This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of audio reporting, applicable to broadcast or podcast: how to find and generate story ideas, how to conduct effective interviews, and, most importantly, how to use our critical faculties to produce stories in sound. We'll explore a variety of audio forms, from the "vox pop" to the feature. We'll also think about the mission, history, and aesthetics of broadcast media (with an emphasis on public radio and the podcast ecosystem it helped, in part, to spawn) and the ways it's changing in the current podcast boom-bust cycle (and its present co-optation and disruption by right-wing ideologues and generative AI). Finally, we'll explore the ways in which radio journalism connects with other genres, forms, and traditions, such as oral history, documentary, and sound art. |