Voice to the Voiceless: Part 4
The Third Case Study: Scene On Radio.
Continuing from the last two weeks, I am currently studying and analyzing three separate organizations and the personal life stories they facilitate and broadcast regularly. The goal is to understand these projects in order to better form my own. In each case, I will be asking the following questions:
- How did these projects begin?
- Why were they started?
- What has been their impact on their respective communities?
- What can I learn from their examples?
What is Scene On Radio?
Scene On Radio is a podcast published through Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies in North Carolina. John Biewen, Audio Program Director and Instructor for Duke University, started the biweekly series in the fall of 2015 to “explore human experience and the society we’re making for ourselves.” Even after 36 episodes, the series continues to investigate the culture of America and the stories of its people.
How did Scene On Radio begin and why?
According to their website, the Center for Documentary Studies “is dedicated to documentary expression and its role in creating a more just society.” This appears to directly include the podcast series Scene On Radio, which delves deep into American history and the current cultural climate in order to shape episodes that comment on everyday life. The host John Biewen has a long history of working with documentaries and the radio industry, including time spent with National Public Radio (NPR) and American RadioWorks (ARW).
The idea behind the name Scene On Radio is to travel outside of the studio in order to understand America and — with a journalistic mindset — to ask the hard questions. For example in the very first episode, the series asks: “Is the whole Sports thing good for us?”
What does an episode look like?
Where StoryCorps and Story Trek reach out to the American communities in order to get the individual’s story for the individual’s sake, Scene On Radio seeks to tell the country’s story for the country’s sake. Scene On Radio tries to look at a bigger picture. This is why the podcast series tends to be more research focused and analytical. Though Biewen certainly pursues the personal interview, it is achieved more to tell the story of America rather than of any specific individual.
As such, the episodes tend to vary quite a bit in length and content. The first episode, which also happens to be part of a six piece miniseries, is only 13 minutes, while others end up closer 60. These episodes often include field experts, historians, and archived radio content, as well as the ordinary people Biewen finds on his journeys.
This episode follows the host to St. Louis where he speaks with store owners, sports fans, bystanders, and protesters. Though none of the interviews by themselves are as personal and emotional as the interviews facilitated by StoryCorps and Story Trek, they are perhaps more intimately connected with each other as each conversation sheds new light on the larger topic of sports in America.
The questions Biewen asks are different than those of the other podcasts. They are about the heartbeat of America.
The questions Biewen asks challenge individuals to analyze their part in the culture, and by asking the individuals these questions, he is by extension asking the listener to do the same, to take an analysis of themselves and to explore the hard questions. This self-scrutiny and the research Scene On Radio engages with — especially in the newest series on racism Seeing White — sometimes seems even more difficult to process than the personal stories.
When listening to someone else’s story, as the audience we can empathize with them, but once the episode is over, that’s often the end. When listening to Biewen, as the audience we cannot help but ask what our part in this story is, and I find myself thinking about the cultural implications long after the episode is finished.
What has been Scene On Radio’s impact on its communities?
I have the opportunity to interview the founder and host of Scene On Radio, John Biewen, and will be continuing the story of their impact and future plans in next week’s update on this long-term journalism project.
Key Insights and Takeaways.
Through my time understanding the success of Scene On Radio, I have created a short list of takeaways I plan to keep in mind as I form my own podcast.
- The hard questions are the ones that need to be asked.
- Sometimes telling the larger story is just as memorable as the individual’s.
