For an overview of my project, see “Conversations on the Serial Podcast: Beginnings.” These conversations are an exploration of the aspects of new media engagement which affect narrative and knowledge. Rabia Chaudry and I will be discussing each subsequent episode of Serial in a live Google Hangout every Monday at 1pmEST. Feel free to use the hashtag #serialnarrative to send questions or comments before, during, or after each conversation.
During our first conversation about Serial‘s most recent podcast, “Episode 05: Route Talk,” and Rabia’s response, “Let’s Talk About Cells, Baby,” I was interested in hearing about the following things from Rabia:
- How does your personal attachment to case affect your hearing of the episodes as they air? What process has developed for you around listening to it every week?
- How much interaction do you continue to have with Sarah’s team? You were featured heavily in the first episode, but does the Serial team check back in with you as it is working to check facts, theories, inconsistencies?
- You have engaged the story on Twitter and on the Serial subreddit. How has that interaction changed over time? Have you made working relationships with any of those audience members and are you working on any projects that you can talk about with them related to the case?
- As a lawyer and an advocate for Muslim identity in the U.S., you clearly have an angle on Adnan’s story that goes beyond your personal connection to him. What biases do you see in your own work on the case? Do you see biases in the Serial team’s unpacking of the same details?
- What has motivated your choice of platforms for engaging with the case, specifically your choice of blogging spaces? Can you describe how your blog posts, your interaction on Twitter, and your interaction on Reddit have constituted different kinds of thinking about the case? Do you feel specifically that your work in those spaces is markedly different?
- Do you have legitimate hopes that the podcast and its orbiting communities can affect change for Adnan? How would that happen, given the current legal status of his case?
- How would you characterize the motivations of the digital community around the case? In your most recent post, you use work from people on Reddit to make your arguments about the cell tower technology stronger . How did those partnerships come about?
