The Audacity of the Podcast
Welcome to my fourth and final Play Portfolio! For anyone unfamiliar, this is a series where I look at media or Information Communication Technology (ICT) that is relevant to youth but unknown to me, and then report my findings and how or if the medium should be used to expand media literacy for said youth. Today we are exploring the idea of creating podcasts and other audio-based productions though the use of the free Audacity recording software.
From the beginning it was important for me to see what I could do without spending extra money on added equipment. Audacity was the program that continued to be referenced in my initial search for a free, dependable, and relatively simple recording software. When first tying to work in the program, it can be overwhelming, but the Audacity Manual, and other supports, are immediately offered upon opening. I tried first to figure it out on my own, and can not recommend the manual highly enough. It has fairly clear instructions and it is easy to focus on what skills are needed to get started, so the time spent just reading is minimized.
Keeping with the theme of seeing what I could do without extra equipment, I used the microphone built into my computer to do some test recordings. I tried this both in my apartment and using my parked car as a mini recording studio with fairly good results. I did have some issues with the microphone picking up mechanical noises from the laptop, but that was a surprisingly quick fix with prescient instructions. Though I did not attempt to record anything other than my own voice, this test showed that it was possible to get started on an audio project without too much investment.
For this foray I was primarily interested in using Audacity to create a podcast and so started in the Tutorial section with “Mixing Voice with Background Music”. This is suggested as a good place for podcasters to start, once the basics of installation, recording and initial editing are taken care of. My preferred format for this podcast is reminiscent of The Adventures of Superman radio series, LeVar Burton Reads, or the first episodes of Welcome to Night Vale. These are all largely narrative driven and can be done without a large cast but take advantage of music and sound effects to bring their stories to life.
I had used Tabletop Audio as a free-to-use source of ambient sound for various Dungeons & Dragons-esque roleplaying games and which is usable under an applicable Creative Commons license. The individual Foley sounds on the connected “SoundPad” did not share the same open licensing, however, so I had to look elsewhere. Thankfully the internet can be a generous place and I found several sites with free use sounds and recordings, including freesound.org. I used downloads from both sites to underscore and cut into my narrative in the Audacity software.
My final creation in Audacity was far more an example of poor planning and testing of skills then it was a podcast, but not only does Audacity warn that this will probably be the case, but I was left with many thoughts on how to use the program in youth-based setting.
My first thought is that it is important to get to know the program beforehand to help facilitate the technical side of audio project, as I think that the focus of the media literacy is better spent on what the participants are putting into their podcasts then having them trying to figure out the system on their own.
Second is that podcasts are an incredibly open format which means that there is a lot to think about in terms of media literacy and which will change depending on the outline of the final project. When I was incorporating further layers of sound into my recording, I wished that I had looked through the available sound libraries beforehand and had modulated the speed and tone of my voice recording to more easily accommodate the sound effects and accompaniment. This is also when I was thinking about what the media being created for this podcast would be saying to the world and how it is going to be evaluated by others as a media artifact. Where would the kids post their work and how does that affect the work and what they can do or let others do with it?
Finally, in every instance—whether an interview, reviewing a popular media, telling a story, creating music, or more—sources are going to need to be analyzed both as to whether they should be used, and whether they can be used. The first question is more standard in that it is an opportunity to evaluate the trustworthiness of an information source, to gage bias, and to factcheck. The second portion invites a conversation about copyright and an evaluation of the media that the young content creators would like to incorporate to see if it is covered by fair use or allowable through creative commons. This would an excellent opportunity to explore both sides of copywrite as the kids both are using content and confronting how to allow their content to be used.
In summation, I think that Audacity and the podcasts—or other audio media—that can be created on that software—for little to no monetary input other then that of the computer it is installed on—is a good way for youth to apply media literacy skills to a hands on activity that they can direct and be invested in. I think that this would work best with older kids and teens who would be better able to self-direct and discuss some of these questions. Younger children could work together on a group or class project with an adult who could take care of most of the technical work while still introducing the kids to these topics. The best thing about this ICT/media is the flexibility that Audacity gives to both the youth creator and the program developer to address media, evaluation, bias, and copywrite in a more natural and conversational way in a real-world context that both can be invested in.
