Interview Process

Deciding on a place and time to record the interview was the easiest part of this process. Jena and I agreed to meet a week and a half before the due date, to ensure we both had ample time to edit and complete our podcast. However, on the day of, we decided to postpone the interview because neither one of us were prepared with questions. We both felt it was necessary to have an idea of what we were going to ask one another, therefore we took an extra two days to create a list of questions.

We chose to conduct the interview in one of the study rooms in the Institutional Building. Since the room was small and enclosed, it eliminated any echoing or fuzz from being recorded in the background of the interview. I downloaded a number of recording applications on my iPhone including, GarageBand, SmartRecord and QuickVoice Recorder; however I chose to use RecorderHQ as well as Audacity as a backup.

The interview itself was not what I expected. I not only thought I was going to follow the exact order of my questions, but also that I had an idea of how Jena would answer them. However, during the interview Jena began to talk about her personal struggle with mental health. I followed her lead and the interview soon became more like a conversation.

I recorded my interview with Jena 6 times to ensure that I had enough material to play with while editing. Having many recordings of the interview, each lasting between 8 to 11 minutes, was extremely difficult to work with. Although each recording had similar answers, I drove myself crazy, repeatedly listening to all 6 and trying to pick out Jena’s best answers. In order to shorten the interview to 3 minutes, I also cut out speech ticks such as “uh” and “um,” as well as pauses and information that the interview could do without. Audacity was a great editing tool – despite how much I edited out, the audio sounded like one seamless piece.

I found transcribing the interview to be simple yet tedious. First, I played the entire interview, typing as much of what I heard. I then played the interview three more times, filling in what I missed. After completing the transcription, I played the interview one last time to add in the timings. I tried to use http://otranscribe.com, as suggested by Joan but my audio was not uploading onto the website.

Overall, completing my first podcast was a great experience. I look forward to starting on my podcast series.

Staying Organized With Diigo

Staying organized on the Internet has now become easy by using Diigo. It is a great tool that allows you to highlight, bookmark, add a sticky note and share a website. I have started using Diigo to save useful sites for my upcoming podcast series.

A Podcasters Journey – Episode 1: Interview With Jena Fabroa

Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of “A Podcasters Journey!”.

You may or may not know this – but mental illnesses can take on many forms, just as physical illnesses do. In fact, mental illnesses are feared and misunderstood by many. Today, you will hear a short 3 minute interview with Jena Fabroa who will talk to us about her journey with mental illness and discuss the various resources and facilities available at UTM.

Show Notes:
0:00-0:25 Introduction

0:25-0:53 What topic are you going to be focusing your podcast on?

0:53-1:24 Why did you choose to pursue this topic?

1:24-1:54 Who do you plan on interviewing?

1:54-2:16 Who is your intended audience?

2:16-2:30 Many people are unaware of the resources and facilities available on campus

2:30-2:40 What do you hope to achieve through these podcasts?

2:40-3:00 Conclusion and Sign Out

Passing of Time

“Passing of Time” is the recording of a ticking clock. In doing this assignment, I originally recorded various sounds such as the running of water and the splashing of oil – each time, however, I heard the ticking of the clock faintly in the background. I decided that this would be a great sound effect to post because it is something we hear daily but never really pay attention to.

Name That Type

The podcast I chose to listen to was “Mad Women: The Great Women in Advertising” posted on the wiki by Rida Zehra. This podcast is mainly expository. The host, Terry O’Reilly speaks directly to the listener about famous women in advertising that have had large social and cultural impacts in our society. Through this 26 minute long podcast, O’Reilly uses facts and inserts audio from popular advertisements to “prove” to listeners (in a sense) that women have dominated the advertising industry for years. While I would recommend others who are interested in learning about advertising and the underlying messages it holds, I would not listen to other podcasts from this series because O’Reilly was very formal, factual and scripted.