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The purpose of this study was to investigate how crime victims are portrayed in the true crime genre, specifically podcasts, in order to find out what opportunities the receivers have for meaning making regarding victims. The study analyzes a total of four podcast episodes produced by P3 Dokumentär and Jakten på mördaren which are two very large podcasts in Sweden based on listeners. The theoretical framework consists of the framing theory and victimology. It is a qualitative study based on a rhetorical model which consists of various tools and concepts, such as context, forms of appellations and figure of speech. The results showed that the victims are portrayed based on their personality and appearance. Two of the episodes had a more detailed description overall about the victim, while the other two episodes focused more on the murderer and how the crime unfolded.

The essay concludes that all the episodes consist of appellations, such as ethos and pathos to convince the audience, gain their trust and reach their emotions. There were different kinds of framing in all the episodes, and it told us a lot about how the producer of the episode wanted to portray the victim. We established some linguistic patterns that connected to previous studies made for similar purposes. Some linguistic patterns were that the victims often were portrayed innocent and as an underdog regardless how the story of the crime went. The details about the murder, the crime scene and the victim were ingoing and very figuratively described.