Crime content is everywhere. It snakes across platforms, influences how we view others and ourselves, fixes societal boundaries, and helps to construct and sustain our sense of right and wrong.
But as we scroll our smartphones or streaming services, flick through digital TV channels or tune into the latest podcasts, how often do we think about the societal impacts of how it was produced and how we engage with true crime and crime journalism? What does it mean for victims, communities, industry and policing? What are our ethical responsibilities when it comes to the proliferation of true crime content? And how must existing codes-of-practices and the algorithms that govern what we see on screens, change in response?
A Newcastle University Civic Journalism Lab project is working with producers, victims, and audiences to rethink ethics and campaign for change.
Contents:
- A new code-of-practice for crime content
- The research journey - personal and professional motivations
- Events, outreach and engagement
- Lessons from the past
- Industrial collaboration
- The future
A new code-of-practice for crime content
Led by Dr Bethany Usher, a former crime reporter and author of Journalism and Crime, this project advocates for a new 10-point code-of-practice for ethical production of ‘journalistic crime content’ (Usher, 2023), encompassing:
- crime news and journalism
- true crime influencing
- podcasts
- documentaries
- police communications
Once the code is finalised there will be an associated 'kitemark' so that content produced ethically might be easily identifiable to audiences and social media companies might give an algorithmic advantage. Dr Usher said:
‘Crime is media’s longest sustained genre, but there has never been a code-of-practice that defined the public interest and what ethical content is newsgathering, produced and promoted that specifically addresses its production and its unique place in society.
‘With each advancement in media technology journalistic crime content has expanded, often but not always in response to popularity and profit. Now its capacity to attract clicks shares and likes makes this a pressing concern when we consider the impact it can have on victims, their families and their communities.’
The research journey - personal and professional motivations
Identifying the need to rethink the ethics of crime content came from Dr Usher’s own career and personal experiences. She continued: ‘The idea for the code for ethical practice was sparked by research into the history of crime news and journalism, my time as a young crime reporter and my own personal experiences as a survivor of stranger violence in my teens. I know that the demands of the job meant there were times when I didn’t act as ethically as I should have done, but also there were times when I really felt I was giving a voice to victims and their families when they needed it.
‘As a survivor myself , that was my primary driver, but the demands of the job pulled me away from it on too many occasions. It really matters to me that I try to make a change in this space, so that new generations of producers might be clear about what the ethical dimensions are in seeking out and producing journalistic crime content.’
Events, outreach and engagement
Working with Civic Journalism Lab lead Ian Wylie, a colleague in the Media, Culture and Heritage department, Dr Usher has drawn together a panel from across industry, audience groups, police communications and victims’ advocates. She has been invited to speak to true crime fans at CrimeCon 2025 – the biggest fan conference in the UK – and provide a workshop on their role in production and how they be ethical audience members. Dr Usher is also a member of the advisory panel for the first True Crime Fan Conference in North East England this summer and is working with organisers to shape how they can identify ethical content and producers.
Events so far have included a Civic Journalism Lab evening which included regional, national and international scholars, true crime producers and journalists to discuss their own ethics and where they think the genre is going. Dr Usher also provided an evening event for fans at the prestigious and historic Newcastle Lit and Phil Society, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Festival of Social Sciences.
Lessons from the past
Journalism and crime - as her book examines - spans almost 500 years, beginning with the very first rogue, witch and murder pamphlets produced in 16th century London and considers the impact of each advancement in media technology, up until contemporary networked digital ecosystems of the 2020s.
Now Dr Usher is working with Dr Bethan Jones, research associate for Cardiff University’s Synthetic Pasts project to consider the retelling of stories first publicised via crime news and journalism on social media and how they use generative artificial intelligence (AI).
‘There are many new trends because of the advances of AI, but in lots of ways these also have roots in the past and how crime journalism developed in the first place’, she explained.
Dr Bethany Usher
‘For example, content that uses crime news as source material for AI-generated posts in which victims and criminals appear to speak to the audience directly is at its core. Not like older crime pamphlets or tabloid magazines, which would retell stories in the first person narrative without the affordance of an interview, based on content said in court.
‘I argue that such commonalities mean that there are many lessons from how journalistic crime content developed and evolved and that means that there are core ethical parameters that can span all kinds of different content and platforms.
‘In this, the work of ethical producers, such as excellent local journalists across the North, also needs to be highlighted. Direct contact between such reporters and police has collapsed because of a range of factors beyond their control.
'One of my hopes for this project is that if we can agree on what ethical content looks like and get producers to sign up, we can reinvigorate the important relationship between the local press and police, which is key to the public interest, public safety and open justice.' Dr Bethany Usher
Once the code is finalised there will be an associated ‘kitemark’ so that content produced ethically might be easily identifiable to audiences and social media companies might give an algorithmic advantage.
Industrial collaboration
By partnering with Press Gazette – the UK’s largest publication for the journalism industry – the next step for the project is to take workshops to content producers to refine the code over the coming year, and then begin the process of sign up and promotion to a range of different stakeholders.
Press Gazette has a strong record of campaigning around journalistic freedoms and ethics. Its ‘Save Our Sources’ campaign led to a change in the law to stop police viewing journalists’ call records without judicial oversight. It was also part of the ‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied’ campaign which helped secure a six-month limit on police bail after dozens of journalists spent years on police bail during Operation Elveden.
The future
Dr Usher added: “We’re just in the first year of the project and we’ve been applying for funding and looking for opportunities to get people involved. But so far there’s been a lot of positive feedback from industry, fan communities and victims who also feel that it is time for ethical change.
'The important thing for all of those who’ve agreed to take part in this project is that we keep in mind that this genre of media can have devastating impacts on real people when they are at their most vulnerable. For us, getting the ethics right is a matter of social justice for all of those that might have been let down in the past and for those who could be in the future.'
You might also like
- find out more about Dr Usher’s work and future events
- listen to the Civic Journalism Lab podcast about the project and the history of crime journalism
- read Dr Usher’s book: Journalism and Crime, 1st Edition
- discover more about the Civic Journalism Lab
- explore our School of Arts and Cultures
