A Rhetorical Analysis Of Serial

The media that we consume should be of a certain standard where it is properly represented, ethical, and unbiased. The investigative journalistic podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig, is about the murder of Hae-Min Lee, and the accused murderer Adnan Syed. Throughout the 12 episodes of Serial, Koenig dissects and questions the facts and accounts that revolve around Hae-Min murder. At the same time however, Serial is also quite problematic, and not the best form of journalistic media that students should consume. It has a biased tone, it downplays the backgrounds of the people involved, and it is quite frankly, unethical.
Firstly, Sarah Koenig is a white reporter, and the people that are the focus of her prodcast are children of minority immigrants.

As a reporter, she should be giving her audience clear, unbiased facts, however anyone can tell that she has a clear bias about the case. Koenig is only human, and therefore it is understandable that she has her opinions as to who is guilty and who is innocent. However, as a journalist reporting on a murder, her bias should not be apparent because it could sway her audience into having the same opinion as her instead of having them form their own opinions. An example of Koenig showing her bias is when she believes that Adnan is not a psychopath because he has shown genuine empathy to her. She says that “I don’t think Adnan is a psychopath... I think he has empathy… real feelings, because I’ve heard and seen him demonstrate empathy and emotion towards me…” (ep 11). In this case Koenig uses ethos to establish the credibility of her opinion. She had talked to Adnan almost every day on the phone about this case, and from their many calls she feels that she could tell that he has shown genuine empathy to her. This is not a fact however, and this statement could sway her audience into the thinking the same way as her. In addition, the story of Serial is dominantly from Adnan’s side of the story. Koenig interviews Adnan’s mother, friends, cousin, other people to talk about Adnan,

However, to Hae-Min Lee’s Family, this story is a tragic event that has happened to them. More than 5 million people have listened to Serial and all of the details about Hae-Min has been made public. Including her diary entries and other secrets she probably wanted to keep secret. For example, Koenig makes public about how Adnan and Hae-Min would “have sex whenever, and wherever possible… at motels or the car park or at other people’s houses or apartments” (ep 2). This fact doesn’t seem to be related to this case at all but instead is added to make Hae-Min and Adnan’s relationship seem reatable. Hae-Min being from a conservative Korean family would most likely not want that information to have been made public, but it was anyways. In this case, Koenig can’t get consent from Hae-Min personally because she is deceased, and in this case she should have asked for consent from her family. Which brings to my next point that before proceeding with the story, Koenig should have gotten consent from both Adnan’s side as well as Hae-Min’s side. It is even revealed that Hae-Min’s brother had found out from others about the podcast. Koenig mentions that she has tried looking for Hae-Min’s family, and they seem to want nothing to do with the podcast. Therefore, Koenig had Adnan’s and his family’s approval, but Hae-Min’s family never consented to allow Sarah to create