Creating and publishing my first podcast reinforced how fulfilling and valuable it can be to learn by doing. I have my scholastic journalists learn by doing do all the time, but it’s been a while since I have embarked on doing something utterly new to me.
After a lot of reading through materials, watching tutorial videos and listening to my regular two hours of NPR a day with an ear focused on not just the content but also the style and structure, I was ready to take the first step toward completing this assignment: gathering equipment and software.
I downloaded Audacity onto my laptop and the “Voice Record Pro” app onto my iPhone. I borrowed an iRig mic from our publication’s meager equipment closet and ordered a table-top mic stand for this assignment and for my staff to use in the future.
Step two was choosing a topic and drafting my script. From my readings and experiences as a listener, I knew having at least some narrative elements would make the podcast more interesting.
I settled on journalistic ethics, specifically cautionary tales from my publication’s past, which I thought students could benefit from hearing. After my initial idea to name the podcast “Ethical Wreckage” with a loose shipwreck theme, I decided that was too negative and came up with “Ethical Relics,” with a focus on remembering, reflecting on and learning from the past. Title and tone matter, just like in print journalism.
To further set the podcast’s tone I searched through Incompetech for slightly haunting music and settled on a piece called “Magistar,” which got me in the mood for script writing.
While reading aloud my first draft I learned how important it is to break the script into ultra-short grafs to help with pacing and pausing. I also realized long, complex sentences and some phrases can be challenging to read aloud and are hard to understand when listening.
After reading “Writing a Radio Script” by Dave Gilson, I made my script more conversational and more dramatic in places to drive home key ideas. I reworked convoluted sentence phrasing and made sure there was a lesson in the end. Basically I learned a podcast needs just as much editing as a written article.
To record the audio tracks I situated myself in an upstairs guest room, hoping the mic wouldn’t pick up the screams of my toddler playing below (Or the cats that suddenly had to get through the door. Or the hissing of the radiator.). I realized if I’m going to encourage kids to make podcasts, I need to find a small, quiet space they can record in undisturbed.
My first few runs-through were painfully slow and there were certain words I kept saying weird, like “journalists.” Sigh. Finally, after way longer than expected, I got the three tracks recorded in a way I liked.
The next thing I learned? How to convert .m4a file types to .wav files. Then it was on to my first experience with Audacity. After watching tutorials and experimenting with the program, I quickly learned to use various tools and how to do effects such as fading. Snipping, moving and adjusting the tracks’ volume were fun, and it was especially satisfying getting the episode to exactly five minutes.
Next time I would add a brief clip of the music between the main script and conclusion. This would sound more professional and help smooth the transition in the modulation of my voice between the two clips. Now that I know how easy it is to cut and move in Audacity, I would also not spend so long re-recording my main script. I’d take the advice you gave to count to three and re-read the section I messed up on and simply edit later.
After setting up my SoundCloud account, it was easy to upload and share my first podcast episode. Doing all of this for the first time has made me so much more capable of encouraging my students to do the same. I feel equipped to help them get started while encouraging them to learn by doing, just like I did.
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