In the audio stories I listened to for JRN 340, I believe Erica, Jordan, and Paige’s subjects were the best formatted for audio, focusing on musicians. While the other two stories were strong features, they did not feature some element of sound great enough to be heard and not seen. A video may have been a better way to show them. However, the strongest story probably came from Erica’s story on Douglas George. It had a good focus on drumline cadences and sound, maintained audio levels between drums and George’s voice, and has a personal and interesting feature story that benefited from audio.
I believe the drumline at the beginning of Erica’s story managed to hold on to my attention. I think the important parts of the story, such as why George became a drum musician, were a bit late in the story, but, an unusual technique in news, having the important info near the end reigned my interest back in for the remainder of the clip. The ending parts could have been brought forward in the story. Everything sounded natural near the end of the clip.
Near the beginning however, I was having trouble determining whether or not the audio for the drumline was an actual drumline or an audio clip from an MP3. All sound levels were clear and George’s voice was natural. The only thing that would have made the sound better would have been improving the drumline sounds at the beginning of the clip. Otherwise, this clip and the majority of the rest were put together well, despite not all fitting the format of audio well.
The Working Title Blog 