My mental word associations with the American reality TV streaming service Hayu are trashy rich people. So I was surprised to hear that Hayu is part of a growing number of entertainment outlets offering a wide range of true crime documentaries.
Love it or hate it, true crime is a huge area of interest in society whether it’s books, podcasts or TV shows.
According to Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Rebecca Scott Bray:
True crime has become a part of high culture, with a growing audience eager and willing to explore the extremities of human behaviour, especially the psychological and social factors that trigger certain individuals to commit heinous crimes. Not only has the conversation broadened and the media evolved, but consequently so too has our engagement with true crime; podcasts and documentaries entertain and educate viewers and listeners, but they have also had profound effects on formal justice processes.
We’ve reached a point where people are no longer satisfied with reading, watching or listening to true crime, they want to understand criminality and play an active part in how the justice system responds to crimes, whether that means lobbying to re-open contentious investigations, or discussing cases and their podcasts on Reddit, as was the case with Making a Murderer, and the ground-breaking podcast Serial. Such media, their informal and formal effects on criminal justice, and the way we interact with them raise important questions about crime, victims, criminal justice and new media in contemporary society.
If you’re into true crime TV, you can get a free 7 day trial of Hayu to see if you like their style of TV before you have to pay ($6.99/month or $33.99/6 months or $61.99/12 months).
