Transmedia Storytelling in True Crime: From Journalistic Storytelling to the Screen. The Case of Lucia en la telaraña

Abstract

The article examines the transmedia narrative in true crime, a narrative genre characterized by the investigation and reconstruction of real crimes and scandals, which has become one of the most successful on streaming platforms. It explores the path from the journalistic story to the audiovisual format to demonstrate the continuity that can be observed throughout the centuries. It uses the historical method, the documentary analysis of classical and contemporary narrative theories, and the analysis of a recent and paradigmatic case: the docuseries Lucia en la telaraña (RTVE Play, 2021). The results confirm that true crime uses journalistic narrative as a source, expanding its capacity to explain complex stories; in this genre we also identify elements of a basic dramatic axis that makes it easily transferable from one genre to another, from one language to another and, therefore, from one format to another. The main conclusion is that true crime does, indeed, represent a continuity with the classical narrative tradition of crime and events.