Notes

What Narrative Techniques Are Being Used by the Dramatized narrator?

1) The dramatized narrator communicates ambiguity and navigating complexities by using a
number of narrative strategies. First of all, Koenig uses her voice to analyze and to explain
complex information to the audience, among other things using metaphor from her own life to
enable listeners to understand how she interprets characters and events. Koenig also uses a
philosophizing and at times moralizing narrative role to further communicate complexities,
dilemmas, ambiguity, and doubt. Since the stories throughout the three seasons of Serial require
of audiences to keep track of a number of different narrative levels, the role of the narrator is
also to work as the navigator through these, making it so that the instances of metalepsis that
occur in the story are not an obstacle to understanding or engaging with it. Lastly, Koenig uses
her narrative role to, at times, express her opinion. This often occurs during times when two
opposing perspectives have already been presented; Koenig operating as the interpreter that
attempts to distill these differences. This overt expression of opinion, as well as the more covert
expressions that I will point to later, make it possible for audiences to read Koenig as
potentially biased and consequently unreliable. It is also, in my opinion, an important reason
why Koenig is often a topic of criticisms raised against the Serial podcast, especially since it
contradicts the discourse of openness and unbiased perspective that she communicates
elsewhere in the narrative.

2) As previously mentioned, Koenig uses her role as narrator to communicate the process of
constructing the stories of Serial. In order to do this, she uses the narrative strategy of
metanarration, foregrounding the synthetic aspect of the story for the listeners. Instead of
breaking with the realism of the narrative, as has previously been argued that such a strategy
does, foregrounding the synthetic in this way makes this aspect of the story part of the mimetic
— constructing the narrative becomes part of the narrative — as well as emphasizes the theme
of Serial, namely that finding a universal, truthful interpretation of reality is practically
impossible and that the only honest story is one that foregrounds the inevitable subjectivity that
exists in each person's experience of the world.

3) However, this idea that Serial constitutes the only honest or truthful story that can be
communicated is complicated by the fact that Koenig's dramatized narrator uses narrative
strategies such as cliffhangers and withholding information in order to create suspense, tension
and speculation among their listenership. By applying tactics that make the narrative more
engaging this way, the narrator sheds a light on a tension around transparent subjectivity that
would exist even if these tactics didn't; storytelling remains a process of selection. Even if
Koenig's dramatized narrator is transparent about certain aspects, it does not take away from the
fact that she inevitably will also leave out other information. Thus, transparent subjectivity does
not constitute an alternative for journalists looking for a methodology that is devoid of the
potential of manipulation. On the contrary, Koenig's confessions that to some are proof of
authenticity and honesty can be interpreted as proof of her manipulative powers by others, as
they can be used to distort or distract from other part of the story. That being said, it is
undeniable that creating suspense and tension which in turn is a breeding ground for speculation
seems to create an engaged audience, at least in the case of Serial.

4) In addition to the use of cliffhangers and withholding information, creating suspense and
encouraging speculation, Koenig's dramatized narrator also encourages audience engagement
through her personable and familiar narrative voice, which creates a sense among listeners that
she is one of them. This idea of Koenig and listeners as a collective unit is further strengthened
by her use of the collective we-voice and by the way in which she states some facts as
universally true, not ascribing them to any one person. Instead, some subjective opinions that
Koenig holds are presented as self-evident facts which audiences are expected to agree with.
Koenig also addresses the audience directly using rhetorical questions, a tactic that implies that
the dramatized narrator is interested in audience perspectives and input. All of these different
narrative strategies contribute to the general impression that the audience is a part of the various
investigations, even if, in the end, Koenig is the one holding all the power.

5) Listener engagement is further encouraged by the way that the dramatized narrator integrates
their feedback into later episodes of each season, making the response to the various narratives
a part of the narrative proper. In this way, the dramatized narrator is used to transform the
potential of journalism from being a one-sided version of storytelling — narrator to mass
audience — to storytelling as a communicative process. This, as previously mentioned, works
to emphasize the idea of story as a continuous process of investigation, the idea of truth as a
continuous investigation of the world. Although some may question Koenig's reliability due to
her narrative ambivalence, her internal struggles with finding the truth and questioning whether
it can be found at all is really a reflection of the larger narrative that is produced through the
Serial podcast.

What does the dramatized narrator bring to podcast storytelling?
1) The dramatized narrator enables podcast storytelling to effectively navigate complex stories
without becoming completely lost in the endless details inherent to real-life experiences. It
enables the podcast to communicate a complex story without becoming reductive or too
detached or too dehumanizing, as the humanity of the narrator is also extended to the various
characters in the stories.

2) It allows journalists to avoid the impossible binary of presenting themselves as either solely
objective or completely subjective. Instead, using a dramatized narrator allows them to show
their honest attempt at providing audiences with the most truthful narrative possible. In the
process of using transparent subjectivity lies the acknowledgement that no unambiguous truth
can necessarily exist, but that the journalists involved are attempting to get as close to one as
possible and remain open about whether or not they succeed in doing so.

3) Although the dramatized narrator may rhetorically convey authenticity, openness and honesty, it
is nevertheless important to note that all narratives, even those opting for transparent
subjectivity, involve a level of selection. The dramatized narrator can therefore also easily be
used as a means of manipulation, using the apparent honesty and confession-like rhetoric to
distract from, or neglect, other important aspects of the story. Given this, my opinion is that the
dramatized narrator and their use of transparent subjectivity should not be seen as a faultless
narrative strategy that excuses journalists from potential criticisms and accusations of
unreliability.

4) Using the dramatized narrator in podcast storytelling inevitably means that the narrator
becomes a key figure in the narrative that is being communicated. The podcast, through the use
of this narrative role, becomes an attached genre of text where the author and narrator of the
text, which in the case of Serial are one and the same, and their ethos largely contributes to how
audiences interpret the text. The use of the dramatized narrator, then, makes the larger narrative
and its credibility substantially reliant on audience interpretation of the narrator's ethos, which
can offer challenges to the story itself if said narrator is ever interpreted as unreliable.

5) Being dramatized, the narrator of the podcast has a number of strategies at their disposal that
encourages audience participation and engagement, such as using the collective we-voice or
addressing the audience directly. In the case of Serial, Koenig's emphasis on the audience as an
active participant transforms the narrative from being a traditional one-sided type of
communication where a mass audience is passive, to storytelling as a process of communication
that involves a constant feedback loop where audience input can, and eventually does, make its
way back into the narrative. The dramatized narrator allows for storytelling to become an on-
going process, a dynamic investigation, where the search for "truth" is constantly evolving. I
believe that this use of the dramatized narrator can appear as a viable journalistic method at
attempting to communicate honesty and truth in a world of postmodern indeterminacy.

6) Lastly, the dramatized narrator allows for the podcast to tell stories that do not necessarily
reduce real people and nonfictional events into characters and plots. It is a method that can
avoid the reductive strategies of reducing people's complexities and taking away parts of their
humanity because fallibility, ambiguity, opinion and doubt are, through this narrative role,
foregrounded and an inevitable part of communicating nonfictional stories. Seeing the
dramatized narrator as complex, fallible, at times unreliable, opens up the opportunity to extend
this understanding to the other characters in the story without necessarily judging these traits as
inherently discrediting to the narrative at large