The NPR podcast Serial is captivating hundreds of thousands of listeners each week as it serializes a nonfiction murder mystery.
The episodes – which have been released every Thursday for the past seven weeks – reinvestigates the killing of a girl in Baltimore in 1999, with host Sarah Koenig examining every possible detail to determine whether the man convicted of her murder is in fact guilty.
As is common with such a huge fan base, the series has also exploded on social media and reddit and even spawned a parody on YouTube.
For listeners compelled by the murder mystery, it is easy to forget that the case involves actual events and real people.
The investigation also depends on amateur detectives, including Sarah Koenig – who is very talented and extremely detail oriented – but not a professional detective. Nor are her listeners, who are basically driving the investigation on reddit.
Because of the real-life nature of the series, some are raising questions about it is appropriate to view the podcast as entertainment at the expense of the victims affected by in the crimes committed.
For example, The Altantic’s Adrienne LaFrance poses the question: “What is it, exactly, that people are participating in here? Are Serial listeners in it for the important examination of the criminal justice system? Or are we trawling through a grieving family’s pain as a form of entertainment?”
The creators of Serial have responded by stating their desire to be sensitive to the people involved in the real-life case.
“We are very cognizant of the fact that the people involved in this case are real people with families, jobs, etc, and for the people who have asked to not have their full names included in the story, we are respecting those wishes,” said producer Julie Synder. “I love the discussions on the site and think it’s really incredible listeners are engaging with this story but, yeah, I have to admit I feel a pit in my stomach at the thought of anyone ‘outing’ real people or contacting them or anything like that.”
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