tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/this-american-life-2584/articlesThis American Life – The Conversation2016-12-15T01:23:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/704112016-12-15T01:23:42Z2016-12-15T01:23:42ZSpeaking with: Serial’s Julie Snyder about making groundbreaking podcasts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150077/original/image-20161214-32200-s881iv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C148%2C1419%2C1085&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Serial</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>By now almost everyone has heard – or heard of – This American Life’s blockbuster podcast series <a href="https://serialpodcast.org/">Serial</a>. The <a href="https://serialpodcast.org/season-one">first series</a>, originally published in 2014, covered the incarceration and possible wrongful conviction of Adnan Syed for the murder of schoolgirl Hae Min Lee in Baltimore. In June this year Syed was <a href="https://serialpodcast.org/posts/2016/07/judge-orders-new-trial-for-adnan-syed">granted a new trial</a> for the murder, based at least partially on the renewed scrutiny of the case by the Serial team.</p>
<p>So what does it take to make a podcast that has had over 243 million downloads over two series? What decisions have to be made about pacing, music, how to represent the real-life characters involved and the impact it will have on its subjects’ lives? And in a Trump-led post-truth world, what role can podcasting play to inform public conversations?</p>
<p>The University of Wollongong’s Dr Siobhan McHugh (who was recently a consulting producer on Fairfax’s successful <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2016/phoebesfall/">Phoebe’s Fall</a> podcast) talks to Julie Snyder, Serial’s Executive Producer and co-creator, about the process of making a serialised audio documentary and its impact on its listeners, creators and subjects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh was consulting producer for the podcast Phoebe's Fall, from The Age newsroom, Melbourne, mentioned in the interview. She is the recipient of an Australian Research Council grant to make a radio documentary series about the relationships behind the production of Aboriginal art. She is the founding editor of RadioDoc Review, an online journal that critiques audio documentaries and podcasts (<a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr">http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr</a>).</span></em></p>The University of Wollongong's Dr Siobhan McHugh (consulting producer on Fairfax's Phoebe's Fall podcast) speaks with Julie Snyder, Executive Producer of Serial, about making serial audio and the impact of podcasting.Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626232016-07-18T20:05:29Z2016-07-18T20:05:29ZWhimsy, intimacy and a few bum notes in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130831/original/image-20160718-2150-6qigca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Three Acts Two Dancers One Radio Host', with Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Boud/Sydney Opera House </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Riverdance troupe vibing their “dancey energy” to win the lottery, marriage as market research, the tender witnessing of a lover’s last breath and a raunchy female take on James Brown’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjQ1i5V7qA">Sex Machine</a> – these were potent highlights of the improbable union of two art forms (dance and radio) that “have no business being together”, according to the eponymous Radio Host, Ira Glass. Not that the audience at the Sydney Opera House cared. </p>
<p>Over two hours, the host of the legendary radio show and podcast <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/australia">This American Life</a> seduced his fans with confessional ruminations that segued into tightly produced audio clips – but this time the classic radio three-act structure was ratcheted to another level by the verve and personality of dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass.</p>
<p>The pre-produced audio content was trademark Glass: a mixture of whimsy, intimacy, reflection and revelation, where life’s big and small moments are captured via intensely personal storytelling. A teenager recalls the excruciating mating rituals of the school dance. A poet describes ministering to his dying wife as “she stared silent goodbyes”. </p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Boud/Sydney Opera House</span></span>
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<p>Both these scenes lent themselves powerfully to the interpretation of dance. In the former, Barnes and Bass recruit audience volunteers for a glitzy, bopping prom, while the latter has the pair spotlit on a table, a moving tableau of the aching slowness of death.</p>
<p>What was different was that Ira offered a meta-narrative to accompany the clips. In one segment from the 1990s, a stiffly correct salesman uses marketing techniques to test how his marriage is working, by holding a focus group of one with his wife, “the customer”. </p>
<p>Ira riffs off this incongruity to reveal compelling truths about his own marriage (at an all-time low three years ago when the show started, but much better now) and chides himself: “the gap between my feelings for my wife and my ability to express them has been pointed out”. It’s a poignant moment that further bonds him to the adoring crowd, because after all, he notes, “on the radio, I play a sensitive guy”.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass share an edgy, kinetic energy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Boud/Sydney Opera House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the show, Monica and Anna’s perspectives emerge through carefully choreographed interview audio, deepening our appreciation of what they bring. “Is dancing while balancing a chair meant to be impressive – or sad and desperate?” “I’d rather not say”, comes the riposte. What Ira makes clear is that all three share an urge to be real about interpreting the real feelings of real people through their art.</p>
<p>When Ira launched his show over twenty years ago, his mother begged him to be a doctor instead, or at least work in television. Much has since been written about its extraordinary success, and that of its spin-off, Serial. He made sly references to both, asking people who had never heard of him but been dragged along on a date, to raise their hands. “You totally deserve sex for this,” he tells them. </p>
<p>A bout of mood-altering animal balloon making leads to a chat about blow jobs and he informs us approvingly that his Melbourne audience instructed him to use the term “head job” instead. By this stage the Argentinian woman beside me is lost. “What is ‘dick’?” she asks me – a word he has used six or seven times. </p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Boud/Sydney Opera House</span></span>
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<p>Not everyone enjoys This American Life’s now formulaic style. A survey I conducted of experienced radio and podcast producers revealed that many were fed up with how podcasting had enabled the show to colonise narrative storytelling outside the US. One Australian respondent wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An unbelievably boring set of Ira Glass-alikes have invaded and crap on endlessly about story-telling … they over-insert themselves into any story, use that choppy me-them-me them editing technique.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>US radio scholar Jason Loviglio wrote in <a href="http://www.marquette.edu/mupress/DSMC02Moment_of_Danger.shtml">Public Radio, This American Life and The NeoLiberal Turn</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The program’s genius lies in its oscillating currents of empathy and interiority, emotional depth and disjunctive irony, journalistic precision and self-indulgent memoir. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But he also slams it for pandering to an affluent, educated post-liberal generation’s preference for “connection” over political commitment and nuanced analysis of sociological dilemmas – what he sees as “the exchange of political faith for a gauzy commitment to human ‘complexity’.”</p>
<p>“Making a show is an act of faith”, Ira told us. Judging by the whoops and cheers, by elevating personal storytelling through the sparkle and physicality of dance, he has found his true believers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ira Glass’ trademark intensely personal storytelling takes on a new life in his dance/radio hybrid, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host.Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204312013-12-01T19:29:00Z2013-12-01T19:29:00ZA word in your ear: how audio storytelling got sexy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36413/original/6zwzskkv-1385614172.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Audio engenders a visceral response in listeners, engaging both head and heart.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CHRISSPdotCOM</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a cultural milieu dominated by long-form television dramas such as Breaking Bad and Madmen, how has the apparently simple activity of audio storytelling gained such clout?</p>
<p>In the US, documentary radio programs such as <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/">RadioLab</a>, <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/">This American Life</a> and <a href="http://www.radiodiaries.org">Radio Diaries</a> enjoy sold-out stage shows telling real-life stories that combine serious journalism with compelling personal narratives, philosophical discourse and an irreverent but always engaging tone. </p>
<p>The “new wave” of US radio often features at the hugely popular <a href="http://thirdcoastfestival.org">Third Coast International Audio Festival</a> in Chicago. <a href="http://www.julieshapiro.org/who/">Julie Shapiro</a>, curator since the festival’s inception in 2000, told me once, when I interviewed her, that “there’s a whole perfect storm” happening to make audio storytelling sexy: podcasting, ease of digital recording and production, and use of social media to promote and disseminate stories. </p>
<p>Shapiro coined Third Coast’s key tenet: “important radio can sound beautiful”. Such a view was a radical antidote to the turgid, formulaic reportage that had infected much of US public radio, whereby “documentary” had become associated with “worthy”.</p>
<h2>Movies for radio</h2>
<p>The revolution gained traction in 1995 when the American radio personality <a href="http://barclayagency.com/glass.html">Ira Glass</a> co-founded This American Life, a one-hour narrative journalism show. </p>
<p>Glass <a href="http://transom.org/?p=20139">refuses to use</a> the term documentary: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>because [it] sounds like it’s going to be boring. Heavy. Not entertaining. Even I hold my breath a little before tuning in to a documentary program, and I make documentaries for a living. </p>
</blockquote>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">publicradioexchange</span></span>
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<p>Glass’s “movies-for-radio” approach has been a spectacular success, with more than 2 million listeners a week for This American Life on more than 500 public radio stations in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Germany and the US, and a further million podcasts on iTunes.</p>
<p>RadioLab, another cult hit, also employs a three-act theatrical model with a tightly-scripted spontaneous feel. Much of its charm derives from the riffing between the urbane <a href="http://opa.yale.edu/images/poynter/krulwich-bio.html">Robert Krulwich</a> and the musically creative <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/about/">Jad Abumrad</a>, who interact in micro-produced, fast-paced stories loosely related to science, culture and philosophy, crafted as finely layered slivers of voice and composed acoustic. </p>
<p>“They’re playful … they challenge how you’re used to hearing scientific topics, complicated things, talked about,” Shapiro told me. “But mostly it’s skill, chemistry and a little bit of magic, really.” </p>
<p>A recent RadioLab episode, <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/story/317629-dear-hector/">Blame</a>, features a deeply affecting tale about an elderly man, Hector, who develops a close relationship with the crack addict who raped and killed his daughter. </p>
<p>In print, Hector’s story would seem unbelievable, almost perverted. As television, we would be drawn to the differences in colour, age, background, of the grieving white father and the jailed black murderer: appearance trumping story. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich of WNYC’s ‘Radiolab’ performing live on stage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Kelly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As audio, Hector’s warmth is paramount: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m 86, almost 86 and a half: when you get as old as I am, you add the half again like you did when you were three.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Hector tries to understand why his daughter died, writing letters to her killer, we listen, enthralled, as he reads both sides of an aching correspondence.</p>
<h2>Driveway moments</h2>
<p>Even film-makers allow that audio, being less intrusive, can elicit deeply revealing content that film cannot: for his recent film <a href="http://www.filmink.com.au/features/prince-of-darkness/">The Darkside</a>, Indigenous director Warwick Thornton used audio recordings because, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-fine-bromance-20131024-2w2bc.html">in his view</a>, “as soon as you put a camera in front of people, they clam up”. </p>
<p>Besides facilitating the expression of deep emotion, audio engenders a visceral response in listeners, engaging both head and heart. This creates what radio producers call “<a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/driveway/about/">driveway moments</a>”, where listeners can’t leave their car because they’re so caught up in a story. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Infrogmation of New Orleans</span></span>
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<p>I’m told I caused one such moment when an Australian journalist, Jan Graham, described the awful intimacy of a GI’s last moments during the Vietnam war, in my documentary <a href="http://siobhanmchugh.org/minefields-and-miniskirts/">Minefields and Miniskirts</a>. </p>
<p>When Jan’s story appeared in print, and even when the same words were spoken by a very good actor in a stage adaptation, they were vastly less moving than the raw and wrenching emotion captured on tape. You can judge for yourself here:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/117863556"></iframe>
<h2>Collective listening</h2>
<p>The Third Coast International Audio Festival boldly challenges the cultural dominance of movies by staging a Filmless festival, <a href="http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/happenings/filmless-festival">at which audiences gather</a> just as in a cinema, for “screenings” of selected audio documentaries.</p>
<p>It’s a powerful experience, akin to the charge of a live concert. Filmless has spawned spin-off events: in the UK, the <a href="http://www.inthedarkradio.org">In the Dark</a> movement presents “sonic delights” at museums, cinemas, and pubs, while <a href="https://www.facebook.com/inthedarkau">In the Dark Australia</a> sees audio devotees in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide gather in churches, gardens and other atmospheric venues for collective listening events.</p>
<p>The whimsical, compelling personal stories of the US “new wave” are attracting young listeners in Australia. ABC Radio National has a long tradition of innovative audio – auteurs such as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/legacy/features/tonybarrell/">Tony Barrell</a> and <a href="http://thirdcoastfestival.org/library/producers/113-kaye-mortley">Kaye Mortley</a> were making radio “movies” when Ira Glass was still a radio rookie.</p>
<p>ABC RN is fostering a crossover zone between audio art and radio journalism via its new Creative Audio Unit, whose recent <a href="http://au.joboseek.com/Australia/Producer-Creative-Audio-Unit-Radio-National-Melbourne_3f97cedc13d9440d526d072d55057be7.html">recruitment drive</a> for producers who can work across “genres such as features, performance, music, documentaries” attracted 85 applicants for one job.</p>
<p>Despite its long-predicted demise, radio ain’t dead yet.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Siobhan McHugh is the founding editor of <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/">RadioDoc Review</a>, the first international journal devoted to reviews of audio storytelling, which launches this week.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Biewen, editor, Reality Radio, and Julie Shapiro, outgoing curator, Third Coast Festival, are on the Editorial Board of RadioDoc Review, a scholarly journal edited by Siobhan McHugh</span></em></p>In a cultural milieu dominated by long-form television dramas such as Breaking Bad and Madmen, how has the apparently simple activity of audio storytelling gained such clout? In the US, documentary radio…Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/59072012-03-19T03:25:42Z2012-03-19T03:25:42ZWhat This American Life’s retraction can teach us about the Finkelstein report<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8715/original/4xrh7hhn-1332116681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of Mike Daisey's claims about what he saw at Foxconn were fabricated.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/YM Yik</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Friday, internationally-popular US radio show <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/">This American Life</a> retracted its “<a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory">Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory</a>” episode upon the discovery its narrator and author <a href="http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com.au/p/bio.html">Mike Daisey</a> had fabricated some of his evidence. </p>
<p>This episode was the <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog/2012/03/retracting-mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory">most downloaded and streamed episode of This American Life</a> ever, and a rallying point for fairer conditions for technology production workers. The show’s host and producer, <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/staff">Ira Glass</a>, had been particularly proud of the episode’s contribution to social justice. </p>
<p>So when <a href="http://www.marketplace.org/">Marketplace</a> reporter <a href="http://www.marketplace.org/people/rob-schmitz">Rob Schmitz</a> brought some anomalies to Glass’s attention, Glass pursued them and discovered that at the centre of Daisey’s rotten Apple story was, tragically, yet another rotten apple.</p>
<p>This American Life’s retraction was made in the form of an <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction">entire program</a> and released two days ahead of schedule. The retraction was made public via the show’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thislife">Facebook page</a> and has received much support – almost 1500 “Likes” and 800 comments, most overwhelmingly in favour of the retraction as a gesture of This American Life’s trustworthiness. For example: “…i [sic] trust the integrity of This American Life. this retraction is evidence of it.”</p>
<h2>Media accountability: you’re doing it right</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction">retraction episode</a> is quite extraordinary. Glass officially retracts the show, apologises for the lapse in journalistic standards, and then relentlessly pursues the reason for the lapse and attempts to set the record straight. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8718/original/bfsv8rwq-1332117030.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">publicradioexchange</span></span>
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<p>This American Life has never been just about pure journalism. Indeed, it was an experiment in experiential narrative deliberately intended to be different from standard radio journalism. The show has played many purely fictional and blended fictional/non-fictional segments. But Glass has always insisted that when This American Life claims to be presenting non-fiction that he applies the same standards as he did when he worked as a journalist for National Public Radio (NPR).</p>
<p>Although This American Life is not affiliated with NPR, it has similar standards of openness, fairness, and accountability. As Glass says in the retraction episode:</p>
<p>“… I and my co-workers at This American Life take our mistake in putting Mike’s story on to the air very seriously … When we do our own reporting we subject it to the same standards as other reporting that you hear on public radio. I was a reporter and a producer for the big daily news shows before I started this program, and we follow the same rules of reporting here that I followed there. We vet and we check our stories and when we present something to you as true, it’s because we believe in its factual accuracy.”</p>
<h2>A free retraction is the best freedom of speech</h2>
<p>This American Life’s retraction is of particular interest to Australians in the light of the recently released Finkelstein <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/independent_media_inquiry">Independent Media Inquiry</a>. </p>
<p>The report has sparked a <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/media-inquiry">huge debate</a> over freedom of the press, especially in relation to the report’s recommendation that the proposed New Media Council oversight body should have the power to compel retraction (Finkelstein report Section 11.70). </p>
<p>Those against the New Media Council’s power argue that it is a blanket <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/finkelstein-media-recommendations-would-poison-our-democracy/story-e6frgd0x-1226289830360">restriction of freedom of speech</a> (or at least media speech) and that the market should be the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/leave-the-newspapers-alone-to-do-their-job-20120308-1un3k.html">only regulation</a>.</p>
<p>Those <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/finkelstein-gets-a-bad-press-20120313-1uyac.html">in favour of the report</a> argue Australia’s disproportionately consolidated media ownership leaves no market power to force retraction. In such a state, only external complaint processes and onerous conditions for not meeting journalistic standards can prevail over a media that is otherwise free to say what it wants or cater to the minimum standards.</p>
<h2>The problem with forced retractions</h2>
<p>Regardless of which side one prefers, This American Life’s retraction brings up an ongoing conundrum. It might seem that justice is being done to extract a retraction or right of reply from an unwilling media organisation. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8716/original/4tr3hn8d-1332116776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Performer Mike Daisey has apologised for presenting his monologue as journalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Webb</span></span>
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<p>It might also seem that justice is being done indirectly by onerous retraction conditions designed to prevent deliberate attempts to mislead. </p>
<p>But serving justice is, in many ways, the work of the courts. We have libel and defamation laws for that which is provably wrong and damaging. The New Media Council would pass on such matters to the court system.</p>
<p>In such a case, an unwilling retraction has the limited value of the grudging apology of a petulant child. There is limited market imperative to offer such a retraction, and if so, the market imperative would be to protect the brand by drawing as little attention to the retraction as possible.</p>
<p>And yet, that’s not what happened in this case. In the highly deregulated media environment of the US, trust can (but not always) be a valuable marketing tool. This American Life decided to do more than offer a limited retraction. It offered a huge retraction, it made news from its retraction, because that was the best way to retain its audience’s trust and keep its brand strong. It was a market decision.</p>
<h2>The market at work?</h2>
<p>Unlike the ABC, most public radio in the US not funded in the majority by the US government. It operates, in fact, one of the purest forms of capitalism. People who enjoy its programming, including This American Life, directly pay the stations that produce it (for example, Chicago Public Radio) or affiliates who pay to carry it through syndication.</p>
<p>If those people decide the network is not trustworthy, there is little else to keep the program running. </p>
<p>Few media organisations are willing or able to put such faith in their audience, not even those in Australia who claim that the market is the best moderator of media accountability.</p>
<p><em>CORRECTION: National Public Radio has requested a correction to this piece. This American Life is not an NPR program. The article has been edited to reflect this.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Rintel has donated funds to This American Life and National Public Radio affiliate station WAMC Northeast Public Radio.</span></em></p>On Friday, internationally-popular US radio show This American Life retracted its “Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory” episode upon the discovery its narrator and author Mike Daisey had fabricated some of…Sean Rintel, Lecturer in Strategic Communication, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.