WAS ALDOUS HUXLEY RIGHT? Are we medicating ourselves into bliss? in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

IN THE “YES” CATEGORY More concern for mayor Carcetti’s affair than the brutal social realities? Are we connected to Adnan, because he seems like a character in a detective story? The current state of law enforcement that is depicted in “The Wire” and in “The Corner” doesn’t make for entertaining stories and therefore unpopular

POSSIBLY IN THE “NO” CATEGORY Popularity of Serial may mean that people are hungry for investigative journalism—context— complexity It may also mean that the story is constructed in a way that is A. conventional B. techniques used that create identification and involvement in the story techniques used that do not create identification and involvement in the story

DO STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES IN SERIAL IMPEDE ITS ABILITY TO WORK AS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM? Does it give context to a story? Inform viewers of valuable information? Inform listeners of things relevant to their own situation? Are storytelling elements too distracting?

THE WIRE Investigative journalism in the form of TV narrative Not the most popular TV show of all time (like Serial is the most popular podcast) Conventional elements of storytelling (character, suspense, humor) Elements that create viewer identification and involvement Elements that do not create viewer identification and involvement

DOES EITHER IDENTIFICATION OR ALIENATION IMPEDE THE TEXT’S ABILITY TO WORK AS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM? Does it give context to a story? Inform viewers of valuable information? Inform listeners of things relevant to their own situation? Are storytelling elements too distracting? Do they limit the viewer’s ability to learn from the text?