Emerging tropes: Race, gender, and monstrosity master frames in podcasts' depiction of serial killers
Date
2024
Authors
Mohammed, Bushra
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Abstract
Race and gender are socially constructed identities that have severe ramifications on individuals lived experience, hence their conceptualization as master statuses. For a long time, researchers have noted that these constructs drive media frames, particularly in media reports on delinquency and crime. These frames have been explicated to be advantageous and detrimental, the implication being dependent on the race or gender of concerned individuals. However, this age-long report of race and gender as determinants of media frames have been contested in recent studies. Nonetheless, these literatures lack an intersectional approach to the contemporary understanding of the deterministic role of race and gender in the framing of crime by the media. Therefore, I investigated this lacuna by focusing on the framing of an extreme form of violence- serial killing. Given the increased prominence of the podcast media in society today, the impact of the race and gender of serial killers was simultaneously examined on three known aspects of media frames-race master frames, gender master frames, and monstrosity master frames, drawing samples from true crime podcasts. Race and gender master frames were approached using the stereotypes associated with whiteness, blackness, femininity, and masculinity while monstrosity master frames were approached in terms of celebrity monster and evil monster depictions. Data were analyzed using thematic discourse analysis and results revealed a non-traditional use of race and gender master frames in the depiction of serial killers, what I called the colonization of hegemonic race-based narratives, and monstrosity master frames proved to be dependent on both race and gender. This finding contradicts orthodox sociological account of the absolute deterministic impact of race and gender, as master statuses, on ideology and media frames.
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Keywords
master frames, race, gender, intersectionality, podcasts, serial killers, thematic discourse analysis, critical sociology, framing, frame colonization