Overall this episode brought about a lot of questions for me like, "Is Serial plot driven or character driven or clue driven?" If it's character driven, who is driving each episode and how are they being portrayed? Are there any doubts to Sarah's narrative? For example when in class we were speculating whether or not the streaker who found Hae's dead body was smoking a joint is that merely speculation or something that was omitted on purpose? If so, and the streaker lied about the pot to protect himself who's to say the other people who gave testimonies weren't also?
When listening to this week's Serial episode what stuck out to me among all of these questions the most was the organization of the podcast in general. How does she structure each episode for maximum dramatic effect? When does she insert the music and why?
Throughout these four episodes we have now listened to I have become increasingly intrigued by this case because of its mysteries and crime solving elements. However as purely just an information based case there are so many topics and subtopics that a structure must be found if one where to tell this story in an episode order. Serial's topics for each episode make sense, and the topics stream from one to another but since this isn't a cause and effect story that builds on itself it is a bit harder to track all the facts on the case.
Since we in the class are listening to the podcast on a weekly basis we are not at privilege to listen ahead and 'binge' listen so things don't stay as fresh in our minds. Does this method of listening to the podcast enhance or hinder our understanding of the case? I think it does both. Like Barthes describes the Text is never fully realized so even if we read it all at once in one go, keeping the details of the case in tact we would get one view while listening to Serial in increments gives us a different meaning to the work. By listening to Serial with discussion and podcasts intermixed throughout the weeks we are exploring and playing with a work which allows us to find new meaning to it. Barthes' idea of play trumping consumption is an idea that we are exploring in the class.
I think it’s really interesting how you bring up the point that we should be wondering, how does Koenig order these episodes and why? To the listener, it might seem natural that the facts be presented in this order, but then again, what would the effect be if the episodes had been switched around? What if Koenig started this whole podcast stating that she believes Adnan did it and why? Or that he didn’t and why not? How would that have changed our perception of this whole case…
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it’s intriguing how we can potentially forget some of the important details of the case because we might be waiting too long to listen to the next episode. Like you said, since we have been talking about Serial in class, and we have weekly podcasts, we technically aren’t only visiting Serial once a week, so maybe this doesn’t apply to us as much. As much as I would love to binge-listen to all the episodes, I enjoy being able to reflect upon each episode for a week before moving on to the next episode.
With respect to the inclusion of music: I wanted to reflect on last week’s podcast and explain my group’s decisions for including music in different parts of the podcast. Depending on the aura or mood the music/jingle gave off, we put different music after different sections of the podcast. For example, when our interviewee Milan claims that he would rather hire a janitor over a streaker, his statement contradicts his previous notion that one’s streaking record shouldn’t define their current characteristics. We then followed his interview with the typical “doo, doo doo” music to emphasize the distinction between his two claims.
I think the music in the beginning of the podcast—the Serial theme song—almost brings back a lot of the details, facts, and memories I may remember from past episodes, due to the fact that it starts and ends every episode. This is almost like how we associate certain sounds with certain actions or emotions, or even certain smells with certain memories. I think the purpose of including music is to help the viewer understand how Koenig is interpreting the facts she is being given. Of course, if Koenig puts gloomy music after a segment, she must be emphasizing the weight of the facts presented, mostly negative. If you were to replace that gloomy music with happy music, then it would almost seem ironic that Koenig is following a segment about maybe Jay’s inconsistencies in the case with upbeat melodic jingles. It just wouldn’t seem right.
On that same point, however, one must wonder, is music necessary at all? I think the music gives the listener a little time to process all the facts being thrown at them. Just like some other students have mentioned, this episode in particular has so many new facts that it is sometimes hard to wrap your mind around all of it all at once.
To this end, I wonder, were the police this confused about the case as well? Or did they just not take the time to fully comprehend or interpret all sides of the story?