‘Accused’ is the New ‘Serial’

We are psychologically wired to hear a good story and get emotionally and intellectually caught up in the narrative. That’s true whether we’re sitting around a campfire or in a classroom, commuting to work, or waiting in a doctor’s office.

Thanks to Steve Jobs and a little thing called the iPod (and now an iPhone), storytelling is portable and convenient, having taken a more technological twist since the days of the Lone Ranger and Little Orphan Annie on the living room RCA in the 1940s and ’50s.

“Podcasts make it personal.”

Podcasts are so ubiquitous now that some call this the Golden Age of Podcasts. More than 57 million listeners tune into them each year. There are so many good ones that it’s hard to select from: “This American Life,” “RadioLab,” “The Moth,” “Love+Radio” or one of the many, many true crime stories that have sprung up in the last couple of years.

True crime podcasts such as “Serial,” “My Favorite Murder,” “Sword and Scale,” “Undisclosed,” and the recent and hugely popular “Accused” have become a phenomenon.

There’s just something unique and captivating about the brain’s ability to generate images, backstory, and personal connection while listening to such stories. Because of their real-life mystery, puzzle-like qualities (“whodunits” are hard to resist) and deeply personal information about crimes and those involved, true crime podcasts are gradually shifting the way some cases are reported and solved. Cold cases are getting new life — so to speak.

“Accused,” released by the Cincinnati Enquirer in September, topped the charts on iTunes.

It reopens and reports on the case of Elizabeth Andes, a college student who was strangled and stabbed in her Oxford, Ohio, apartment in 1978. The murder was ruled open and shut by the police who investigated it. They charged Andes’ boyfriend and stuck to their assumptions for 37 years. But not everyone, including the jury, was fully convinced it was that simple.

After seeing that the “Serial” podcast shed new light on another old case — resulting in a retrial for convicted Adnan Syed — Cincinnati Enquirer journalist Amber Hunt decided to further investigate Andes’ case.

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“A few years ago, I would’ve just written a Sunday story and been done with it,” Hunt told Wired. But a mere written story wouldn’t have garnered nearly the (somewhat morbid, perhaps) national and international coverage and appeal that her podcast did.

“When you’re writing a story for a local newspaper, it gets some attention, but your audience is generally local,” Hunt said. “If anyone has information pertinent to the Andes case, they likely don’t live in the college town of Oxford, Ohio, anymore — or subscribe to the Enquirer. But the podcast, with recurring suspects and episodic cliffhangers, has broader appeal.”

Since these podcasts invite an audience into a case, listeners’ thirst for justice and desire to participate in solving the mystery kicks in. They also develop a “personal” relationship with the podcast narrators, such as Hunt, who become a pseudo-character in the story.

The new perspectives, possible new evidence, and listener footwork could actually help to unlock mysteries that even the legal system previously could not. In “Accused” that was not the case — but Hunt remains optimistic that listeners will persevere, as she will.

“We’ve heard from people all over the country with direct connections to the case,” she says. “All we need is for somebody to recognize they have information they didn’t know was important.”

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Without such intimate storytelling, an old case that few remember wouldn’t be too interesting. But podcasts such as “Accused” bring the case into people’s lives and imaginations.

“Podcasts make it personal,” Adam Wandt, professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, also told Wired. “Humanizing can be difficult through a [newspaper] column, but if you’re hearing from different people, that adds legitimacy to their perspectives.”

Time will tell whether this new way to reopen and possibly solve cold cases will continue to grow, and whether it will aid law enforcement and families who are still suffering the pain of unsolved — or possibly mishandled — crime investigations.

Though some believe that the emotional connection podcast listeners experience with such stories clouds journalistic integrity, one has to admit that the podcast has introduced a potentially effective tool for law enforcement. Storytelling seems to trump cold, hard journalism — for better or worse.