Introduction

Thus far, the author has explored a range of concepts, theories and ideas that exist around the intersection of media and homicide. They hold significant potential for generating insights into the phenomenon of social media homicide confessions. However, the bodies of literature from which these concepts have emerged remain relatively separate, occupying different spheres and sub-disciplines of the social sciences. There is clearly much to be gained from bringing concepts together and this chapter describes the way in which they have been amalgamated into a guide developed by the author to assist in the analysis of the cases in this book. This guide, called Ethnographic Media Practice Analysis for Criminology (or EMPAC), enables both an analysis of individual experiences and the broader contexts within which these lived realities exist. Within this chapter, the author outlines the ontological, epistemological and methodological underpinnings of this guide and describes the rationale for the selection of the three cases to which EMPAC has been applied.

The cases

The cases examined within this book are the murder of Jennifer Alfonso, the Janzen familicide, which claimed the lives of Shelly, Emily, Laurel and Randy Janzen, and the murder of Charles Taylor. Approaching social media homicide confessions at the case level is appropriate given the usefulness of case studies to explore the ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ questions, particularly when the topic of focus is a pressing issue within contemporary social life (Yin, 1994). A case focus enables the researcher to explore deeper meanings and experiences within cases as well as the broader context within which these cases are located (Simons, 2009). As the aim of this study was to develop further insights into social media homicide confessions and build better frameworks within which to situate future research, an information-oriented approach to the selection of cases was required (Flyvbjerg, 2006). This approach intends to maximise the usefulness of the knowledge that can be gleaned, and, as such, cases are selected on the basis of researcher expectations about the nature and extent of information they contain. Given the need to broaden insights into media in homicide beyond school shootings, Flyvbjerg's maximum variation technique was deployed in choosing cases for analysis.