ABSTRACT
In 2014, technological innovation and experimental audio storytelling serendipitously collided: Apple embedded a native app in its smartphone and an independent US radio team packaged investigative journalism online as gripping episodic narrative, called simply 'Serial'. Serial's popularity triggered a podcasting boom as media organizations scrambled to emulate its success. Audio is first and foremost a temporal medium. Unlike film, it cannot freeze-frame it: it only exists in real time. Unlike print, it cannot easily skim a passage and jump ahead. This perforce listening-in-real-time creates a pact of intimacy between speaker and listener and an accompanying sense of 'liveness' not found in print. Audio encourages revelation. Like print, and unlike video, audio liberates speakers from being judged on appearance: The overweight, the old, the bald, the beautiful, are made more equal, while factors such as visible disability or racial origin can attract less judgment.
