Göteborgs-Posten’s true crime podcast gives female victims a name

By Paula Felps

INMA

Nashville, Tennessee, USA

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Men’s violence against women is a prevalent and growing problem, but too often, its coverage focuses on the perpetrators, not the victims.

In the world of true crime podcasts, listeners often learn many details about the person who committed the crime; they learn how the crime was committed and how the victim was found, but they know little of the life cut short.

Determined to change that, Sweden’s Göteborgs-Posten developed an ambitious investigative podcast series, Hennes Namn Var (Her Name Was), that told the stories of three women whose lives ended in violence. Rather than let these women be defined by how they died,  the series honoured their memories while also giving courage to those who might be afraid to speak up.

Hennes Namn Var (Her Name Was) took a different approach to true crime podcasts.
Hennes Namn Var (Her Name Was) took a different approach to true crime podcasts.

More than a story

Telling these important stories took a combination of investigative journalism skills and the willingness to step outside of the traditional boundaries of storytelling.

Michael Verdicchio, one of Sweden’s most highly respected investigative journalists, joined forces with Madeleine Gartéus, a Web editor at GP who had a personal interest in the topic: her close friend, Annie, was one of the victims profiled in the podcast.

Gartéus understood first-hand how painful it was to see the focus shift from the woman who was victimised to the man who committed the crime. Like the five other women profiled in the podcast series, Annie died violently at the hands of someone she knew — and in each case, the murder could have been prevented if society had stepped up when the women reported threats or concerns.

With Hennes Namn Var, Gartéus and Verdicchio had two primary objectives:

  • To put the focus back on the women — not as lifeless victims but as vibrant, beautiful women who were filled with hopes and dreams for the future. It told, in great detail, what they wanted from their lives and emphasised the tragedy of being robbed of those futures.
  • To place responsibility on not just the individual perpetrators, but the other members of society who failed to take action. With each example, the series showed how the failure of others led to death.

GP Web editor Madeleine Gartéus and investigative journalist Michael Verdicchio joined forces to spearhead the ambitious project.
GP Web editor Madeleine Gartéus and investigative journalist Michael Verdicchio joined forces to spearhead the ambitious project.

A team effort

Joining with photographer Sanna Tedeborg and a team of talented graphic designers and marketers, Gartéus and Verdicchio assembled an impressive collection of photo collages, videos, graphics, and trailers to support the story. Social media, long-read formats and print further supported the podcast.

They provided well-researched supplemental stories that included additional stories on what happens to women who are victims of violence, solutions for preventing violence, additional insights from police, and even how the place of residence affects a woman’s ability to protect herself.

In all, GP published about 50 articles related to the podcast series on GP.se.

The podcast series and the accompanying articles have resonated with a large female following.
The podcast series and the accompanying articles have resonated with a large female following.

The team’s goal was to reach an audience of young women, and thanks to creating the right tone and implementing a successful strategy combining print, digital, audio, and social media, it hit the mark.

Episodes have been listened to more than 500,000 times, and 85% of the listeners have been female — many of them young. Similar patterns were seen in the readership of online articles; while GP has a male-dominated audience, the readers of the Hennes Namn Var articles were primarily female, with most of them between the ages of 25 and 34.

About Paula Felps

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