Audio Stories

Recently audio has become more and more prevalent in the journalism world. In order to familiarize myself with different techniques and styles I chose three different stories that I was drawn to.

The first story I picked was one from the New York Times project One in Eight Million. The specific story I chose was titled The Walking Miracle. This specific story was about a woman who was diagnosed with blood clots all throughout her stomach. Doctors told her that if she were to go through surgery her chance of not making it would be 99%. However, if she did not go through surgery, the outcome would be the same. The woman chose to go through the surgery and she managed to survive. She became that 1%.

I really enjoyed this story. Although the audio only consisted of the woman speaking of her experiences, I felt like this was stronger than if the journalist’s voice or questions were recorded as well. Even though the journalist was not recorded, I feel like their editing was very well done. The questions asked and the quotations included were all very good. The emotion came through strongly through the woman because her experience was so intense which made me feel the emotion. Because of the topic of the story I think the journalist did a very good job with how they went about reporting. I would not want them to change one thing.

The second story that I listened to was from NPR news. The story is called We Bought Gold and it is all about these two guys who see how far their $449.06 would take them. It turned out, they were able to buy a piece of gold no bigger than a nickel. The mission of buying this gold was to find out from retails and other people why gold costs so much. Basically they came to the conclusion that it is because of the value that it has always had. Plus, it is a form of currency which everyone wants to be a part of.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit as well because the topic of gold is fairly interesting to me. I was absorbed in the story because it interested me. However, I do wish I was able to watch the men as they went to the Diamond Industry so I could see their faces when they saw how much some gold would cost. Besides this, the story was well done. I liked how ambient noise was included in the background so the listener felt more like they were right there alongside the two men performing the experiment.

For my final story, I returned back to the New York Times to take a look at another One in Eight Million Story. This time I reviewed The Uncertain Gang Member. I was attracted to this story because I have always been frightened of gangs. After listening to this young mans story, I know that not all gang members are dangerous. After being arrested, the gang member decided he was going to stay clear of drugs and other trouble although he did not drop out of the gang.

I really enjoyed this story as well. The emotion the man spoke of when he talked about graduating high school despite the outlook everyone had on him gave me chills. It made me feel like anything is possible. Yet again I liked that the journalist’s voice was not included in the story. The pictures for this story were also very good. They cut right to the emotion.

~ by adriennemorency on October 15, 2010.