Homework Deatils: Auido Profile

Audio Assignment #4 (50 points) – Audio Profile

* Produce a profile of a person you do not know well – w/ story pitch approved in advance.
* Must have at least 2 interviews, 2 ambient sounds.
* Must have hook and story arc.
* Must be at least 2:00, no longer than 3:30.
* Post to the blog by 10 pm Thur (remember, Export from Audacity, post the .wav file to Soundcloud.com, then Paste the Embed code into a blog item on the class blog)
* Title your blog post: Your Name: Audio Profile

Slides From Audio Week 4

Fall2012 Week 5

Pre-class play-list:

This American Life: Back to School
Gangnam Style

Other profile examples:

Say Something: This Community-College Sophomore Is Also Mr. Mayor
Growing Up with Tourette's

Flash Mob Posts

McKeldin Mall flash mob!

Kayla Faria: Audio Postcard

Sarah Tincher: Audio Postcard

McKeldin Mall flash mob!

Tim Ryan: Audio Postcard

Annika McGinnis: Audio Postcard

Dean Essner: Audio Postcard

Jessica Nicolao: Audio Postcard

Will Friedman: Audio Postcard

Max Simpson: Audio Postcard

Chelsea Director: Audio Postcard

Shannon McHale: Audio Postcard

Shannon Atran: Audio Postcard

Taylor Ness: Audio Postcard

Stacey Skulnik: Audio Postcard

Cory Puffett: Audio Postcard

This piece takes sounds recorded from the Oatlands XC Invitational and mixes with my own narration on the excitement present at Virginia cross-country meets.

Scott Laube: Audio Postcard

Jaime Cantor: Audio Postcard

Jimmy Williams: Audio Postcard

St. John's College High School Field Hockey Game!

Sarah Sexton: Audio Postcard

Homework Details: Audio Postcard

Audio Assignment #3 (50 points) – Audio Postcard

* Visit a unique place or event and capture it in a short produced piece mixing narration and ambient sound.
* No formal interviews required here (though you can have one or two if they help set the scene). Main goal is to find sounds that bring the location or moment to life.
* Pieces must have narration and must stand alone as a produced audio piece (with an intro and sign-off).
* Pieces should be at least 1:00 and no more than 2:30.
* Post to the blog by 10 pm Thur (remember, Export from Audacity, post the .wav file to Soundcloud.com, then Paste the Embed code into a blog item on the class blog)
Title the post: Your Name: Audio Postcard
* E-mail with any questions: jryoung@gmail.com

Slides From Audio Week 3

Fall2012 Audio Week 3 Slides Place+Memory: Taco Land | Voices From the National Cornbread Festival
(both from Big Shed)

Sarah Tincher, Chelsea Director, Kayla Faria: Sound Sample

Sounds of the South Campus dining hall.

Shannon Atran, Annika McGinnis, Sarah Sexton: Sound Sample

We tape-recorded two guys playing tennis outside next to Cole Field House.

Jessica Nicolao, Tim Ryan, Scott Laube: Sound Sample

Terps for Animal welfare event. The organization had a few dogs outside that they were up for adoption.

Jimmy Williams, Max Simpson, Cory Puffett: Sound Sample

We recorded tour groups talking outside stamp near the Jim Henson statue.

Shannon McHale, Dean Essner, Jaime Cantor: Sound Sample

Pool, television, and bowling in Terpzone (the basement of Stamp).

Stacey Skulnik and Taylor Ness: Sound Sample

Students practicing at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Sarah Tincher: Produced Audio Piece

Dean Essner: Produced Audio Piece

Will Friedman: Produced Audio Piece

Tim Ryan: Produced Audio Piece

Stacey Skulnik: Produced Audio Piece

Sarah Sexton - Produced Audio Piece

Max Simpson: Produced Audio Piece

Annika McGinnis: Produced Audio Piece

Scott Laube: Produced Audio Piece

Shannon Atran: Produced Audio Piece

Jimmy Williams: Produced Audio Piece

Chelsea Director: Produced Audio Piece

Taylor Ness: Produced Audio Piece

Jessica Nicolao: Produced Audio Piece

Cory Puffett: Produced Audio Piece

Here is my produced audio piece, featuring sound bytes from my original interview of Dr. Melissa Hayes-Gehrke about the importance of the Mars Rover, Curiosity.

Jaime Cantor: Produced Audio Piece

Shannon McHale: Produced Audio Piece

Kayla Faria: Produced Audio Piece

Other Examples of "Acts and Tracks" Radio Pieces

Here are examples of pieces that blend scripted narration and sound bites. As you'll notice, the bulk of time is narration, and the sound bites are short, to give voice and support to the narrated story.

Discouraged In Hunt For A Job, Many Stop Looking

Homework Details: Produced Audio Piece (and Reading)

Two parts:

1. Required Reading: Sound Reporting, "Chapter 3: Writing for Broadcast" pp. 25-38 (link from ELMS)

2. Audio Assignment #2 (40 points) – Make a produced “Acts and Tracks” piece using your interview from last week as the raw material (or you could record a new interview instead). If you had sound issues with your earlier interview, you should record a new interview.

* Edit together sound bites from the interview with scripted intro, ending, and other connecting narration.

* Must be at least 1 minute and no longer than 3:30.

* Post to the blog by 10 pm Thur (remember, Export from Audacity, post the .wav file to Soundcloud.com, then Paste the Embed code into a blog item on the class blog).

* E-mail me with any questions: jryoung@gmail.com

Slides For Audio Week 2

Fall2012 Week 3

Kayla Faria: edited afterword

Annika McGinnis: Edited After Word

Jaime Cantor: Edited After Word

Will Friedman: Edited Afterword

Scott Laube: Edited After Word

Stacey Skulnik: Edited Afterward

Jessica Nicolao: Edited After Word

Shannon Atran: Edited After Word

Jimmy Williams: Edited After Word

Max Simpson: Edited After Word

Sarah Sexton: Edited afterword

Taylor Ness: Edited Afterword

Tim Ryan: Edited Afterword

Dean Essner: Edited After Word

*I only got to edit the first minute...

Jeff Young: Edited After Word

Sarah Tincher: Edited AfterWord

Cory Puffett: Afterword Edited

Audacity edits to original interview published on 9/7/12.

Chelsea Director: Interview Edit

Shannon McHale: Edited Afterword

Scott Laube: Student Talks About His On-Campus Job as IT Assistant Specialist

Dean Essner: UMD Geology Graduate Studies Director On Impact Of Mars Rover

Jessica Nicolao: As Curiosity Explores Mars

I forgot to hit the record button twice... so the intro and first question I asked are cut off. She is Grace Deming an Astronomy 101 professor and Undergraduate advisor. I reintroduce her at the end to make up for it a little bit. The first question I ask is "Why is Curiosity on Mars and what is the Exploration Program's goals?"

Tim Ryan: David Lightman Weighs in on RNC, DNC.

Shannon McHale: Professor Diana Huffman on Why Law School Isn't for Everyone

Sarah Sexton: Student talks about her volunteer work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Annika McGinnis: Lecturer Stacy Kosko talks about the media's role in international development and conflict management

Max Simpson: Recently Founded Rifle and Pistol Club makes big gains at First Look Fair

Cory Puffett: Dr. Hayes-Gehrke Talks about the Curiosity Mars Rover

I got to talk to Dr. Melissa Hayes-Gehrke of the University of Maryland Astronomy department about the most recent rover to land on Mars, Curiosity.

In the interview, Dr. Hayes-Gehrke talks about what she finds most interesting about the mission.

She also talked a little about her course, ASTR 220 Collisions in Space – The Threat of Asteroid Impacts. She discusses what the potential of putting human life on Mars means for astronomers in this specific discipline.

Sarah Tincher: Marcus Emad on the UMD Club Paintball experience

Jaime Cantor: Vice President of Communications on the future of JSU Maryland

Shannon Atran: Dr. Kalyani Chadha Discusses Coverage of 2012 Presidential Election

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Stacey Skulnik: Steven Overly on the Excitement, Defeat and Future of Journalism

Jimmy Williams: Professor Karol Soltan Discusses Presidential Election

Mark Feldstein on the current state of investigative journalism

Here's my interview with former CNN investigative journalist, and current Merril professor, Mark Feldstein. Hope it uploads properly -Will Friedman

Kayla Faria: Educational, philosophical talk on 2011 DREAM Act dates back centuries

University of Md. instructor Kathleen Hoyer offers educational and philosophical perspectives on the proposed legislation and weighs in on criticism of President Loh's editorial in The Washington Post.

Chelsea Director: Mike Krome Covers Crime in the 60s and 70s

Taylor Ness: Dr. Robin Sawyer Talks About Researching and Teaching Adolescent Sexuality

Homework Details for Audio Week 1

Homework is two parts:

1: Listen to the following audio program for next week's class discussion: On the Media: Pulling Back the Curtain

2: Produce a short interview with an expert:

* Conduct a short, newsworthy interview on a topic of your choice -- at least 2 minutes but not more than 5 minutes.
* Source cannot be a roommate or family member.
* Must have short intro and sign-off, as we did in class, where the interviewer and subject are named.
* Must demonstrate the techniques covered in class (finding a quiet room, holding recorder correctly, etc).
* No editing allowed - must be raw file, including your countdown.
* Remember to write a headline for your piece and make that the subject field of the blog post. So the subject line will read: Your Name: Headline. In other words, if I interviewed a student about lectures, the subject line would be: Jeff Young: A Student Talks About What Annoys Them About Lectures
* Post to the blog by Sept 13 at 10 p.m. Remember: First post to SoundCloud, then paste the "embed code" from that audio into a post to the class blog.

Slides for Audio Week 1

Fall2012 Week 2 Forupload

Sarah Tincher AfterWord

Chelsea Director Afterword

Jimmy Williams Afterword

Shannon Atran After Word

Cory Puffett: Afterword

In this clip, Sarah Sexton of Friday Knight Slice interviews Cory Puffett about his blog, Puff on the NFL, specifically focusing on a recent post, published on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, about the NFL Season Opener between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

Kayla Faria Afterword

Annika McGinnis Afterword

Shannan Atran of the Friday Knight Slice interviews me about my July 11 McClatchy Newspapers article on the possibility the House of Representatives could prosecute journalists for reporting leaked information.

Jessica Nicolao After Word

Sarah Sexton - Afterword

Scott Laube After Word

Jaime Cantor- After Word

Dean Essner- After Word

Tim Ryan After Word

Taylor Ness and Stacey Skulnik Afterword

Max Simpson After Word

Shannon McHale and Will Friedman: Afterword

We accidentally paused the recording instead of taking two separate ones... there is a mess-up before the first interview starts and there may or may not be a mess-up interview in between the two as well.

Scott Laube's Multimedia Pick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBDrQVE414w&feature=related

This is a piece that was shown on the popular ESPN documentary series called E60. In this piece, ESPN reporter Jeremy Schapp profiles American soccer player Clint Dempsey. Dempsey is a star for the U.S. Men's National team and is now playing for Tottenham, one of the top teams in the English Premier League. While this piece was shot in 2010, it is still an excellent overview of Dempsey's life and the struggles he has had to ovecome on his way to stardom.

What I enjoyed most about this piece was the fact that it not only centered around Dempsey's achievements and obstacles, but that it involved talking to Dempsey himself about these experiences and how they have shaped his life. I was impressed with how Schapp started the piece profiling the small Texas town Dempsey grew up in and focusing on the modest home he came from. Also, the fact that his parents had to drive him 3 hours to Dallas for soccer practice when he was a child and having to sacrifice vacations and valuables in the process to afford to do so. Shortly after, Schapp describes the hardship Dempsey had to face after his sister died when he was just a young boy. It's inspiring to see how that incident has fueled Dempsey to play soccer at the highest level in honor of his sister and how he always thinks of her during games. Lastly, I liked how Schapp ends the piece highlighting Dempsey's success with the U.S. National team and with the team he played for in the English Premier League at the time, Fulham. Despite everything he has had to overcome, Dempsey is now one of the top players in the world. I guess I could be biased since Dempsey is my favorite athlete, but I think this multimedia piece was very well done and provided a solid overview of the life of Clint Dempsey.

Tim Ryan's Multimedia Pick

I discovered this during this year's Olympics, and have probably watched it ten times since. It is set as a fictional race, showing each medalist in the Olympic 100 meter dash since 1896, and their position on the track relative to Usain Bolt as he crossed the finish line this summer. The subject was interesting, and the conclusions were shocking. It is a very unique, well-constructed video, and I think that it presents a lot of information without being overwhelming.  My favorite part of the video is at the end, when the race is "run." This was interesting because it put the information in context, and helped drive home the producers' larger point.

This is different than most multimedia that I have come across, as it does not include actual video, but rather pictures and, at the end, an interactive graph. This unique presentation was perfect for the situation, because it was useful, like a graph, while presenting the information in a more interesting way. The same information could have easily been presented in a written story, but the multimedia platform kept the story interesting throughout, whereas a print version might have been boring and hard to follow. The producers of this piece clearly put a lot of effort and time into making this, and I think that the result was excellent.

Will Friedman- Multimedia Pick

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres

This is one of my all-time favorite radio pieces from my all-time radio programs. It is called "What Happened at Dos Erres" from NPR's This American Life. It tells the story of an American man named Oscar who discovers that he was one of the lone survivors of a massacre in Guatemala in the 1980's. One of the things that I love about it is something that TAL excels at, which is flow. Each part of the hour-long program flows beautifully into the next. For example, it provides interviews with Oscar and anecdotes from his life, and intersperses them with bits of context about Guatemala. It doesn't allow one section to bog down the whole piece.

As a few of my classmates have articulated, I don't think there's anything as emotionally raw and heart-wrenching as the human voice. When you hear Oscar's father's voice quiver as he finally reunites with his long-lost son, it's hard not to shed a tear. In some ways, I think it's even more powerful than video would be, and certainly more so than reading about it.

You can really tell how much research and effort went into producing this piece. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes This American Life, or just wants to hear a good story. 

Stacey Skulnik's Multimedia Pick

 The multimedia images I chose are not only an excellent use of multimedia in terms of the poignancy of the images, but also a great use of social media in their ability to convey a very important message. These images were originally posted by the Israel Defense Forces’ Facebook page and captioned with “Share this if…” inviting users to share these photos to spread word of the tragedies that occur each day in Israel that most major news outlets don’t report. The influence of multimedia in this case is two fold. Not only do these images promote awareness of what major news outlets neglect to share, they utilize social media in a way that is become more common than ever. With over 50,000 users sharing these images, circles of friends ultimately end up inspiring others to share these images and promote awareness worldwide. More often than none, I share the images posted by Israel Defense Forces’ Facebook page and notice that some of my Facebook friends do the same. With over 9,000 likes and 2,000 comments, these viral images promote some of the world’s only awareness of the events that occur in the tragedy ridden state of Israel.   

Sarah Tincher - Multimedia Pick

http://unc.news21.com/water/

            This video caught my eye and kept my attention for many reasons. First, the different camera angles and points of view really put a cinematic and creative touch on the video. I enjoyed the creativity that was put into the filmography of the piece. I also thought the creator did a great job at relating the video to anyone and everyone who may have watched it. With showers, pools, the ocean, lakes, skating rinks, toilets and water fountains, there’s no way anyone could watch this video and say, “This doesn’t pertain to me at all.” What stood out to me the most was that it told a story and delivered a powerful message with absolutely no dialogue.

            All of that aside, the amount of work that was put into this piece wasn’t even evident until the video was over. The ending leaves the viewer with an array of options to choose from with more personalized and specified videos to further explain the cause and how it affects society. I thought the personal testimonies and interactive videos really explained the cause well without the viewer having to do excessive, boring reading.

Max Simpson - Multimedia Pick

            I picked a Time report on the dangers faced by the journalists in Juarez, Mexico and the impact they are having in the area. The video uses the accounts of journalists and images from Juarez to tell the story of the extreme risks they take to show the violence in the area to the world. According to one of the journalists interviewed the news outlets have so much credibility that people in Juarez are likely to contact them before the police when a crime is committed. The video shows the armed guards that accompany some of the journalists and talks about the threats they have received from the cartels. The segment is moving because of the willingness of the journalists to stay in a dangerous area to get the story of the violence around them. The pictures of those killed in Juarez and the experiences of the journalists made the seriousness of their situation immediately clear. There are accounts of gunmen still being at the scene of a crime when the journalists arrive and an account of a local reporter being killed as he was leaving his house to take his daughter to school. Overall the segment does a good job of showing the brutality of the violence in Juarez without being overly graphic. 

Annika McGinnis Multimedia Pick

http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/ken-morganstern-priya-morganstern-and-bhavani-jaroff/

             I chose this clip for both the content and the method of presentation. The clip is part of an ongoing NPR series called StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project that allows anyone to record brief personal interviews of a friend or relative. The stories people tell range from traumatic to romantic to philosophical, and they give a brief sense into the lives of people with a wide range of experiences and who have lived through different historical settings. Over 40,000 different interviews have been recorded and archived in the Library of Congress since 2003. I think StoryCorps gives people today glimpses into different times and experiences from their own, in brief, easily-accessible packages. The emotion carried through the human voice cannot truly be represented in print journalism, and I also love that this mode of presentation (audio) allows for listeners to form their own pictures of the people/scenes being described and truly engage with the interviewee’s story.

            In this particular clip, a father with Alzheimer’s talks about his immediate family history and his overall satisfaction with life, even though he cannot remember facts like where he met his wife or his son’s name. I love this clip because it helps people who haven’t had experience with a person with Alzheimer’s better understand people with the disease: especially how, even with their amnesia, they can still enjoy and appreciate life, and how friends and family members can still love and appreciate the person with Alzheimer’s for who they are.

Dean Essner- Multimedia Pick

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/151881205/the-pursuit-of-happiness

The TED Radio hour is, besides All Songs Considered, my favorite NPR podcast. And this specific episode posted above, which ponders the pursuit of happiness, best exemplifies this preference.
In a typical TED Radio hour show, a vague, fascinating question is proposed and then answered through snippets from TED-sponsored presentations (they're called TED talks) as well as followup interviews with the distinguished speakers from those presentations. The magical aspect of this episode is how the show manages to string together three seemingly disparate theories from three separate speakers, invoking mundane things like buying jeans, eating spaghetti sauce and getting tattoos, and end up with something truly meaningful and insightful. In particular, the third speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, who explains how Dr. Howard R. Moskowitz revolutionized the spaghetti sauce industry by studying the physical stimuli of customers, is enlightening for its unorthodox and unpredictable discussion on the universal concept of happiness. Overall, I'd recommend this episode because it's relevant, relatable and intellectually stimulating.

Jessica Nicolao Multimedia Pick

The Tallest Man on Earth - NPR

I recently discovered World Cafe on NPR; however, I understand that it has been in existence for quite some time now. The link I have posted is an interview on World Cafe with a Swedish bluegrass/indie singer, Kristian Matsson, whose stage name is: The Tallest Man on Earth.

I am a fan of this style of music and when I came across the description of Kristian Matsson's interview I was immediately interested to listen to the podcast. The entire clip is a bit lengthy and not the typical radio blurb or news segment that lasts about three minutes, and that is exactly what I love about it. I get an in-depth peek into the lifestyle of this singer and how he has evolved from being committed to a band to breaking out into the life of a solo artist on the road.

What has especially attracted me to The Tallest Man on Earth and World Cafe in general, is that I have the opportunity to expand my musical interests to new horizons! Specifically the horizons of Dalarna, a village of about 25 residents nestled in the "rolling blue hills" of Sweden, where Matsson lives. A place that would have never come across my radar without NPR.

I have since become a fan of The Tallest Man on Earth and his new album There's No Leaving Now, inspired by Bob Dylan, because I was able to  enjoy several of his songs that were sewn into the interview and then hear Kristian Matsson's commentary about them after, allowing for me (and other viewers) to truly see the hard work that he has put into this new album.

Jimmy Williams Multimedia Pick

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1802969782001/lance-armstrong-banned-for-life-stripped-of-titles/?playlist_id=87857

While I will admit this is not my favorite story in regards to the topic, I like the story because of how easy Fox News made it to understand and because of how relevant it is to so many people in this country and across the world. How many of us have been touched by cancer in some way? How many of us saw Lance Armstrong as an inspirational story of epic proportions? How many of us got into the “Livestrong” movement, donated, bought gear, etc.? I know I saw Lance as an inspiration and got into the cause. I wore the armbands. Seven Tour de France titles, and seven straight at that, was an insane accomplishment. And now it turns out that he may have cheated through it all? What a crushing blow. I know Armstrong is maintaining his innocence, but this story doesn’t do anything to paint him in a positive light.

Fox News used several multimedia elements that made the story easy to understand and digest. They used file photos, graphic displays to set off Armstrong’s quotes, a bullet point summary and brought in interviews with other people. All of this kept the story flowing and made it much easier to understand than if the anchors had just been reading everything to the audience on camera. I thought the transitions between bites were smooth and I saw no reason to have to rewind the story to hear something again.