Collin Bjork: "Rhetorical Judgment and True Crime Podcasting"

Judgment has long been a central concept in rhetorical studies. Yet rhetorical theories of judgment have not been sufficiently updated to account for the unique context of online discourse. Among the many sites of online discourse, true crime podcasting stands out because it raises questions—such as “What makes a criminal?” and “What does justice look like?”—that strike at the heart of how societies judge their fellow citizens and the socio-political structures that bind them together. In this talk, I ask: how do listening publics come to judgments about the criminals portrayed in true crime podcasts? To respond to this question, I use rhetorical analysis to examine key true crime podcasts and the online discourses that swirl around them with an eye toward illuminating new developments in the ways that rhetorical judgment functions online.

Collin Bjork is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University. Trained in rhetoric, Collin researches podcasting, artificial intelligence, and critical temporalities. He has won an NZ Marsden Fast-Start Grant as well as Fulbright grants to Slovenia and Montenegro. Collin is working on a book about the relationship between true crime podcasting and rhetorical judgment as well as an experimental peer-reviewed podcast. He is also executive producer of Pod Uni, a podcast about podcasting.