Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. At the heart of her wrongful conviction was the power of sensational “sticky” media narratives—stories shaped more by spectacle than truth, and weaponized in particular ways against women.

Amanda reflects on the journey of reclaiming her voice from the grip of global tabloids. She unpacks how the media often distorts female identity through the lens of sexuality to vilify women and sway public perception, especially during criminal trials. She also shares the surprising emotional work of coming to see her prosecutor—the man who helped orchestrate her wrongful conviction—as a human being.

But this conversation isn’t only about the past. Amanda also emphasizes today’s attention economy, where facts often lose to the most compelling narrative, and where the line between reality and fiction grows ever thinner.

-Visit Amanda's website ⁠here⁠.

-Order Amanda's new book, Free: My Search for Meaning ⁠here⁠ (released in March 2025):

*This episode is an extension of FAWCO’s recent expert panel at the United Nations 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and NGO-CSW, which examined the growing threat of Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII), including real and deepfake content, as a tool of gendered abuse, especially targeting women in the public eye.

Watch the full panel discussion here featuring Andrea Powell, Susanna Gibson, Breeze Liu, Noelle Martin, and Silvia Semenzin.

The Power of ‘Sticky’ Narratives: Amanda Knox on Media, Women, and Wrongful Convictions