Impact and evolution of sound documentaries in Spain: extension, narrators and interviews

Abstract

The first serialised audio documentary was published in Spain in 2016, and in just eight years, this genre has become a journalistic benchmark. The audio documentary offers an opportunity to entertain the listener through quality journalism, based on research that focuses on documentary sources. To better understand this evolution, an analysis of 26 documentary series published in Spain between 2016 and 2020 has been carried out. These dates mark the arrival of these documentaries and the opening of podcast production to new platforms. In total, 76 hours of content were analysed using a mixed methodology. The results of the study indicate that sound documentaries are predominantly produced by journalists and are characterised by their length. A narrator guides the listener through the story and the research process, adopting an informative tone, but allowing for subjectivity in his or her discourse. Interviews with the protagonists of the stories are a component, occasionally complemented by interviews with experts. This format, by combining informative storytelling with subjective elements and in-depth interviews, manages to offer a rich and immersive experience for the audience, establishing itself as a powerful tool in contemporary journalism.