陳品澄 B10102102

Professor Yu

Assignment 4 on Serial

28 May 2022

1. The story is told in the first-person from Sarah Koenig’s perspective, and she also

puts lots of her own opinions and herself in the story. The story she told is not just

the case, but the whole process of her investigation. It creates the effect that pull

all the listener into this process as if they were personally at the scene, helping

them have the better connection to the story and the host. On top of that, utilizing

this perspective is a smart way to create the link of emotions between the audience

and the host. For example, when Sarah and the producer headed to the library,

they tried to find whether there is any past surveillance video, which could be the

alibi of Adnan. When they failed, she said “Bummer. We got nothing.” Because of

the use of first-person perspective, she can directly show us her depressed

emotion. And there is a pathos in it, we will also have the same sentiment with the

host. Therefore, the perspective makes us feel that as if we have engaged in the

process of this investigation in person, motivating us to the next episode to figure

out what the truth is.

2. The obvious difference between reading the transcript and listening to the podcast

is that podcast can give dramatic sound effects, as a form of punctuation—for

 example at the end of a scene, or as a climax is imminent. And in Serial, in the

beginning of the episode and some parts in the middle, it will play the certain

thriller music, adding more suspense to the case. This is also the immediate

impression create by the podcast, whenever this horror music sounds, it means

that there is a turning and show us how complicated the case is and how many

holes and facts that don’t match up. Therefore, when we are listening to podcast, it

is much easier for us to process information. Because of the music just like a hint

to us, tells that here comes the key point of the story. On the other hand, transcript

doesn’t have the effect like that, meaning that we have to distinguish which parts

are crucial to the rest of story and which parts are not. Maybe reading is faster for

us to finish a story, but without the sound effect, it requires more attention to the

text.

3. The effect of switching back and forth from narration and quotation is that it can

allow the audience to evaluate the intentions of this quotation on their own. When

the story is told in narration, the host sometimes will insert her own opinions or

emotions into and also put herself in the story. In this case, a listener will easily be

affected by the narrator due to her diction and emotions, thereby the imagination

and reasoning room for audience being limited. On the other hand, when the

narrative switch to quotation, it provides the first-hand information with the

 audience. The information is relative objective, meaning all the listeners can have

their own explanation to each quotation. It just like we are watching a detective

movie, and we are trying to find who is lying and who is might be a potential

accomplice based on their diction, tone, etc. It is an effective way to involve

listens into the story, making them want to know more what would happen. As for

the telling and showing, showing means uses objective description and evidence

to help realize the story, so clearly equation is showing. On the contrary, telling is

narrator summarizing and using subjective exposition to tell us what’s happening;

thus, narration is telling.

4. The diction of Sarah Koenig in the story sounds like colloquial. Instead of using

formal and dry language like a documentary, colloquial language gives us a sense

of causal and relaxed, for it is our everyday spoken language. Additionally, using

colloquial language can sometimes serves as a supplementary information for the

listeners. For example, when the host and Asia McClain were talking through the

cell phone, Asia ended up the phone with a deep sigh. Then, Sarah said that “In

case you couldn’t hear that, it was a sigh. And I completely understand that sigh.

That how I feel a lot of the time.” The intended effect here is that it shares her and

Asia’s depression with the audience. She told us how often that she would feel

frustrated during the investigation, and by doing this it can arouse audience’s
 sympathy, making us feel that we are participating in this case too. All in all,

colloquial language not only give everyone a sense of relaxed while facing the

serious murder case, but also drag us into this tough atmosphere while trying to

figure out the truth.

5. There are two different major ways for Sarah Koenig to introduce the main

characters in this murder investigation. First of all, she would name the person she

was about to introduce. Then, she would clearly explain this person’s relationship

with the protagonist of this story. For example, when Rabia first time appears in

the story, Sarah says that “Rabia knows Adnan pretty well. Her younger brother

Saad is Adnan’s best friend.” In this case, we can probably guess every person’s

standpoint, whether he tends to believe Adnan is innocent or not, and why he will

show up in this murder investigation. On top of that, Sarah sometimes would

directly tell us this a person we have to remember. When she first mentions Jay in

the story, she says that “Jay is the third person you need to remember in this crime

story besides Hae and Adnan.”

The second method of introduce main characters is that she would use the spatial

settings. That is to say, whenever there are new characters show up, Sarah would

not only explain the person’s relationship with the protagonist, but also indicate

the person’s location. For example, when the story first shows recordings of
 Sarah’s conversations with Adnan, Sarah mentions that “Adnan talks to me from

bank of eighty pay phones in the rec hall, a pretty large room. . .” Therefore, we

can always hear the distinct noise form other inmates, when the quotations of

Adnan are played in the story. And it can be served as a memory point for Adnan’s

quotations. To conclude, explaining each other’s relationship thoroughly and

pointing out the spatial settings can prevent the listeners from getting confused

about who is who.

6. In the first episode, most of the evidences and testimony that Sarah shows us are

more beneficial to Adnan, and that is a method to create the audience’s sympathy

to Adnan. She mentions that the conviction of Adnan is ridiculous. As for any

physical evidence, there was nothing. Instead, what they had on Adnan was one

guy’s story, named Jay. And in the whole episode, Rabia, who always thinks

Adnan as a good kid and is innocent, take up huge the length of the story. Since

how Jay and Rabia describe Adnan seriously contradicts with each other, it will

make the listeners focus on how many holes and facts of this murder case can’t

match up. It makes everyone feels that is it proper and correct to convicted a

person? Another thing that gets the people to sympathize with Adnan is Sarah

herself diction and attitude. In the almost end of the episode, Sarah directly tells

the audience that “Because I talk to Adnan regularly, and he just doesn’t seem like
 a murderer.” As above-mentioned, how we think and how we feel are easily

affected by this kind of storytelling perspective. These two are the main reasons

that will lead the audience to sympathize with Adnan.

7. At the end of first episode, a quotation of Asia McClain says that “All this time I

thought the courts proved it was Adnan that killed her. I thought he was where he

deserved to be. Now I'm not so sure.” In this passage, it seems the probability of

the overturn of Adnan conviction is rising gradually. Maybe the audience are

starting to anticipate that there will be more evidence beneficia to Adnan. But in

the preview of next episode, we can clearly hear a shocking sentence told by a

male speaker— “Jay told me he was being blackmailed by Adnan. Because Adnan

knew that Jay couldn’t go to the police.” This sentence shows a completely

different character image of Adnan with the first episode. The testimony against

him begins to emerge. Besides, there is another male speaker says that “Yeah. I

mean, who else did it? They’re running out of suspects.” This sentence shows that

there might be more people involved in this case, and the whole case is becoming

more and more complex. And this complexity is definite a strong hook for the

listeners, for it must create numerous questions to every listener; if they want to

solve the questions, which are stuck in their mind, then they must follow the next

episode to see how the thing will go.