Capstone Research / Progress (5th week of March)

This week's focus will mostly be just on recording. For research, I have been reading articles on sounding conversational, although, I will go ahead and state that I do not believe I have ever successfully sounded as conversational as I could with audio recording. Hopefully though, the research will help me with this task.

According to Jonathan Kern, the author of Sound Reporting, in order to write successfully for the radio, the statements must be easy to follow (25). Basically, this means that more simple statements are a plus. Huge complex sentences generally do not work, but this also depends on how the sentences sound. When writing for the radio or any kind of audio broadcast (in my case podcast), one must read the information out loud and be able to judge whether or not it sounds good and works when spoken. Too much information at once can cause an audience to not "catch" it all, and since this is audio, they cannot go back and reread the statements (Sound Reporting 26).

It is also good to be able to write the way that you speak (Sound Reporting 27). This is the section that gets me because I often have problems articulating my thoughts out loud already. Normally when I write for an audio recording, it sounds unnatural because I often do not speak in a clear articulatory manner. I have always been better at articulating thoughts in writing, for example, than in person. However, I plan on doing the best that I can to not sound too unnatural and unlike myself, while speaking intelligibly. Also, it is best to make audio sound as though the communication is between the reporter and a single listener instead of a large group of listeners (Sound Reporting 27). So, basically, my biggest challenge will be finding a balance between speaking like myself and being intelligible, while trying to sound like I am speaking to a single archetypal listener.




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

Controversy: The Dove "Real Beauty" Campaign

The Dove Real Beauty campaign is a good thought. Basically, Dove decided to feature models who were not exactly flawless in their appearance to model in their advertising campaign. The problem is that the company Unilever, which owns Dove, became very two-faced in appearance because of their advertising used in Axe campaigns that do use models who are touched up to an unrealistic and virtually unachievable version of beauty. Also, the Axe ads use female sexuality to market to younger men, which does not make the company look good when comparing it to the Real Beauty campaign in which they attempt to prove that real beauty can be found in anyone.

Dove's Real Beauty campaign would also be much more effective if they did not "touch up" the models as much. It also may have gone too far when they allowed votes to be cast by campaign viewers by allowing them two choices to vote on to describe the model in the particular Dove ad. A thin line may exist when allowing a viewer to vote a model as "fat" or "fab." This is especially the case when the Western concept of beauty is so deeply rooted in our society that the negative choice prevails.

The image above is from Dove's Real Beauty campaign. One signifier is the woman's gray hair. Gray hair can signify experience and wisdom. However, it can also signify being elderly and, in cases when the gray hair is beginning prematurely, it can signify stress. In the case of this ad though, it seems to signify being elderly more than anything.

I believe that the Real Beauty campaign would be more successful without allowing people to vote. In addition, Unilever would look better and the whole campaign would be less controversial if they did not advertise beauty and sexuality in Axe campaigns. Perhaps if Unilever cared about Dove's Real Beauty campaign and what it stands for, they would use the same view that beauty can be found anywhere with all of their products.

Capstone Research / Progress (4th Week of March)

This week I have been focusing on editing and recording. I have completed the editing I planned on doing for all of the interview sound bytes. Now I am beginning the processes of recording myself (by the end of this week or start of next week), finding/creating and editing sounds for audio scenes, and further editing my scripts. Because of beginning the new process, I have done some additional reading on writing news stories that I feel will assist in any editing and that has already assisted in some of the writing that I have done.

As far as the script editing goes, I have read an article on media college.com that states many different aspects that assist in the creation of news stories. These aspects are similar to what I have read before from other sources. Basically, the article says that the creation of a news story deals with stating the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" within the story. Now this article is based more for print journalism, but that is also an important aspect for audio news stories too. I checked through my scripts and each one answers all of those questions without being too blatant.

Some other things on this article about news stories that caught my eye were: 

• news is "all about the people" 
• news should be objective
• quotes should be included 
• language should not be "too flowery."

The parts about quotes being included and news being about the people seem to go together well. I have sections within my scripts that relate the news stories to people through some short examples including sound effects and even through quotes about the issues from various students and faculty. In addition, I have also maintained a more neutral disposition by limiting any of my own opinions. However, through advice given to me from other sources, I will admit to having added a few statements that lean more towards the side of students than others. Also, I did limit the more "flowery" language to a minimal, but I tried to use some descriptive language occasionally so that the audio broadcast (podcast) could also create an image for listeners. Overall, I believe that I have followed this advice (which is similar to other advice I have been working on reading through) fairly closely.




Wavelength Media. "How to Write News Stories." Media College - Video, Audio and Multimedia Resources. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/write-stories.html>.

Semiotics Interpretation for Hummer Ad

In class, we were asked to choose an advertisement to perform a semiotic analysis on. For my and Hans Merten's advertisement, we decided to use a simple Hummer H3 advertisement. The five different significations that I came up with are:

• The camera angle of the Hummer in this advertisement is a signifier. The effect caused by the angle signifies that the vehicle is large and capable of being used in rugged terrain.

• Another signifier is the orange background around the hummer and the tear. This color of orange reminds me of a rocky or even desert-like terrain and seems to signify adventure and the fact that the Hummer H3 can handle any kind of outing.

• The text that says "brace yourself for the next big thing" is also a signifier. In this case, the text seems to signify that the new Hummer H3 is going to be popular. However, it also could signify that the Hummer itself is large, even though the Hummer H3 is smaller than other Hummers. In this case, the signified is more of a joke.

• The Hummer's pristine condition even after having ripped through the background could also be considered a signifier. It signifies that this vehicle is solid enough to resist damage from obstacles. Pristine condition on an automobile also typically signifies that the vehicle is new (or newer).

• In addition, the centered composition of the advertisement is also a signifier. The composition signifies that the Hummer in the advertisement is the center of attention. In this case, the signified could also be that the vehicle is popular because no other vehicles are like it.

Capstone Research / Progress (2nd Week of March)

This week I have begun on starting the story writing and editing process. Personally, I believe this is one of the most difficult parts of the entire podcast assignment for me because I have to listen through and find possible sound bytes that can be used in the podcast and structure a story around those bytes. However, I have done some reading on the process which could assist me.

In the intro of Creating Powerful Radio by Valerie Geller and Turi Ryder, it is mentioned that before anything goes on air one should ask themselves the following:

• Is it relevant?
• Does it matter?
• Do you care?
• Do your listeners care? (2).

Basically, stories that are being planned should be thought of ahead of time in this way. This is a part of the original decision that I made on what stories that I should cover for my podcasts. In a way, this part came naturally, but I believe that a simple reevaluation would be beneficial.

[ I also found a section with additional guidelines on choosing radio programming, and the one tip that seemed to compliment with the four questions above was to "use your own life as a show resource and always answer the questions: why is this on air? and why should someone listen to this?" (4). ]


Story Structure Basics: (this info is from Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern).

• The Intro: Typically this is done by a host (but in my case I am the sole person working on the    project). It is considered one of the most important part of a radio story (Sound Reporting 102). The intro is created to explain why a story is worth listening to and it also sets the scene or mood of the upcoming report (Sound Reporting 102). Intros also lead into the first voice track of the reporter (Sound Reporting 103).

• The First Track: One problem that occurs during this is that an echo may occur if the intro mentions similar facts (and it often does) that are to be mentioned right away in the story. Getting around this problem can be as easy as starting the section with sound (Sound Reporting 105). Other methods include starting with an actuality or a voice track, but no matter how the first track starts the reporter should read as though they heard the intro (Sound Reporting 106). However, no actual recipe exists for creating an intro or first track (Sound Reporting 108).

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

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