The Audio

May 4, 2009

I really enjoyed doing the audio project, as it didn’t entail as much stress as the video, this was after the deadline was extended of course. I’m glad we got more time because the audio project at first was very demanding time wise, which was extremely stressful and it was impossible for me to meet the initial deadline as I didn’t have access to a zoom box/mansa for a while.

I wanted to do another investigative piece, which was along a new journalism kind of style. For some apparent reason during fresher’s week, I was persuaded to join the socialist group. One idea was to do the podcast about the group, what they stood for, go to a protest with them and make this the basis for my podcast.

Then because of the short time we had at the beginning, I decided against the idea. They were not going to attend a protest till the 1st of April.

One of my friends is very enthusiastic about squatting to the point where she says it’s her dream to squat. I didn’t and never will understand why but I got the opportunity to go to a squat in elephant and castle and decided to interview a young girl who lived there. The idea was to present the podcast as a day in a life of a squatter. I wanted to educate myself and others and maybe get rid of stereotypes, which I hope I did.

I went in there thinking she was going to be a drug addict who had to squat because she spent all her money on drugs. That’s the stereotype my dad presented me with and I’m glad I learnt otherwise. I have to say getting the story was really tricky, the other squatters were really unhappy that we were there. The girls doing the video project were also there as they did their project on squatting and were visiting several squats. They didn’t wasn’t us to take any pictures or film and were having ago at our interviewee but we managed to do it secretly. The only downside is that it involved walking around a messy, slightly run-down house in the dark. It was however very fun and exciting even though I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.

Audacity was never explained and I think we should have had a lesson where we were taught how to use the programme. Luckily the people who had already done the audio were nice and showed me how to use it.

I’m happy with my podcast but looking back I think I used to many pictures. I had a lot of pictures I had taken at the squat which were really good and so I was a bit too keen on using them.