Capstone Research / Progress (1st Week of March)

This week I am continuing my interviews. I have one that is rescheduled for this Tuesday along with student interviews to do still. So far, I have listened through my audio interviews and written down certain time sections and notes about what was said during those sections. I also have a few possible sound bytes marked in my notes.

As far as research goes, I have been looking over some tips in Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production (by Jonathan Kern) that deal with interviewing. I actually wish I had read this section prior to my interview with  Robert Spiker about the internet here at Shepherd, but I did actually do what the advice in the book says. Kern mentions that in some cases an interviewee may use technical language or jargon and assume that the listener knows what they are speaking about. However, this is not the case and too much technical language and explanation that goes on for too long can ruin a potentially good sound byte (this is spoken from prior experience). To help avoid this, it is sometimes "necessary for a reporter to play dumb" (Kern 52). According to Kern, some reporters request that their guest act as though they are speaking to smart high school student who is easily distracted (52). Some reporters also just hint at their interviewees that they do not want so much technical language (52). In my interview, I played dumb at a couple of spots because I really didn't know what some of the technical language meant. This helped to get an easier explanation.

Although I did not read this section (and more so skimmed over it at first), I believe that, in a way, I did follow the advice because I wasn't afraid to re-ask questions or have answers restated to me in a different way. I will have to remember this for the future, especially if I ever do get into reporting somehow (although it is not my first career choice). The advice and tips that I have been finding in Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production have all been useful.



Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Capstone Research / Progress (4th Week of February)

So far, I have one interview completed with the Director of Facilities Management, Dan Yanna. However, a snow day on Tuesday, February 24th, forced me to reschedule my interviews with Tom Segar, Shelli Dronsfield, and Alan Perdue. In the mean time, I have been looking up some interviewing information.

According to Valerie Geller and Turi Ryder, authors of the book Creating Powerful Radio, a good interviewer knows that the interviewee must feel comfortable during the interview (88). In addition many other useful tips are also mentioned by Geller and Ryder such as:

• Having a short greeting and going straight to the point (91).
• Ask how or why questions instead of all simple "yes" and "no" questions (91).
• Don't be afraid to ask a question again if the answer was insufficient (91).
• Focus on the solutions to problems as well as the problems (92).

Other tips were mentioned as well, but I believe these to be the best of them. I plan on keeping these tips in mind while doing my interviews, although I find it easy to "blank out" as far as creating questions on the spot goes (which is why I often have a list of potential questions). Interviewing is actually something I am not so accustomed to, and I actually have only done this two or three times before. However, I believe that with the tips and a little bit of prior knowledge about the subject, I can do a series of successful interviews.



Geller, Valerie, and Turi Ryder. Creating Powerful Radio: Getting, Keeping, and Growing Audiences for News, Talk, Information, and Personality. Amsterdam: Focal, 2007. Print.

Capstone Research (3rd Week of Feb.)

Photo by Melodie Mesiano
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melodiemesiano/3898118103/sizes/m/in/photostream/

For this week, I have mostly been attempting to set up interviews rather than doing much research. However, I did read a few ethical tips and practices out of Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern. These ethical practices include fairness, being unbiased, and being accurate.

• Fairness: This involves the presentation of all important views on a particular subject (Kern 9).

• Unbiased: Our own personal opinions and views on matters should be separated from the subjects that are being covered (Kern 9). I actually question the thought that something can be completely unbiased. However, I am striving to be as unbiased as possible even though I am looking at the issues that I am covering from an ethological perspective of the students.

• Accuracy: Facts should be completely accurate and presented in the correct context (Kern 9). Assertions of fact and implied facts as a basis for opinion must be correct (Kern 9). Omission should not occur because incomplete information can mislead (Kern 9).

Besides this, I also found a section of the book on podcasting. This section mentions that, even though there isn't a time slot with podcasting such as there is with radio, the time should still be relatively consistent (Kern 327). For example, a podcast that lasts 10-15 minutes on average should not suddenly turn into a one hour segment. Subscribers become used to a certain time for podcasts. These bits of information are some of what I have read this week.



Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Ad Campaign Fixes!

In class we discussed how each of our ads could be improved to create a better advertising campaign. None of the advertisements were perfect, including the ones that Hans and I created, but that is, of course, part of the learning experience. The following images are our ads:

The biggest thing that they really have going for them is the consistency from one to the next. One suggestion that was made for us was that the black border lines should be changed to a more contrasting color to the backgrounds to make them more appealing to tweens. Also, a half-and-half decision seemed to be made to change the woman musician on the bottom one to someone dressed even more ridiculously for the comical effect. However, that suggestion does seem a little more objective, although I will look into finding someone a little more ridiculous (if possible of course). I guess we will have to see what creative commons has to offer.

Continuing Capstone Research (2nd Week of Feb.)

Photo by Adam Smith
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerblokey/3242039102/

This week I have been reading through an article on ethnography called "Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnology" by Michael Agar. I have never really studied ethnography prior to this, but I have a basic understanding of it now. For example, many people tend to believe that hypothesis-testing methods are the best ways of doing research, but Agar believes (as do I because it makes sense) that ethnography is best because it involves understanding the human group being studied and doing hypothesis-testing. Those against ethnology claim that the involvement and association within a group can cause the researcher to become biased on particular issues. However, it also allows for a more thorough understanding, and it gives the researcher the knowledge of whether or not any hypothesis he/she already had prior to joining the group would actually hold up well.

Basics of Ethnological Research:

1. Researcher has direct personal involvement with the researched community (Agar 69).
2. Ethnographers are commonly known as "children" or "students" because they learn how to behave within the group that they are studying (Agar 69).
3. Ethnographic relationships are normally long-term and can take a while to successfully create (Agar 69).

The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography (9780120444700): Michael H. Agar: Books. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.

Online Identity and Internet "Citizenship"

Photo by Daniel O' Connor
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I have always been warned that not everyone on the internet is exactly the "truthful" type, especially whenever it comes to revealing their true identities. However, the articles "A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell and "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me" by Bonnie Goldstein managed to put those warnings into perspective. In fact, after reading the articles, I feel a little more wary about trusting online identity presentation.

Fake online identities could be used anywhere, especially in social networking mediums such as Facebook, MySpace, and Match.com.  In the case of finding someone new online altogether, another account like the one mentioned in "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me" could occur in which a fake persona could be created to harass someone. Also, a fake persona or someone who causes trouble online can be deleted, but a new IP address can be acquired, which would allow the person who was banned or deleted to return as a new user and return to their old ways again like in the case of "A Rape in Cyberspace" when Mr. Bungle was "toaded" (deleted) and returned as Dr. Jest (who acted in a similar manner).

Those who act in similar negative ways online like the above mentioned cases are not being ideal "online citizens." To me, an "online citizen" entitles others to have the same rights as they have in person in an online medium. Those who create fake accounts or manipulate online systems for gain are very much equivalent to citizens in reality who break the law, and can be punished by law in some areas like in the case of Lori Drew in "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me." (Drew was not actually punished by law in the case, but a resolution was created that made "cyberstalking" a misdemeanor in the city limits where this occurred.)



A recent report on fake Facebook accounts.






Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." (1998): n. pag. Web. 8 Feb 2011. <http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/>.

Goldstein, Bonnie. "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me." (2007): n. pag. Web. 8 Feb 2011. <http://www.slate.com/id/2178820/entry/2178821/>.

Continuing Capstone Research (1st week of Feb.)

Photo by Andy White
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedoctorpod/5376222581/

This week I have been doing some research out of the book Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern. I have been focusing on sections of the book involving the difference between writing for newspaper and writing for audio broadcast, reporting tips, and story editing. Interesting and useful information I have found includes the following:

•  Newspaper writings are not "written for the ear" (Kern 25), and they often state information faster and in a more elaborate way than anyone anyone could absorb it (Kern 25). Often, when a listener misses a fact or has trouble understanding the message they do not tune in long.

•  Proper audio broadcast writing is more simplistic in sentence structure, and some of the sentences even overlap a little so the listeners can understand more easily (Kern 26-27).

•  "Yes" or "no" questions typically do not yield good actualities (Kern 54). Asking "how" questions avoids the "yes" or "no" problem.

• " Either" and "or" questions should also be avoided because it "boxes in the interviewee" and limits their answers and responses (Kern 54-55).

•  Attempting to get interviewees to use analogies normally leads to entertaining and understandable results (Kern 55).

• When story editing, watch out for echoes [telling people the same thing in different ways twice], unidentified actualities [always add an ID to make the audio bytes less confusing], confusing IDs between two speakers, etc (Kern 108-09).

Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.