Listening Journal - www.worldvisionreport.org

World Vision Report – “Love Shack”
www.worldvisionreport.org

http://www.worldvisionreport.org/Stories/Week-of-February-13-2010/Love-Shack

From Dakar, Senegal, Will Everett describes a visit to the "love shack". Usually traditional medicine uses plants and oils to aid in a range of illnesses and afflictions, but what’s interesting about this feature is that it talks about a natural remedy for lovesickness. Everett visits one local man called Muhammad who says he's found an herbal solution for one of humanity's most enduring ailments: unrequited love. This feature is part of the Reporters Notebook category on the World Vision Report website.
The reporter is narrating, and he only has some snippets of the interviewee’s voice complimenting what he is saying. For natural sound, a lot of background noise was used along with the voice of the two interviewees. It was ok in the beginning, since it captured the whole atmosphere of this ‘love shack’, but then I felt it became somewhat of a distraction. The quality of the sound was really good, but as I have mentioned before, the background noise was just too much and really annoying to be hearing every time the interviewee speaks.
The announcer’s voice was clear and not too dramatic, which is good. For this topic, I felt that the 3:30 minutes is too much time for the feature. I felt like most of the time the reporter was being redundant and the topic really didn’t grab my attention and was really disinteresting. He used a sound bite of a friend who knows this apothecary (or so to say), and what she was saying was really irrelevant and lame. I didn’t feel like I have learned anything new or interesting by listening to this feature, as most of the time I felt like the reporter was just using some extra sound bites and natural sound to make this audio piece longer.

Listening Journal - www.npr.org

Story Corps – “Witnessing the End of a Family Tradition”



“Witnessing the End of a Family Tradition” is a narration by a man called Nicholas Petron. This audio piece is produced for Morning Edition by Vanara Taing. The senior producer for StoryCorps is Michael Garofalo. The whole piece, including the introduction is 3:49 minutes.
In this short audio production, Petron talks about his grandfather who came to the United States from Italy as a young man, to try to make it in New York City. He built a family, and a tradition of Sunday meals, around the apartment building he worked in. Then everything changed as they had to move out of the building, because the city condemned the buildings in the area they lived in order to build some new apartments, through his small simple story, Petron underlines the destruction of a family along with the destruction of this building.
I found this feature to be really gripping, since the narrator is a very good story teller with a very expressive voice. He has a very warm and husky voice, which makes you imagine a friendly and bubbly person, and this compelled me to keep listening out with my undivided attention. Petron changes the tone of his voice when he’s trying to impersonate his grandfather as he tries to imitate the way he talks. By using this Italian accent that his grandfather used to talk in, it becomes easier for the listener to become immersed in the story and really pictures the whole scenario. In addition, Petron changes the tone and pitch of his voice whenever he reaches a climax point in his story, and this really captured the whole mood of this past experience and conveyed it to the listener.

Some guitar music was used in the introduction, and the announcer voice was very clear and real, as if it is sincere, and this really captures the essence of this show which is about personal stories and experiences. So, anything dramatic in the introduction would have been really unsuitable for the whole mood of the show.
This is a great feature, the narrator talked in a very natural and laidback way as he paused and breathed at his ease. All of these factors made me imagine that this man is sitting in front of me and talking personally to me. Natural sound was not used at all, but this is comprehendible since this is a very personal audio piece, so any distraction would have really distracted the listener and interrupted this whole nostalgic mood.

I Believe in Honesty

I’ve always believed in honesty, even as a kid. When I’ve done something wrong as a kid I would stay up all night in my bed feeling uncomfortable like there’s a heavy weight over my chest. I would only feel contented with myself once I’ve told my mom what I’ve been hiding from her no matter how trivial it was. Honesty is seldom found in a person, that’s why I really appreciate honest people who are always clear and straightforward, and thus trust can be established without any complications. This is also one of the reasons why I don’t trust people easily, and I really believe that if everyone was honest, the world would be a better place.

That is why I chose to be a journalist, I want to be able to stand up for the truth one day and be honest to the world. They say that to be objective as a journalist is a utopian dream and something that is very hard to attain, but I believe that this is something that all journalists should strive for. I want to grow up to work for a media institution that is independent, transparent, fair in its reporting, and not to mention, honest in what it delivers to the masses. Yes, sometimes honesty hurts, but eventually it will teach people how to do things right and be held accountable for what they do. I really believe that honesty is more important than any other moral value or belief because I believe that anyone who is profoundly dishonest is not capable of advancing the cause of social justice or any other humanitarian cause let alone issues that are present on a one on one, personal level.

What’s as important as being honest with the world is being honest with oneself. I found that whenever I lied to myself to stay protected from the reality around me I fell into a cycle of self-denial and indifference. Confronting the truth is always a challenge but it has helped me understand many things about myself and the world around me, even though it might not make me a happier person. It proved to me that it can make a stronger person standing on a solid ground and at peace with myself and my life. Nothing is perfect, but through honesty and truthfulness I learned that I can always confront and deal with my imperfections and faults, striving to improve things to the better.

I hope that I’ll be able to prove that the truth is pure and simple.