In the world of true crime media, a good rule-of-thumb is that “runners” are rescuers and “joggers” get jabbed or jailed. But how did we become so obsessed with crime that the media now has patterns of language for describing this phenomenon? What about these stories compels us to need books, podcasts, television specials, and now social media campaigns about victims and suspects? As Dr. Pamela Burger notes, the true crime genre started with the dawn of print media and was as diverse then as it is now. Where sixteenth-century consumers couldn’t access printed materials, they turned to ballads and oral recitations of gruesome tales—even in church. As for modern consumers, Amanda Keeler explains that the availability of podcasts as a new form of true crime consumption has expanded both the quantity of stories available and the styles of account. Do you want to learn more about the victim—the investigation—the trial? There’s a podcast for that. But more importantly, she writes, "many of these podcasts effectively bridge the micro story of individuals with the macro investigations of larger circumstances surrounding criminal cases. The focus on these “small” stories helps to illuminate systemic issues, catapulting the audio-only exploration of an issue from the anonymous and vague notion that crime exists in the world to the personal stories of victims that can help create important connections for the audience."