{"id":9383,"date":"2021-05-26T18:15:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T18:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/09\/mayx-snapshot-the-truth-behind-true-crime\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:40:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:40:57","slug":"mayx-snapshot-the-truth-behind-true-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/mayx-snapshot-the-truth-behind-true-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"MayX Snapshot: The truth behind true crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day this week, we\u2019re highlighting a course from May Experience<\/a> \u2013 a chance for students to explore topics beyond the typical academic year.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

COURSE:<\/strong>\u00a0True Crime Writing: Why and How?
\nINSTRUCTOR:<\/strong> Margaret Oakes, professor of English
\nOBJECTIVE:<\/strong> Explore the ethics, practices and problems of writing and reading about true crime.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Margaret Oakes\u2019 lesson is straightforward: True crime happens to real people.<\/p>\n

The students who signed up for her MayX class are \u201ccrime junkies,\u201d she says \u2013 fans of podcasts like \u201cSerial\u201d and \u201cMy Favorite Murder\u201d and streaming miniseries like \u201cMaking a Murderer\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t F**k with Cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to explore why we\u2019re so interested in this and what it says about us,\u201d Oakes says. \u201cIt isn\u2019t because we are evil people; it\u2019s because we are following a story that is based in fact but has been created by someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Professor Margaret Oakes<\/p><\/div>\n

Knowing who that \u201csomeone else\u201d is \u2013 and what they want you to think \u2013 is critical, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to question all of this, because people have an agenda,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt may be a worthwhile one, but it\u2019s still an agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

This May, Oakes\u2019 students were not learning the details of actual sensational crimes throughout history. \u201cThat\u2019s the easy part,\u201d she says. \u201cThe hard part is figuring out: What am I being told? What am I not being told? Who makes those decisions? How might that affect what I know about this?\u201d<\/p>\n

What the students learned instead is how true crime narratives are created \u2013 from the ground up, starting with writing a police report based on primary facts in an actual case study with the Greenville Police Department. Their grades depended in part on whether their reports would stand up in court.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s officers and staff volunteered hours of work to lead the students through four days of presentations and tours, including case investigation and forensic evidence. Professor and students were all \u201cimmensely grateful\u201d to the GPD, Oakes says.<\/p>\n

The students were also tasked with creating a newspaper article (appropriate for public reading) about an ongoing case, as well as a long-form journalistic piece exploring the background and context of past cases that students may not be familiar with, such as the theft of Edvard Munch\u2019s \u201cThe Scream\u201d and the local case of Jenny Zitricki, which involved a multi-state murderer in a cold case solved by the Greenville Police Department through advanced DNA analysis.<\/p>\n

The curriculum included books like Michelle McNamara\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ll Be Gone in the Dark,\u201d about the Golden State Killer, and Janet Malcom\u2019s \u201cThe Journalist and the Murderer,\u201d a study of the ethics of journalism focusing on the book \u201cFatal Vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Required listening was the \u201cMurder Etc.<\/a>\u201d podcast by Greenville reporter Brad Willis, which explores the 1975 murder of a Greenville County narcotics detective and his father. The students also met with Willis to discuss his investigation and his work.<\/p>\n

If her students begin to think more critically about the stories that claim to be \u201ctrue,\u201d Oakes\u2019 MayX course has succeeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all you need to know when you get out of here,\u201d she says. \u201cAsk two questions all the time, every day, of everything: \u2018What do you mean by that?\u2019 and \u2018How do you know that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n