Transgressive (un)scripting: Metajournalistic discourse and ‘sonic friendship’ in The Trojan Horse Affair

This article analyses metajournalistic discourse between a ‘core actor’ and a novice reporter in The Trojan Horse Affair , a 2022 podcast from Serial Productions and the New York Times about a faked conspiracy to radicalize Muslim students at secondary schools in Birmingham, England in 2013. The podcast utilizes metanarrative self-reflexivity and transparency to challenge an erroneous news story propagated by the British mainstream press. The article argues that the intimacy, reciprocity and good-faith conflict (the ‘sonic friendship’) that develops between hosts Brian Reed and Hamza Syed are integral to the podcast’s value for industry-wide questions about journalistic authority, credibility and objectivity. Metajournalistic discourse and reporter–reporter intimacy in The Trojan Horse Affair serve to substantively challenge institutional boundaries that keep Muslim reporters from making news stories that serve their communities in western societies. The podcast models a renewed process for the construction of journalistic integrity in the twenty-first century.