Author: cquest

This was the final podcast assignment for Topics in Digital Storytelling. Basically, we were asked to select five podcasts that we created throughout the semester and use those to make one final podcast. The idea was to look back and recapture special moments from the semester, review projects that you were either proud or ashamed of, and to simply reflect on your learning and any new skills that were developed.

My approach to this assignment was simple: find projects that you were proud of from the semester. As you noticed in my podcast, I chose two audio playground assignments, the family and expert interview assignments, and the scripted story podcast that I came out with recently. I could list off the reasons that I discuss in the podcast as to why I chose these specific episodes, but I fail to see the value in that. So, enjoy the podcast!

This podcast was one of the more difficult ones that I have put together. It involved interviewing three people about a particular topic, in this case what the public opinion on voting is as a young person in college, writing a script, and binding all of the information together to tell a story. I thought that my interviewees gave thoughtful and insightful answers to the questions that were posed, it really brought this episode to life.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Evidence:

https://une.zoom.us/rec/share/KNdw4z67gPmqZ_VchmFqQEkAnk_f00qNmZIj1bRO8aV4VGLf4i0K_b1qnuJ43P9P.NYNspRsIBf4NwHyk
Passcode: MNFrN6Q*

For this episode, our class was asked to record an outdoor soundscape and make a story out of it, touching on the different specific soundmarks of the environment. Initially, I wanted to record the soundscape of the storm that we got recently, I believe a few days ago. When this plan fell through, I was a little concerned that I would not be able to come up with an idea for a different environment. After hope seemed completely lost, I spontaneously came up with the idea to head down the road to Sea Star Market, our local gas station and convenience store located at the edge of our campus.

The next challenge was finding the proper soundmarks from the environment. I’ll be honest, I really only focused on the noise of cars passing by and the birds chirping in the trees around the parking lot. Because of this, I had to create a script that would tell a good enough story to drown out the lack of sound from the actual environment. As usual, I would love to know what you all think! Please feel free to leave a comment with any critiques or suggestions that could help me for next time.

For this assignment, we were asked to make an audio self-portrait of a costume that we would assemble from around our respective houses. Initially, I had no idea what direction I wanted to take. I had three ideas: try and make something funny, try to make a serious episode, or make something completely random. I ended up choosing the third option. As you will notice, there isn’t a deep meaning or much substance at all, but I think it makes some kind of sense after hearing many different podcasts on the same topic.

To be honest, I do not have Goofy slippers, a pirate’s hat, or a set of bagpipes, that was all made up. If you want, let me know below if that was funny at all, I’m trying to better understand people’s humor.

Initially, I planned to interview the owner of the farm that I am working at for my internship this semester, but because of timing, I was unable to meet with her. Instead, I chose to interview my friend, Ben, who also goes to this school. Ben is currently in the masters program for athletic training here at the University of New England, and plans to finish his education here over the next two years. I thought that it would be a great idea to interview Ben for two reasons: the first is that I was in this major during my freshman year at this school, actually it was the reason I came to this school in the first place, and second, he is a very professional person and he is heavily invested in his studies. I believe that Ben proved to be the best candidate after considering all of my options.

It was a bit difficult to draft questions that aligned with the rubric of this assignment in that the whole “expert” part of the assignment seemed a little too open-ended. I think that I fit the criteria regardless. But, since my interviewee is not a certified expert in his field, it was challenging to dance around that with the quesitons. The solution that I came up with was to tell as much of his story as I could without going over the time limit. Again, I believe that I did that well enough.

Let me know what you think!