The story of the Golden State Killer is harrowing across any media. Podcasts as one for reporting true-crime information flourished from the immersiveness that they provide. I’ll admit I’m not the greatest reader but setting the scene in one’s mind as well as listening to a podcast can seems impossible. The combination of music, interviews and the linear, sequential unfolding of the plot in the case of the Golden State Killer increases the entertainment value of the podcast that reading an article simply cannot match. On the other hand, what the article lacks in a one-time immersive experience it makes up for in reusability. Access to all parts of an article are easy. Podcasts require rewinding/fast-forwarding and transcribing if one wants to use any of the information from the podcast for academic or personal purposes.
As for the Golden State Killer, if I was writing blog #4 it would be much more difficult to insert direct quotes from the podcast than the article. In addition, an article zooms out where a podcast zooms in. This is both a positive and negative as the podcast zoomed in to provide a feeling of involvement in the case itself while the article reports the entire timeline of the Killer or the crime more broadly to give the reader an overarching picture of the crimes and a better basic understanding. The podcast inversely seems to focus on the minor details and going in depth, stretching the plot of the crime out over time.
With their strengths and weakness laid out, the podcast-article debate is pretty nuanced. They both have their pros and cons. Podcasts are popular. Articles are popular. I don’t believe podcasts to be overrated but potentially misused when an article could do the job of delivering the information more efficiently than a podcast could. Ultimately, the medium that is most suited for the context of your interest should be the one you choose. Maybe you listen to true-crime podcasts out on a morning run for enjoyment while you read articles for Science of Crime Class to write blog posts like this one. Each situation deserves its own consideration with regards to these media. (362)
I agree with you a lot about the accessibility of finding information in articles versus podcasts. It really is so much harder to find information in a podcast if you don’t remember exactly what time you heard that, while with articles it is really easy to quickly skim and find information, especially because they are so much shorter than podcasts.