How J 463: Audio Storytelling taught me that there’s more to audio than just radio news

Although, I felt pretty confident in my ability to record and edit audio before taking this class, in only the first few days I realized that I knew nothing about the audio industry itself — specifically the growing popularity of podcasts. For me, the first thing that came to mind when hearing the term “audio storytelling” was broadcast radio — specifically news. I was lucky enough to intern for Oregon Public Broadcasting last summer and get hands-on experience creating news-oriented audio, but audio storytelling is much more than what’s on NPR or a local public radio station. Audio storytelling can be intensely personal and intimate. It can be a way to connect with a niche audience, to not only report news, but to tell personal stories, have honest conversations and connect with communities — and those are just a small few reasons why audio is such a powerful storytelling tool.

I’ve worked with other mediums in journalism, such as writing, videography and photography, but audio is so much different than any other form of content creation. Here are some of the key takeaways I learned from this term in J 463: Audio Storytelling.

• Producing audio can be complicated, but, at the same time, it’s also incredibly accessible. For me, one of the toughest, and most frustrating, things about audio is getting good audio — making sure levels are equal and not clipping, making sure wind isn’t coming through, making sure background sound isn’t overpowering the subject’s voice and etcetera. I find I like to be very technical when producing multimedia content, sometimes too technical; therefore, I had only used a portable recorder or a studio to record audio before this class. When I learned that audio recorded on a smartphone could sound just as good as audio recorded on a more professional device, I was amazed. This is a big reason audio is an extremely accessible medium. Regardless of if you’re a beginner or not, you could potentially record a whole podcast series off of your mobile phone’s microphone if you wanted to. Audio doesn’t need to be perfect and, in fact, its imperfections can make it sound more intimate, which leads to my next point.
• Audio is intimate. Sure, writing can evoke emotion — same with video and photography and other journalistic mediums — but there’s something unmistakably intimate about having someone speaking into your ear, directly to you. Regardless of its content, audio brings an intimate form of storytelling, because it utilizes the very human aspect of voice. With some of the material we listened to for class, I think this most came across to me with some of the storytelling we heard from StoryCorps where the subjects told their own stories with minimal interjection from a narrator. This was also something I really keyed into when listening to all the stories we produced for class. Without even seeing a subject’s face, I could imagine them solely from their voice — the words they used, their inflections. From Max’s stay-at-home dad, to Jamie’s female dispensary owner, a very detailed picture was painted without any visual aids. For me, I think this most came through with my historical reporting piece about my parents. In interviewing my parents about how they met (becoming pen pals more than 20 years ago), I also realized how intimate recording audio is. Without taking notes for a written piece, or taking a-roll for a video, you’re paying attention to your subject, and your subject only, which doesn’t happen in other mediums.
• Connecting with smaller, niche audiences (as well as huge, wide ones.) Another thing I took away from this class was how incredibly varied audio audiences are, from the very niche to the super general. For example, I had no idea Slack had a podcast, or Ebay. But, both regardless have audiences that are searching for that content, even if it’s a niche one. Audio is just like every creative medium in the sense of the wide range of genres it holds. From comedy, to horror, to crime drama re-enactments, no matter how small the fanbase, there are still fans. On the other end of the spectrum, news organizations like NPR, and its accompanying podcasts, will always have huge generalized audiences wanting to hear up-to-date news of what’s going on in the world. That’s what makes audio storytelling, and specifically podcasting, so interesting — there’s seemingly something available for everyone.

For all these reasons and more, it’s clear audio is here to stay. Regardless to those who think radio is dead, it’s apparent audio is a medium that is evolving as time goes on — beckoning in new listeners and creators and holding tight to old ones. And maybe, one could hope, someday soon everyone will be tuned into audio storytelling — through radio or podcast — to find, or create, stories just for them.