The ethics of journalism have been set in place to ensure that this distinctive art of storytelling is done in a moral and fair manner. Additionally, it assures that the viewers/listeners are not involved in a scheme of deception. One of the numerous tenets that journalists are charged with adhering to is to “Gather, update, and correct information throughout the life of a news story”.
In my eyes, the Serial podcast does a fine job of adhering to this rule, primarily due to its book like format. In the pilot episode of Serial, Koenig starts off the episode by saying “From This American Life and WBEZ Chicago it’s Serial. One story told week by week. I’m Sarah Koenig.” Viewers listen eagerly as Sarah unravels evidence, wrestles with it, and attempts to make sense of the pieces that leave you second-guessing your standpoint on the whole case.
Sarah exhausts all the resources in her reach and goes out of her way to find new scraps of information. Her tireless ambition and desire to present this case in a fair light is evident by such quotes: “For the last year, I’ve spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999– or if you want to get technical about it, and apparently I do, where a high school kid was for 21 minutes after school one day in 1999.”
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Furthermore, in a recent episode (ep. 6), we learn about a girl named Laura who apparently reported to officials about a boy who claimed that another boy showed him a dead body. Additionally, a girl named “Cathy” claims to have seen Adnan and Jay together on the day of Hae’s murder. These are just a few examples of facts that Koenig has hit her audience w/ when they least expected it.
A potential challenge that Koenig might face while upholding this statute, is that her storytelling mechanism — “going week by week” — is essentially someone who’s trying to wrap their head around a case just like you are. Doubting someone’s integrity in the public eye while playing out various renditions of your hypothesis may influence a viewer’s opinion. For instance, Koenig at one point seriously questions Adnan’s side of the story (his memory of the day, how a call from the police wouldn’t ring a bell, the drive to Leakin Park, etc.) while hinting subtle doubts of infallibility on Jay’s part and so on. Although this quality is what keep viewers so hooked on this thrilling podcast, it may also cause harmful repercussions if not tactfully contained. Thankfully, Koenig does a wonderful job of giving disclaimers to the audience when she’s speculating or just throwing out her thoughts.
