In fact, I would go as far as to say this would make an excellent piece of required listening for journalism students. The best episode to understand this is Episode 7, where Koenig talks to Deirdre Enright, a person who works on similar cases professionally (if you skip the ‘story so far’ in the first couple minutes there aren’t really any spoilers here). Koenig does not need to establish a miscarriage of justice to ‘finish’ her story: her story is about problems in the fact that the case was brought at all. It uses a suspected miscarriage of justice to report on the justice system and take the listener through the same journey as an investigator or juror: first we think he’s innocent, then guilty, then innocent… You might even say it’s about reasonable doubt. Koenig’s story is, for me, not about a miscarriage of justice. I think Jones makes a mistake common to those used to traditional journalistic production practices: firstly to mistake the subject for the purpose and secondly to misunderstand modern journalism techniques. “Real-life stories hurt the peopled involved … When the reporting phase is exhausted, it’s crucial to understand what kind of a story it is, and maybe whether it is a story at all.” The fact that she does not know whether it is or not is the basis of Jones’s misgivings: Serialfollows Koenig as she attempts to get to the bottom of a murder conviction she suspects may be a miscarriage of justice. “ Sarah Koenig, the lead producer and narrator … used the tools of legitimate reporting - the right to public records, access to experts, the goodwill of interviewees, compelling soundbites, stylish storytelling … - to intrude into and disrupt real lives for the fun of it. It’s voyeurism, not journalism.” Jones leveled this accusation at the podcast sensation Serial: Listen to the show above or at the Legal Talk Network. To be sure you never miss an episode of Lawyer 2 Lawyer, subscribe in the iTunes library or via our RSS feed.After reporting on online journalism for some time you tire quickly of people saying “ this is not journalism“. On Tuesday Brian C.
Enright was featured on episodes 7 and 12 of Serial and is currently working on Syed’s appeal. Deirdre Enright, director of investigation for University of Virginia School of Law’s Innocence Project Clinic.Our experts offer their views on Syed’s guilt or innocence and on the Serial phenomenon. This week on our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer 2 Lawyer, we go into the weeds of the podcast and of the case against Syed with a panel of legal experts. Just last week, propelled by the podcast, a Maryland appeals court agreed to hear Syed’s appeal arguing for a new trial. It is a fascinating look at the criminal justice system, at journalism, and at human nature.
The 12-episode podcast - the most listened-to podcast ever - picks through in fascinating detail the 1999 Baltimore-area murder of high school senior Hae Min Lee and the arrest and conviction of her former boyfriend, Adnan Syed. If you did not listen to the Serial podcast, you should.