Audio Journalism

Redirected Passion

After a year of broadcasting television, I had to cancel the show due to scheduling conflicts and availabilty between my Co-Host Chloe and I. So, while I couldn't give visuals to my profile conversations, I knew I still had to produce them. After some brainstorming I turned to my adviser and I told him I was going to create my own podcast. I knew that my voice needed to be heard, not just read. And as it turns out, starting my podcast, "The Senior Circle" has been a great idea.  

The podcast is set up so that I am the creative director and host, meaning I do client outreach, plan the topics of our podcast episodes and manage the social media page. Meanwhile my fellow senior class editors from The Clypian rotate joining me every other week,  helping me co-host an episode.

What I've learned through podcasting and audio storytelling is that it actually can perform better than a broadcast. I say this because it doesn't have the stress of all the lights and cameras and there isn't a sense to perform for the screen. All you have to do is sit back and share into the mic. And I've found that my guests typically are able to settle into the newsroom environment better while on the podcast opposed to the broadcast. So while it's nice to have the visual appearance, audio journalism does just the trick. 

How Podcast Episodes are Planned 

Similar to the broadcast show, I look to typically do feature profiling on students, as I feel it creates the best conversation and will connect better with my community. However, instead of scouring for overlooked students, I've taken a different approach. Now I'm looking for things students have actually done and building stories and profiles off of that. I've found that it gives filming sessions more structure and a stronger baseline. While I've done a one-off of episode addressing student protests in Salem-Keizer, all of the other podcasts I've filmed have followed that guide. 

Results Thus Far

From five sessions of filming, I've heard funny stories about getting crushed at pickleball by an IB math teacher, getting named after the wrong TV show, going bald for fun and much more. And while these are all small anecdotes, these are all defining moments and influences on the strong pillars of my local community. Digging for funny, engaging moments like these humanizes the maturity of our students, which helps to unravel their long, personal stories.