Beyond Alaska Photo
Multimedia journalism in the Last Frontier

A desire for local content has inspired the creation of Radio Free Palmer, a non-profit group dedicated to bringing a real live radio station to Palmer, Alaska.

While I applaud the attempt to deliver news to a somewhat under-covered community, I question the focus on traditional radio as the primary medium. They are a tech savvy group — RFP established a free wireless network in the Palmer downtown area — but I don’t think they fully appreciate the new media landscape.

During the annual meeting RFP board president David Cheezem said the group’s goal is to build “a small station with a focus on small ‘d’ democracy.” But media consumers have realized they don’t need to be force-fed content anymore. They want a voice; they want to engage in debate; they want their content when they want it, not on some broadcast schedule. They want to be involved, even while (especially while!) sitting at home.

Traditional media is in turmoil because our consumers are going away. What we’re providing daily — a one-way flow of information — is becoming less relevant by the news cycle. To focus on the shrinking number of readers/listeners/viewers/users uncomfortable with the new tools will make the station obsolete before it gets an FCC license.

Photographer Marc Lester, reporter Julia O’Malley and the Anchorage Daily News won the 2008 BOP News Audio Slide Show (Under) for Marc and Julia’s “Crystal Becker says Goodbye.”

Over the weekend a stopped by a third-place regional basketball game in Palmer to experiment with my Canon G9. I rarely shoot with my ‘pro’ gear now that I’m working on multimedia projects so I wanted to see if I could create an entire audio slide show — including audio collection — with my point-and-shoot.I set a few rules (more on that later): no crops, no zoom, no flash, max ISO 200.The end result was OK (I think there’s a good action picture to be had, I just didn’t get it) but more importantly, I think I’ll be down grading my massive photo + computer backpack for a shoulder bag.

The Knight Digital Media Center has some good tutorials on this stuff, including Soundtrack Pro and the Olympus dictation recorder.

The equipment:
Use a good microphone. The Olympus recorders we have do a fine job when you use a good external microphone. There are several quality microphones in the newsroom – with a little lead-time we can get one to you.
There are two types of microphones in the newsroom, dynamic and condenser:
•Dynamic mics are more durable – they do not have a power source so they are more resistant to water and shock damage – but we’ve found that they require a bit more attention to audio levels when you’re recording. One note on our Sennheiser dynamic mics: we also have wireless transmitters for them if you need them (at a press conference for instance).
•We also have several condenser mics. These take batteries and are more fragile. The phantom power switch on some of the recorders is for condenser microphones.

The process:
An interview is a controlled situation. If possible, take time to find a QUIET place to do your recording. Screaming kids in the background (or barking dogs) can render your interview track unusable. The interior of a car can make a good makeshift sound booth.
When recording an interview, the mic should be close to your subject’s mouth but held off to one side to minimize “popping p’s.” Closer in will give you more voice while farther out will give more ambient sound.
Use headphones when capturing your audio.

Some points to remember:
•Be in control of the microphone. Follow the voice or sound you’re trying to capture.
•The first question you ask should be something like “What is your name, and what is your profession (what are you doing here…).” You can use the answer to set up your audio if you like (not required!) and it will get your subjects talking about their favorite topic: themselves.
•Ask qualified statements (don’t ask yes/no questions)
•BE QUIET! Don’t interject during your interview
•Audio drives everything. Don’t be afraid to have your subject repeat their answer
•Use silence to draw out a response.
•Collect natural sound. Everything has a sound.
•Record the tone of the room. Silence everyone and capture one minute of silence. This will help with the audio editing.
•Keep it short. The more audio you collect, the more audio you have to edit and the more time it takes. We try to keep our audio slideshows less than 2 minutes so you really don’t need much good stuff. That said, if you have the time (both on the scene and for production), don’t hesitate to stay if you’re getting good audio.
•Coordinate with the photographer. We approach slideshows a little differently, primarily because we need so many pictures, so make sure the shooter knows what you have planned.
•Log your tape while you’re recording. Not required but it saves a lot of time when you’re editing your project.

Voice coach Marilyn Pittman spent some time with us this morning, making a valiant attempt to teach the print journalists in attentance the very basic concepts of broadcast speaking. Obviously, we don’t do much voice work at the Daily News but I still had some “aha” moments during her presentation. Easy stuff, too:

Warm yourself up. Practice what it is you’re going to say. Sound conversational in the read.

I thought her advice for critiquing yourself was wonderful: get your ego out of it and ask instead if this person looks authoritative. The audience doesn’t care how you think you look: they want a trustworthy source of information.

Our final exercise was to read a paragraph of text, TV-style, on camera and in front of the class. In line, practicing, I realized that I did this stuff every single night reading bedtime stories to my kids. Plane crashes are not Dr. Suess, but practicing voice inflection is practicing voice inflection.

I did OK when my turn came, but I could really stand to work on it a little more (so Murphy, can I end my shift a little early when I get back?).