(Co-)constructing community-identity: pro-innocent voices in the Meredith Kercher murder case

This case has sparked much controversy online and offline among people who believed that Knox and Sollecito were innocent (pro-innocent), and people who were convinced they perpetrated the crime (pro-guilt). Within a framework of critical discourse and social media studies, the chapter discusses the patterns of socialization as presented by individual voices of pro-innocent participants: the representation of the ‘default other’ (the pro-guilt community); the individual positioning of pro-innocent campaigners within and towards their online community; their attitudes vis-à-vis Knox and Sollecito and their representation of the context of the murder and trials (Perugia and Italy). Due to the degree of social commitment and online activism, the personal level of identification with the cause is inextricably portrayed by the participants as intertwined and overlapping with the relational and collective levels of representation.