The Podcast “Serial” by Sara Koenig and Julie Snyder is a nonfictional investigative podcast that strives to display real experiences to its audience. In Season 3, Serial introduces a new realm of discussion, where they explore the United States criminal justice system and its response to a variety of cases – small or large.
In Episode One, “A Bar Fight Walks into the Justice Center,” we are given an in-depth exploration, full of analysis and narrative of the structure/events and characters in the story. All of this is done brilliantly; Koenig strategically places all the descriptions, interviews and events throughout the podcast. Ultimately, you can see the shift from summaries to interviews, to adding personal opinions and biases. For example, she gives a general outline of the Cleveland, Ohio justice center by stating “The system consists of one building which houses the city and county courts, sheriff’s office, police office, and jail…” (Serial, Koenig), which gives a comparison to other justice systems, provoking a initial viewpoint on the setting for the audience. This is effective, because it provides an image of a tight-knit system that is productive and methodical in its overall judicial process.
However, the layout of the podcast doesn’t always follow the trend discussed above. For example, Koenig discusses the flaws within the justice system by explaining a previous case like Adnan Syad’s case and states, “They didn’t have evidence on him, nor did they reach out to witnesses, they just sentenced him. His case wasn’t normal, imagine what would happen to cases that are normal like felonies, misdemeanors … the ones regular to see” (Serial, Keonig). You may ask why does this matter? Why does this make a difference? This is because it provokes a negative view on the justice system for the audience; it shows how cases like Syad’s are neglected and struggle to be given a chance. The purpose of this is so Koenig can portray how cases can be treated differently by prosecutors, lawyers, and others involved, indicating that judgements on cases can be based on incorrect terms.
The podcast then continues by talking about the actual case where she simply states, “a woman sent to jail for being sexually harassed…” (Serial, Koenig), the purpose of this technique is to exaggerate and give the audience a bias – altering the case’s perception and understanding which Koenig aims to do. This is an act of persuasion, as many podcasts already have a viewpoint, position and try to encourage the listener to agree with them, so much of the mentality of the audience is impacted from the very start. Although, many podcasts cast their opinions on articles, and aren’t presently active in the stories they discuss, Serial is different. Keonig and her colleagues are involved; they are part of the stories they present – they have the credibility, experience from being a part of the story which allows the story to become compelling, and for the source to become more credible. For example, when the victim, Anna is sexually harassed Keonig states that she was groped seven different times by two different men. That’s one of the opening sentences, which makes the audience think about how a victim could land in jail? It already forms a bias, and then the narrator increases this curiosity by asking “what was your reaction? How did you feel?”. The audience can see the concern Keonig has for the Anna. See, the audience isn’t simply reading an article or listening to someone’s opinions, they’re able to experience what the victim has to say, what the supporting parties say and what the opposers have to say. The occasional interviews and Q&A’s Keonig does adds to the suspense, credibility of the podcast and helps show the entire story instead of just one aspect. Not only that, she displays the flaws in the system by showing how the individuals that harassed Anna were let off by the police officers with minimal context or concern without looking at any evidence. This type of placement of the facts and interviews with the victim helps the audience think about what officers can miss in similar situations, and even crucial cases like murder scenes, and why the jobs weren’t fulfilled properly. This helps Keonig on the entire issue of criminal justice systems being careless and making decisions based off of insufficient evidence. It leaves a lot of questions and doubts for the audience – allowing them to formulate various opinions that can impact their perspective on things to come.
Also, other examples of the justice system having weaknesses can be seen by reactions and judgements of its officials. For example, the prosecutor on the case, Jennifer King, originally said that Anna was to be charged with assault on a police officer even if it was an accident. The prosecutor said that it didn’t make a difference whether Anna was charged with disorderly conduct or felony – it was meniscal. However, Keonig adds to that by saying that for prosecutors’ charges may seem small, but for the individuals it can make or break their lives, and many authorities overlook that. She basically indicates the negligence, and the harsh reality of the justice system, and how minor cases like Annas’ can be turned into large cases for no reason. To the audience, this poses an important question, can the United States system properly decide and execute judgements for horrendous crimes? How do they deal with other significant crimes when they can’t make a proper judgement on small-scale cases? The entire episode is brilliantly planned when Keonig backups what she says with recordings from lawyers, Anna, the victim, or prosecutors like Jennifer King. Serial structures itself in such a way that it gives a brief overview of the situation, an example of a previous monumental case, narration on the story, recordings of the individuals involved, personal opinions via rhetorical questions, and then finally a twist in the end to leave the audience thinking. Podcasts like Serial leave the audience engaged and wanting for more. The involvement, facts and detail that’s presented really makes the podcast interesting, and Serial is impressive.
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By: Jaskaran Johal
