Panel #7 Session 2
Thursday 30 November - 13:30
Building 25, Room 2
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Chair: Irfan Master
Women’s Magazines, Crime and Justice: Invitational Rhetoric in A Decade of True Crime in Australian Women’s Weekly
- Lili Paquet & Rosemary Williamson
University of New England
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The genre of true crime is mostly read by women. For women who have little or no direct experience of the legal system, true crime stories provide vicarious experiences constitutive of ideas of justice and even agency. In Australia, popular magazine Australian Women’s Weekly has been an important space for the writing and reading of true crime stories, yet research on the rhetorical function of those stories is scarce. This paper takes a step toward addressing this gap in knowledge. It does so by analysing true crime stories across a decade (2010–2019) of The Weekly. The analysis is guided by two questions: what types of stories and themes recur in the magazine’s true crime content, and how the magazine shapes readers’ perceptions of justice? The findings are presented through the lens of invitational rhetoric, theorised by Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin in 1995 as a type of communication that works from a stance of “openness” through cooperation and conversation between the rhetor (in this case, the writer) and their audience. The paper argues that by employing invitational rhetoric, Weekly true crime stories illustrate fundamental principles of invitational rhetoric as explicated by Foss and Griffin: inviting and reaching a mutual understanding, and promoting equality, value, and self-determination. The ways in which this occurs in The Weekly illustrates the capacity of those who write for and produce the popular magazine to influence women’s ideas of justice and agency in distinctive ways.
Dr Lili Pâquet is a Lecturer in Writing at UNE with research interests in true crime, crime fiction, rhetoric, and creative writing. Her book, True Crime and Women: Writers, Readers, and Representations (co-edited with Rose Williamson) will be published by Routledge in 2024.
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Assoc Prof Rose Williamson is in the discipline of Writing, Department of Creative Arts and Communication, University of New England (Australia). She conducts research on the rhetorical dimensions of Australian magazines as well as popular forms of non-fiction writing. She has published in New Writing, Life Writing, TEXT, Journalism Studies, Media History, Journal of Australian Studies and elsewhere.
Women's Voices in True Crime Podcasting
- Ruth Fogarty
RMIT University
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For my PhD research I'm interrogating women's true crime storytelling, investigating the presence and influence of empathy as an affective storytelling device. As part of this work, I am devising an empathetic framework which can be used as a tool for content analysis, reflexive writing, and further insight. A key signifier of the empathetic approach is in the recognition and centering of the voices and experiences of victim-survivors – and in true crime podcasts, who better to share stories of personal trauma and social harms than the people who experience them?
Although I have heard many podcasters operating comfortably within the ethical and moral grey zones of true crime, I have also heard many women storytellers reflect upon their rights, roles and responsibilities when engaging with and voicing the stories of others.
In this paper, I consider the act of ‘giving voice’ and discuss how women’s voices, points of view and personal perspectives are entering and altering the true crime podcast space – marking a critical turning point for the genre. I also contemplate whether empathetic storytelling allows for the possibility of an ethical, feminist true crime, one which amplifies the voices of those impacted by gender-based violence and crime.
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Ruth Fogarty is a PhD researcher at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) exploring feminist interventions in true crime, literary nonfiction, and podcasting. She is a digital media creative, with a professional and personal curiosity in podcasting, empathy and ethics in the digital sphere.
Writing as catharsis
- Tim Baker
Griffith University
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Writing therapy is well-accepted by psychologists as a useful intervention alongside other mental health care modalities. Robust research exists to support the role writing therapy can play in processing grief and trauma. But why does it work? And can we find ways for it to work more effectively by better understanding the power of narrative to reframe traumatic events? Writing therapy can provide participants a sense of agency and control as they navigate painful life experiences. In this paper I will reflect on my experiences with writing as a therapeutic tool while managing a stage four cancer diagnosis and writing the widely acclaimed cancer memoir Patting the Shark (Penguin, 2022). I will draw on writing therapy workshops I have delivered at the Byron Writers Festival and patient forums through the Australian Prostate Centre. Patting The Shark forms the creative component of my current PhD project and my paper will combine reflection on this text and the exegesis in progress Towards a New Language of Cancer. I will present evidence for the effectiveness of writing therapy, exploring new approaches to this emerging field. I will argue that the way we talk and write about cancer, has the potential to alleviate or aggravate the distress of people living with cancer. With greater credence now being placed on supportive and allied health in cancer care – meditation, exercise, massage, nutrition, talk therapy – could writing and reading have a role to play in better supporting cancer patients to manage the psycho-social challenges of their diagnosis?
Tim Baker is an award-winning and best-selling author and journalist specialising in surfing history and culture. His latest book Patting The Shark documents his journey managing his advanced prostate cancer diagnosis. Tim wrote Patting The Shark as part of a creative writing PhD scholarship from Griffith University. Tim writes a weekly blog for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia website and has presented at the Asia-Pacific Prostate Cancer Conference and ANZUP ’23 Annual Scientific Meeting. He has run patient forums at the Australian Prostate Centre and writing therapy workshops through the Byron Writers Festival.