Teaching a brand-new course, as a brand new adjunct professor, feels a little like opening night of a show you also happened to write, direct, and accidentally star in. You have no idea how it will land, only that the material matters and the people in the room matter even more.
This profile video was born out of that first semester of CRJ 395: True Crime Ethics and Impacts at the University of Northern Colorado. One of my rockstar students, UNC junior Jenna Vandever, asked if she could center her final project for a Digital Storytelling course in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications on me, my story, and the very class she was taking. She essentially turned the camera on the person who had been asking everyone else to think critically about this content.
The result is a very meta look at what it means to study true crime through a survivor-centered lens: a survivor teaching a course on true crime ethics, being profiled by a student who is actively learning how to tell stories on screen.
In CRJ 395, we spend a lot of time unpacking the ethics of true crime: who is telling the story, who is being left out, and what it means to create content that does not exploit the very people who lived through the worst moments of their lives. We talk about consent, context, power, and the responsibility that comes with hitting “record,” “publish,” or “upload.” We question the genre we have all consumed, and we imagine what it could look like if survivors were centered instead of sidelined.
Classes like this—and projects like Jenna’s—are helping shape the next generation of journalists, creators, and storytellers to be survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and ethically grounded in the work they put into the world. Ultimately, this is what I want the true crime genre to become: less about consuming someone’s worst day, and more about honoring their humanity while calling for better from our systems, our media, and ourselves.
If this video brings something up for you, please take care of yourself in whatever way feels right: pause or click away, reach out to someone you trust, or connect with a local sexual assault advocacy center or hotline. You deserve support that honors your experience. If you or someone you know needs support, please visit www.rainn.org to be connected to 24/7 chat or hotline advocacy services.
To Jenna: thank you for your care, your eye, and your willingness to sit in the tension between story and ethics. It is no small thing to create something this intimate and intentional, especially while you are still learning and experimenting as a storyteller.
And to my very first CRJ 395: True Crime Ethics and Impacts class at the University of Northern Colorado: thank you for trusting me, for leaning into hard conversations, and for helping me shape this course in its first semester. You were my test audience, my co-collaborators, and the proof that these conversations can live in a classroom without losing their heart.
Credits:
Created, filmed, and edited by: Jenna Vandever
Project: JMC Digital Storytelling Final, College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Northern Colorado
Featuring: Kimberly Corban Rourke
Related course: CRJ 395 – True Crime Ethics and Impacts, University of Northern Colorado
