Medieval Murder: Blurring the Lines between History, True Crime, and Social Media

Social media comes in many forms: tweets, posts, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and more. Over the course of the last decade, the lines between certain elements of social media and public history have begun to blur. Medieval history, in particular, could be considered a rather niche interest, but through the use of social media, historians and history enthusiasts have begun to widen their circle and expand the reach of their research, while also making it more accessible to a non-academic audience. One of the ways to make this leap from academic history to public history is through the rising public interest in true crime. For example, my master’s dissertation was entitled ‘Crime and Punishment: Homicide in Early Anglo-Saxon England.’ In order to stay involved with historical research, while also being on the fringe of academia as an academic librarian, I began a blog and Instagram account extrapolating on that dissertation called Medieval Murder. Due to the pandemic, Medieval Murder became a podcast that has now been going for the last five years, has over 60 episodes and has regular listeners all over the world. The following will explore the rise in true crimes’ popularity, the blurring lines between public history and social media, and how this all lead to Medieval Murder.