This document analyzes how fans of the "Serial" podcast collectively developed theories and interpretations of the case on subreddit forums like r/serialpodcast. It discusses how fans worked together to fill in narrative gaps, sometimes creating their own speculative versions of events ("fanon") in a way similar to fan fiction writers. However, these conspiracy theories sometimes led to false accusations or doxxing of innocent people. The document examines this community through the lenses of participatory culture, transformative works, and collective meaning-making online.

1. LAUREN ROUSE | UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
THE AUDIO MEDIA
REVOLUTION:
the influences of podcasts on the creation of fandom,
fanon, and meaning making

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
DISCUSSION POINTS
Podcasts
The "Serial" Podcast
Conspiracy Reddits
Meaning Making through Fandom Lense

3. THIS PAPER ANALYZES COLLECTIVE MEANING MAKING
FOR THE “SERIAL” PODCAST SUBREDDITS,
R/SERIALPODCAST AND R/SERIALPODCASTORIGINS,
VIA A CASE STUDY.
To analyze how collective conspiracies are built on this
reddit, the lens of transformative works and fanon
from the fan studies discipline is applied.
Fans who participate in writing fan fiction often create
and change characteristics, plots, and settings, and
develop their own understanding of the characters
and worlds from the source text.

4. PODCASTING
(I)POD + (BROAD)CAST

5. SERIAL AND THIS AMERICAN LIFE
SARAH KOENIG, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST & HOST
Premiered in October 2014
SEASON 1: THE MURDER OF HAE MIN LEE
Baltimore, MD 1999
Adnan Syed, 18, accused of killing ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, 17
THE STORY IS NEVER AS SIMPLE AS IT SEEMS
“He said, she said,” mistreatment of evidence, possible coerced
confession of a key witness, accusations against Syed’s lawyer of
throwing the case, accusations of Islamophobia & racism

6. In 2014, the subreddit devoted to the podcast drew more
than 700,000 unique views a month (Dean 2014).
The subreddit is still very active, and despite being
devoted to all of the “Serial” seasons, season 1 is the most
discussed
Recent resurgence of information
HBO docuseries on both the podcast and Syed’s case
Syed received an appeal in 2018, but ultimately lost the
case for a retrial
Some postings are from new listeners, while others have
tracked the story from the beginning
r/serialpodcastorigins: a subreddit that tracks the rise
of the fandom via Wayback Machine
@rouselaurenc
r/serialpodcast

7. Dean 2014
“‘I was just curious like everybody else.’
[…] I can understand the pull.
Investigative reporting, like storytelling,
or like listening to stories, can become
its own kind of hypnosis.”

8. KLEIN ET AL. 2018, 11
it is conspiracy narratives that
are all-encompassing, pulling in a
diverse group of people who may
have little in common with one
another, each of whom can find
what they need in a fragment of
the larger tale

9. CONSPIRACY REDDIT
WHO ARE THE ALLIES?
often times these communities ally themselves
against the law enforcement, which “creates fixed
memory and turns emotional narrative into rational
evidence […]” By questioning the “creators’ claims of
truthfulness,” Pâquet writes, these
“audiences [sic] turn their empathy and fixed
memory toward amateur online investigations,”
which often escalates the untruthfulness of the
communities and the statements coming from the
communities.

10. DEFINTION
a (fictional)
investigator who does not
personally visit a crime
scene or interview
witnesses; instead, he or
she either reads the story
of the crime in a
newspaper or has it
recounted by another
person (think Mycroft
Holmes in the Arthur
Conan Doyle novels)
PANTUMSINCHAI
“rampant speculation and
rumor-mongering, as well
as false accusations and
harassment of innocent
suspects”
FALSE ACCUSATIONS
Boston bombers
Bangkok bomber
the
"armchair"
detective

11. "Receiving confirmation from the media and the police was enough to
validate Reddit’s original claim. For Reddit, the stability of the network
seemed widespread across various actants, yet, in reality, the network
was an illusion."
PANTUMSINCHAI 2018, 773
Instead of a robust network, the network
was a loop, feeding into itself.

12. PARTICIPATORY
CULTURE
With relatively low barriers to artistic
expression and civic engagement
With strong support for creating and sharing
one's creations with others
With some type of informal mentorship
whereby what is known by the most
experienced is passed along to novices
Where members believe that their contributions
matter
Where members feel some degree of social
connection with one another (at the least they
care what other people think about what they
have created).AAI | Pro X
Henry Jenkins 2006

13. Participatory
Culture
MIRKO TOBIAS SCHÄFER (2011)
Schäfer argues that "the success of popular Web
2.0 and social media applications thrives on
implicit participation" (44).
AXEL BRUNS (2008)
The producer has several characteristics similar
to those that fans posses: the produser exists in a
community of other produsers, is part of a
participatory culture, and collaborates through
“intercreativity" (41).
ADRIENNE MASSANARI (2015)
It is not that individuals are no longer participating
or creating or sharing; it is that we have come to
understand that such actions do not necessarily
encourage greater encouragement witht the world
at large [...]" (168).

14. A DOCUMENT IN TEMPORAL FLUX
"Even if a single author starts a wiki, that wiki functions
through the interactive potential and actualization of the
community that reads and writes on it. The wiki records
each member’s interaction with the wiki, and files the
collaboration with the community that contribute to the
wiki" (Booth 2010, 92).
R/SERIALPODCASTORIGINS
AS A WIKI

17. DOXING & ANTIS
THE DEMOCRACY OF A
SUBREDDIT
doxing, or the act of “online, public
posting of private information, often in
the form of documents (or “dox”),
about a private individual” establishes
cultures of “anti-like” rhetoric in the
subreddits

22. “THERE IS AN INCIPIENT
RECOGNITION OF HOW
REACTIONARY POLITICS MANIFEST
IN FANDOM OR TAKE FANNISH
FORMS”
Stanfill 2019, 7
CREATING
FANON

23. THANK YOU!
CONTACT
EMAIL
lrouse@knights.ucf.edu
TWITTER
@rouselaurenc
@rouselaurenc