Now that I have to record audio clips for my stories, I am worried that I will sound terrible on those recordings. I am worried not so much because I will be embarrassed if I sound bad, but because bad multimedia tools take away from the story as a whole.

Here, then, are the things I hope to learn from the upcoming lesson:

1-What do I need to do to get high-quality (i.e. good-sounding) audio?

2-Am I going to need any new equipment? If so, what kind?

3-Should I make multiple recordings of the same audio event/interview? If so, how many?

4-What do I need to know about ethical editing of sound clips? (My gut says that you should go with what you get. Are there instances, though, in which you should touch-up sound recordings for quality purposes? Also, should you use the whole sound clip that you record or is it okay to use a portion of your recording? Should you tell your readers/listeners about the parts that you cut/choose not to include?)

I just looked through our textbook. journalismNEXT (second edition) contains an entire chapter on this topic. Author Mark Briggs advises the following:

1-Briggs says: “With just a few simple tools—a microphone, recorder and free software (and a computer connected to the Internet, of course)—you can create full-featured segments that sound like radio episodes and distribute them as podcasts to build a loyal audience” (p.172).

2-Sound recordings allow journalists to make the most of the setting and the feelings associated with a given event (p.173).

3-He encourages readers of his book to consider using a number of different sound-based creations:

-“reporter overview” (p.175)

-“podcasts” (p.175)

-“audio slide shows” (p.175)

-“breaking news” (p.175).

I think all of these things are great, but I think only one of them counts as journalism: the last one.

To me, the other items on that list are fluff and advertisement. Give the people what they want, I suppose. Maybe Briggs knows that these are the things that people want (p.175).

Briggs covered many other things in his chapter on sound-based journalism (p.171-196). So, I have a lot left to learn. Maybe when I finish soaking up his words, my voice will sound good on news recordings.

I think it’s far more likely that I will just reaffirm what I already know: I am a writer for a reason.