. Matthew Weber for their feedback and support. I have so much respect for you all, and you have all made this process far less intimidating than it could have been. I would also like to thank Dr. Jennifer Hoewe for helping me survive those first two years as a doctoral student, especially for reminding me that imposter syndrome is a lie. Thank you for being an inspiration and a friend. Also thank you to Ryan Broussard for always being willing to be a “peer”—whether that meant coding or debriefing or commiserating. I owe you many king cakes. Finally, thank you to all the brilliant and generous podcasters who took time to speak with me. You are all busy people doing important work, and I am honored that you made time for this lowly graduate student in your schedules. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................................10 Podcast Evolution and Research ...............................................................................................10 True Crime Media .....................................................................................................................15 Organizational Ecology ............................................................................................................18 Social Movement Theories .......................................................................................................38 Theoretical Synthesis ................................................................................................................49 The True Crime Podcast Population: Concepts for Exploration and Research Questions .......55 Theoretical Concepts ................................................................................................................58 METHODS ....................................................................................................................................61 Population Analysis ..................................................................................................................61 In-depth, Directed Qualitative Interviews .................................................................................73 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................................81 Ecological Context of True Crime Podcasts .............................................................................81 Podcasts and Ecological Approaches ........................................................................................87 v Podcasts and Social Movement Approaches ..........................................................................112 Podcasts as Hybrid Organizations ..........................................................................................131 Emerging Themes for True Crime Podcasts ...........................................................................151 DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................................................156 Niches, Forms, and Boundaries ..............................................................................................157 Density, Structural Inertia, and Competition ..........................................................................159 Resource Partitioning, Speciation, and Isomorphism .............................................................163 Legitimacy and Organizational Identity .................................................................................165 Movement Orientations, Collective Identity, and Movement Processes ................................167 Resource Mobilization ............................................................................................................171 Institutionalization and Professionalism .................................................................................173 Other Concepts and Emerging Themes ..................................................................................174 Limitations ..............................................................................................................................177 CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................................................................182 Future Research ......................................................................................................................184 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................187 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................................200 vi LIST OF TABLES 1. True crime podcast population over time ..........................................................................70 2. Interview participants.........................................................................................................77 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1. Foundings, mortalities, and podcast population density over time ....................................82 2. Number of limited-arc series and podcast population density ...........................................83 3. Media coverage over time ..................................................................................................84 4. Cognitive legitimacy over time ..........................................................................................85 5. Normative legitimacy over time ........................................................................................86