Unpacking “Binge-Worthy Journalism” With Julie Snyder At BingeFest 2016

The true crime genre has experienced a really extraordinary revival following the arrival of the hugely-popular podcast Serial. However, two years later, the only question bigger than whether Adnan is guilty or not is whether or not Serial might actually eclipse the rest of podcasting as a medium when it comes to raw popularity.

We caught up with Serial co-creator Julia Snyder at her panel on “Binge-worthy Journalism”, at Sydney’s inaugural Bingefest. Here’s what we learned:

They weren’t impressed with Reddit

Another thing Julie didn’t shy away from during her talk was her concerns about the Reddit community that popped up around the series. She says that once Reddit got involved, she felt like they were losing control of the story.

The team considered but ultimately ruled against speculation about abuse

During the Q&A part of the talk, one audience member asked Snyder about whether they took the possibility of an abusive relationship between Adnan and Hae seriously. Julie said that they did consider the idea but ultimately ruled against it due to their inadmissability in court.

She wasn’t impressed with Jay’s Post-S1 interview

One of the more controversial for the Serial community following the release of the first season was the interview The Intercept did with one of the series’ key witnesses after Serial failed to get him on record. Julie says she saw the interview and wished that the interviewer had pushed Jay in areas where he said things that clearly contradicted with the evidence presented in court.

The working relationship between Adnan and Sarah is a fascinating one

One of the most fascinating moments of the talk saw Julie guide the audience through the interactions that made up a short phone call between Sarah Koenig and Adnan. Julie said that while a lot of the things that the two talked about over 48 hours of phone calls wasn’t crime-related, even ordinary interactions carried with them a layer of subtext. “All intentional charm is calculated,” she said.

Even she struggled with the structure of Season 2

If you struggled a little with the sprawling second season of Serial, you’re not alone. Even Julie admitted she had some trouble approaching it as an editor. While she was certain they didn’t want to do “another murder story”, she was aware of the pros and cons that came with using Bo Bergdahl’s experiences as a window into telling a larger story about the War in Afghanistan.

They weren’t ready for the series’ popularity

Julie confessed early on in the talk that their ambitions going into Serial were pretty humble. They expected, best case scenario, 300,000 listeners. She says the series has now racked up 250 million downloads and their team absolutely wasn’t prepared to handle the volume of comments and interactions on their social media.

Neither was their tech guy

At one point, the Serial team attempted to implement a filter that would cut out spam comments like “Adnan did it” or “Jay did it” on their posts. Julie says someone on the team ended up testing the block, discovering it didn’t work and accidentally posted “Adnan did it” to the official Serial Facebook page – a mistake that even made its way onto a few scattered news sites.

Adopting the language of TV was a deliberate choice

Julie says the incorporation of TV concepts like Cliffhangers and Seasons into the vocabulary around the season was always a deliberate choice. “People didn’t realize journalism could be packaged this way,” she said.

Julie Snyder’s talk took place at this year’s BingeFest weekend in Sydney over the 17th & 18th of December. 

You can also watch Julie’s talk for yourself on Red Bull TV on Wednesday 21st December.

Photography by Prudence Upton

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