The Start of Something New?
I've been struggling to solve a problem regarding what's still being called, until a better name comes along, the Medium Formerly Known as Radio. The problem is: how do we meet the internet's demand for visuals in a way that is true to who we are? After all, working in sound is superior because it requires the listener to supply the pictures. If we wanted to do our audiences' seeing for them, we'd have become filmmakers.
So far, the "enhanced" audio podcast seems to consist of slapping up a still photo corresponding in some way to the piece being heard. Unimaginative at best.
Instead, I see the internet providing an opportunity to make up for radio's main weakness. As many of us have learned over the years, it is a terrible medium for communicating information. To properly hold our listeners' hands, we load our scripts with necessary facts that encumber the storytelling.
For some time, I've imagined a kind of internet audio reportage that leaves the main narration to the reporter and offloads some of the overly specific information into visible text, i.e., constantly changing titles that can be read while listening and that don't do your seeing for you. And, when needed, these titles can give a leg up to tape that might be hard to grasp on its own.
One of the students in a weekly sound reporting workshop I run, Anne Noyes, has published what I think might be the first example of this new form. Give a listen to A Basement in Queens and tell us what you think.
So far, the "enhanced" audio podcast seems to consist of slapping up a still photo corresponding in some way to the piece being heard. Unimaginative at best.
Instead, I see the internet providing an opportunity to make up for radio's main weakness. As many of us have learned over the years, it is a terrible medium for communicating information. To properly hold our listeners' hands, we load our scripts with necessary facts that encumber the storytelling.
For some time, I've imagined a kind of internet audio reportage that leaves the main narration to the reporter and offloads some of the overly specific information into visible text, i.e., constantly changing titles that can be read while listening and that don't do your seeing for you. And, when needed, these titles can give a leg up to tape that might be hard to grasp on its own.
One of the students in a weekly sound reporting workshop I run, Anne Noyes, has published what I think might be the first example of this new form. Give a listen to A Basement in Queens and tell us what you think.
posted by DO at 5:42 PM
1 Comments:
Dean, I think you are really on to something here. You are grasping a new way to make audio communication through the internet better by streamlining the audio portion and using the visual arena for supplying some needed facts without overburdening the story telling. For the first time, I have to admit, I think you have actually found the "next best thing."
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