Beyond the Crime: True Crime Podcasts as Spaces for Community-Building among Young Italian Women

Over the past decade, true crime podcasts have emerged as a globally popular audio genre, blending entertainment with intimate and emotionally charged storytelling. In Italy, this genre has recently gained substantial traction, yet scholarly attention remains limited, particularly with regard to gendered listening practices. While research in Anglo-American contexts has examined women's emotional engagement with true crime media, little is known about how these dynamics play out among Italian audiences. This thesis addresses this gap by investigating how young Italian women engage with true crime podcasts, and how such engagement fosters community, emotional empowerment, and civic reflection in a context marked by high rates of femicide and institutional distrust. The central research question guiding this study is: "How do Italian true crime podcasts foster a sense of community and belonging among young women?". In order to answer this question, the thesis employs a qualitative, multi-method approach that combines eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with a qualitative content analysis of approximately 300 user-generated YouTube comments from the popular podcast Elisa True Crime (De Marco, 2020-). Drawing on feminist media studies, affect theory, and theories of digital participation, the study explores how podcast listening becomes a socially and emotionally meaningful practice that goes beyond entertainment to support preparedness, critical engagement, and ethical solidarity. The findings reveal that podcast listeners experience a heightened sense of vulnerability that paradoxically leads to empowerment. Through emotionally resonant narratives, listeners rehearse risk scenarios, develop strategies for interpreting danger, and reflect on systemic injustices. The study demonstrates that podcast-based parasocial interaction plays a significant role in fostering a sense of community and promoting social change. In conclusion, this thesis argues that true crime podcasts function not only as sources of emotional coping and knowledge-building, but as informal sites of ethical education, community formation, and civic participation. By amplifying women's voices and mapping the interpretive labour they perform, the study highlights the potential of podcasting to generate quiet yet persistent forms of social critique and feminist belonging in the Italian context.