ABSTRACT

This volume analyzes the Serial podcast, situating it in the trajectory of other popular crime narratives and contemporary cultural theory. Contributors focus on topics such as the ethics of the use of fiction techniques in investigative journalism, the epistemological overlay of postmodern indeterminacy, and the audience’s prolific activity in social media, examining the competing narrative strategies of the narrators, characters, and the audience. Other topics considered include the multiplication of narratives and the longing for closure, how our minds work as we experience true crime narratives, and what critical race theory can teach us about the program’s strategies.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

The Unending Story

chapter 1|17 pages

The Ethics of Serialized True Crime

Fictionality in Serial Season One

chapter 2|15 pages

Sounds Authentic

The Acoustic Construction of Serial’s Storyworld

chapter 4|18 pages

The Serial Commodity

Rhetoric, Recombination, and Indeterminacy in the Digital Age

chapter 5|15 pages

“What We Know”

Convicting Narratives in NPR’s Serial

chapter 6|14 pages

The Impossible Ethics of Serial

Sarah Koenig, Foucault, Lacan