Serial Podcast

Nile Ross Dr. Owens Media In Your Life November 4, 2014

Serial Critique

The Serial is a suspenseful audio storytelling podcast that explores

different and dramatic scenarios for each of their episodes. Investigator and

journalist, Sarah Koenig, hosted the podcast and she presents her story in a form

of reporter, in which she shares the story of a murder that occurred in Baltimore,

Maryland. This critique will review the very first episode of The Serial Podcast

and the quality of Sarah Koenig's report from the story of the murder, to the

interviews she shared with her witnesses.

In the first episode entitled, The Alibi investigates the story of a high

school student named Adnan Syed, who may not or have been falsely convicted

of a crime he committed in 1999. His girlfriend during the time named Hae Ming

Lee, was murdered and found dead by park in Northern Baltimore. She was

confirmed missing after school one day and in six weeks prior to the

disappearance, the Baltimore police department arrested her boyfriend, Adnan

Syed, for the crime. Even though Adnan kept his innocence throughout the

investigation, he was still convicted and the court sentenced him to life in prison.

Sarah Koenig's (the reporter) purpose in this podcast was to investigate

and gain more detail for the killing of Hae Ming Lee. She questions numerous of

high school students, one being her own nephew, who attended and who were

close friends to Adnan. The main questions she tends to ask are, "Where were

you on the day Hae Ming went missing?" and "Do you remember seeing Adnan

on that day?" These repetitive, but key, questions where asked towards the

students she interviewed during the podcast. However, before the questioning of

the crime, Koenig tells us a brief summary of the story and background

information of both Adnan and Hae Ming. She goes in great detail describing who

they were in high school to help us, the listeners, place an image towards the two

in the story. During the time she's telling the listeners information about the two

main students in the podcast, she also tells information about the other

interviewed students as well.

This paragraph contains my evaluation prior towards my last

paragraph, which described my experience listening to the podcast. In the

previous paragraph, I write regarding Koenig's approach towards the students of

the high school and the information she provides about each of them. Personally,

I believe this was an important, yet appreciable method Koenig took because it

helped me (the listener) understand more about the story. To me, I felt when

Koenig provided the background information of each student, including to the two

main students in the case, it helped me understand the personalities of them and

the actions they would partake in. Also, I consider that the questions that Koenig

delivers are very significant towards my experience with podcasting. The reason

being, is that the questions kept me intrigued throughout the podcast and the

more questions that Koenig carried, the closer she was towards solving the

crime, which me, as a listener to a mystery genre podcast, found it exciting as it

progressed towards the end.

Overall, I found that the podcast was highly entertaining and enjoyable. As

the story grows deeper, my level of interest increases. Because of the

production, quality, and storyline of the first episode, I personally would continue

listening to the other episodes that are created.