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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Serial Podcast

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Serial is a Podcast that investigates a true-life story over a series of twelve episodes. The Podcast takes a look at the fifteen year old murder case of Hae Min Lee. Adnan Syed, Hae’s ex-boyfriend was the main suspect and later found guilty of murder for Hae Min Lee’s death and sentenced to life in prison. Serial is hosted by Sarah Koenig an American journalist, public radio personality, and one of the producers of the radio program “This American Life”. The Serial Podcast uses rhetorical devices to appeal to its primary audience by using ethos to establish credibility, pathos to create an emotional response within the audience, and logos to support and poke holes in the murder case. The main purpose/argument for the Serial Podcast is to unfold …show more content…

People who enjoy crime shows will most likely enjoy Serial because it’s formatted the same way. The serialization of the story is what attracted a lot of people in the audience. Serial is also very accessible. It is very easy to listen to the podcast, it’s available for download on iTunes and on the official serial website. The podcast attracted a lot of traffic when it was released. The podcast was the first of its kind to reach five million downloads on iTunes in only one month and 40 million by the end of December. Serial went viral, because the podcast resonates very well with its primary …show more content…

They play audio recorded to help with the context of the murder case. For example, she plays the audio recorded from Jay’s interview. Koenig pokes holes in Jay’s testimony by how his story about what happened “kept changing from telling to telling”. Jay’s testimony was the most vital component of the prosecution’s case against Adnan. That was all they had against Adnad. Koenig is setting the premise that the evidence used to convict Adnan was not sufficient since it was based upon one guy’s story that changed a lot. There was no physical evidence that Adnan committed this crime. Koenig uses logos well in the podcast by exposing how there was a lack of evidence against Adnan and the testimony the state had kept changing and was manipulated by Jay to benefit himself and to help the state have a case against Adnan. Koenig depicts the events from several different points-of-view and by constantly bringing in new information that kept primary audience learning and wanting

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