Writing for audio

-- must be clear

-- must be for the ear (to be heard, not read)

• short words
• short sentences, one idea or fact per sentence
• simple sentence structure (subj, verb, predicate, period)
• pronounceable words
• use of contractions
• casual but not informal
• efficient – make every word count active voice

-- must be written to time – how long does it take to say it

-- must be written to be spoken

 

Part of audio journalism means you have to learn to do it – that is, to speak it.

-- using proper English

-- speaking in complete sentences, complete thoughts•

-- clarity (enunciation)

-- logical (coherence)

-- pace – speaking slowly enough to be understood, fast enough to be interesting

-- practice, practice, practice (seriously)

-- speaking with confidence, eliminating uhs, y’knows and that other word

 

Clarity, clarity, clarity

 

Recording and editing audio

 

Recording

Tools and equipment. Basic recording equipment is inexpensive and simple to use. Every journalism student must have some kind of ditigal recorder and must be aware of its capacity.

The importance of sound quality. Sound quality does not have to be an obsession because of the good equipment that is available. Still, journalism students must learn to make their equipment produce clear, understandable sound on all occasions.

Ambient sound and music. The qualities of ambient sound and music can enhance the reporting. They are special products of audio journalism that cannot be duplicated by any other medium.

 

Editing

Putting audio files together for presentation. Editing audio can be as simple or as complex as the reporter and editor choose to make it. Some audio reporters, such as NPR's science reporter Robert Krulwich, develop their stories through complex and highly sophisticated editing techniques (see Darwin's Very Bad Day, for example). Our goals for beginning journalism students are more modest. Simply producing a clear, coherent recording would be enough.

• Multiple tracks. Student should have some basic understanding of mixing sound tracks.
  
  
• Importance of beginning and ending. Writing good introductions and planning the sound story from beginning to end is basic to good audio journalism.
  
  
• Standard constructions and techniques. Students should learn the standard techniques of audio editing as the well as the terms, such as fades, cross-fading, establish music, segue, transition, voice out, music up, and voice wrap.

 

Audacity

The one piece of software that students should learn for audio journalism is Audacity.

While editing sound has a wide array of possibilities, it has been rendered simple and easy by Audacity, a free and downloadable piece of software from SourceForge.net. Audacity comes with a set of tutorials, the basics of Audacity can be grasped in just a few minutes by those who simply use the software. Audacity allows users to add and delete portions of a soundtrack and to place new soundtracks into a file. Its visual dashboard (below) includes all of the tools for basic sound editing, and it is likely that student will be able to learn the program to create audio files very quickly.

Below is a screen shot of a audio file being edited in Audacity. Editing an audio file is a relatively straightforward matter.

Possible writing lab activities for next week (the week after spring break)

-- Review lecture points as necessary; comments, questions?
-- In-class writing assignments from chapters 7, 8, 9 as necessary
-- Exercise editing audio (on JPROF, Ex. 7-1 in text)
-- Assign news story to be reported that week and written during second lab of the week; story should include headline, summary, links, nutshell form; pictures and cutlines; full inverted pyramid structure; should be entered onto the TNJN server.

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