User:Emileeclyburn/Crime Junkie Podcast

New articles:

Review: https://podcastreview.org/review/crime-junkie/

NY Times on plagiarism: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/business/media/crime-junkie-podcast-plagiarism.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap

 Background section: 

Flowers records the podcasts in her home office, and her brother, David Flowers, helps with the editing. The name AudioChuck came from Flowers' dog, Charlie, who barks at the end of every episode. "He's my whole world ... He's become more famous than I have."

In a Q&A with Inside Radio, Flowers shares how she got into true crime, and why she started the podcast. In the interview, Ashley says that she and Prawat, her co-host, have been friends since birth. '''Flowers and Prawat became friends through their mothers, and were even born on the same day. The two women grew up together, and they both developed a passion for true crime.'''

"[You] can probably thank my mom for that, because I grew up reading Nancy Drew [and] Agatha Christie."

According to Flowers on WTHR, the name Crime Junkie came to her when she started working at Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana.

'Flowers was a fan of podcasts years before she started Crime Junkie''. She felt that there weren't enough podcasts out there, and decided to create one that she herself would enjoy. Flowers posted the first episode of Crime Junkie in December 2017 and has posted weekly episodes since then.'''

Flowers used to work full-time at a hospital while still managing Crime Junkie, but she has since made managing Crime Junkie her full-time job.

 Format Section:  Podcast episodes are released every Monday (Tuesday for international listeners). The show describes its style as "that sounds like you’re sitting around talking crime with your best friends."

'''Crime Junkie typically has the same format every week. The episodes are normally thirty minutes to an hour long, and Flowers takes the lead revealing all of the details of the story being told. The episodes vary on the type of case, typically covering murder, missing persons, and notorious serial killers. Flowers tells the story while Prawat adds in reactions and a different perspective to the case. There is an extra segment once a month called "Pruppet of the Month" where Flowers tells stories about dogs who have been adopted. This segment is unrelated to the typical Crime Junkie content and inspired by fans who posted pictures of their dogs online.'''

'''Crime Junkie is available everywhere that podcasts are found, most popularly listened to on Apple Podcasts. Flowers and Prawat also started a Patron (<link to Patreon wiki page) page for the podcast that allows listeners to pay a monthly fee for extra Crime Junkie content.'''

'While most cases are chosen by Flowers, they also take submissions where fans can suggest cases that they want to hear covered on Crime Junkie''. Fans can submit their case suggestions on the Crime Junkie website.'''

'''Flowers says that each episode takes roughly thirty hours per week to research, write, edit, and prepare for release. Flowers does all of the research with the exception of a few episodes that Prawat has taken the lead on.'''

'''Flowers and Prawat have also taken Crime Junkie on tour to various parts of the United States. The Crime Junkie Live show consists of Flowers and Prawat giving attendees a live version of the podcast by telling case stories that have never been released on the regular podcast.'''

 Reception Section: 

Laura Barcella of Rolling Stone magazine named Crime Junkie among her favorite true crime podcasts for 2018, and wrote that "it’s earned five stars from almost 10,000 listeners for a reason." Jenni Miller of Vulture.com wrote that Flowers was "particularly passionate" in her coverage of the Murder of April Tinsley with interviews with Tinsley's mother in a previous podcast and an interview with one of the people responsible for the arrest of the killer. '''Kevin Chang Barnum from Podcast Review wrote a review on the podcast, stating that "Crime Junkie provides a community for true crime obsessives." Barnum also writes that the episodes published by Flowers are "carefully crafted and researched."' Elizabeth Clark of The Odyssey Online made a top ten list of her favorite Crime Junkie'' episodes.. The show has been gaining national attention and according to WISH-TV, it's because of their "unique approach to the true crime genre" Christopher Rosa of Glamour magazine wrote that "Podcasts like Crime Junkie and Serial are always in the top slots in iTunes." Amy Bartner of Indy Star named Crime Junkie among its "17 local podcasts you should be listening to". In March 2019, USA Today 's For The Win ran the 2019 Ultimate Podcast Bracket tournament in which Crime Junkie lost to Binge Mode(produced by The Ringer) in the Championship from a field of 32 podcasts.

 Plagiarism Section: 

In August of 2019, several people accused Flowers of plagiarism. The first to accuse Flowers of plagiarism was Cathy Frye who alleged that the March 2019 episode about Kacie Woody relied entirely on her series of articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, without attribution. Once Frye accused Crime Junkie of stealing her content, it prompted other podcast makers to come forward with accusations of their own. Robin Warder of The Trail Went Cold Podcast alleged the May 2018 episode on Henry McCabe "practically read... verbatim without credit" from his Reddit post. A Reddit user alleged that the March 2019 podcast on Kirsten Hatfield copied almost "word for word" from a 2018 episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn. Crime Junkie removed the episodes about Woody and Hatfield in August 2019, along with three other episodes. Flowers issued a statement that episodes had been taken down because "source material could no longer be found or properly cited" but did not address specific accusations of plagiarism.