ABSTRACT
As the fastest-growing medium in digital publishing, podcasting has spawned a host of similar entries to Serial, including S-Town and subject-produced experiments such as Ear Hustle. The journalistic technique of humanizing the reporter, whose voice is included in the story at various crucial interludes, draws on older forms associated with literary journalism that honor rather than restrict the narrator’s subjectivity and/or presence in the story as a character influencing events. The podcast’s unique transparency and intimacy has attracted the coveted millennial audience, as evidenced by startups such as Gimlet Media specializing in story-centered longform immersive journalistic podcasting.
