What are those little 'Listen Now' buttons and where did they come from?

You may have noticed that all these little buttons have appeared at the top of every post on this blog. They're from Odiogo, a new (ish) service which offers to 'give voice to your content' which I thought I'd try out on you, since you're radio students and all.

Odiogo use clever technology to turn your blog posts into audio content/podcasts. Once you sign up, people can subscribe to an audio feed podcast created from your text blog posts. (There's a link at the bottom of the sidebar on the right). That means they can download and then 'listen' to your blog wherever they are.

Also, once you sign up, Odiogo adds a little widget to each post on your blog. Click on that and you can hear a weird American robot voice read out your thoughts (along with a plug for the company and, possibly, some ads).

Now, I'm trying hard to resist the temptation to include random obscenities or dodgy jokes in this post, just to see how they sound when 'voiced' by a computer generated spokesbot. Instead, let's be sensible and try to work out how best to use this.

The company suggests it's for people who want to listen to a blog on the go or perhaps multitask - i.e. listen to a blog while they read another or write an essay or something like that.

I'm not sure - this kind of technology is used in screen readers, which are used by blind and partially sighted people when they use the web. But if you can read something, does it help to hear it spoken? After all, you can usually read faster than some American robo-presenter can speak.

That said, after messing around with it, I've found it is useful for helping me spot typos in some of the blog posts. If you've done features/writing with me, you know I ramble on about reading prose aloud in your head to get the rhythm right. Now, Odiogo doesn't help with that. But hearing it stumble through a post helps you see where you've missed out a word as you were typing.

What do you think? Can you think of any uses for it? Should I keep it on the blog or get rid of it?

Blue Jam

Here's something that's obviously not 'journalism' but may perhaps give you ideas about creative ways to work with sound. Blue Jam was a Radio 1 series created a decade ago now by the controversial (and brilliant) satirical comedian Chris Morris. The BBC described it as "an experimental, ambient radio comedy series". Others referred to it as 'uneasy listening'. Morris mixed up a series of strange and puzzling sketches with radically re-edited real life material, running the whole thing on a bed of ambient electronica.

The re-edits caused a bit of a fuss at the time, in particular the treatment of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s oration during the funeral of Princess Diana. In the version that was mixed into Blue Jam, the BBC says that 'he appeared to say inappropriate remarks about AIDS and the Royal Family'. There's more on this on the BBC site and on Wikipedia.

Blue Jam went on to be a TV show and bits of it were issued on CD by Warp Records - they describe it as part mix tape, part sketch show. On their site, you can hear a bonus sketch. (That's where the image above comes from). There's an online archive of the shows if you want to have a listen. I'm not sure whether they might sound a bit dated now or whether they still create the same sense of uneasiness. If you do give them a listen, let me know what you think.

The nun who nurtured reggae

I will stop recommending Radio 4 shows (and recycling links from Speechification) sometime soon, I promise. But before I do, have a listen to 'The Nun Who Nurtured Reggae', which tells the story of Sister Mary Ignatius Davies, who ran the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica. She encouraged wayward/troubled young boys to get into music and, as a result, encouraged and developed a whole generation of reggae musicians who went on to play with the likes of Bob Marley. Apparently, she collected records, ran her own sound system and liked to dance...

Jonathan Charles tells her story and talks about his documentary on BBC Caribbean. You can listen to the podcast via Speechification.

This American Life

I'm sure Amanda has already talked to you about This American Life. Along with its regular host, Ira Glass, TAL has become a kind of multimedia phenomenon in the States, though it started out as (and remains) an inspirational radio show.

The TAL website admits that it's hard to describe what they do. Each week they start out with a theme and then develop different stories connected to the theme. The site adds that perhaps that it's easier to say what TAL is not:

"We're not a news show or a talk show or a call-in show. We're not really formatted like other radio shows at all. Instead, we do these stories that are like movies for radio. There are people in dramatic situations. Things happen to them. There are funny moments and emotional moments and—hopefully—moments where the people in the story say interesting, surprising things about it all. It has to be surprising. It has to be fun."

Perhaps the best explanation is just to listen to an episode - for example, Return to Childhood, which looks at childhood and how you remember it. It's available online either as a streaming MP3 or as a downloadable podcast.

The site has a great archive of past shows, though they recommend that if you're new to the show, you start with the page that collects some of their favourite shows.

Have a listen - but if you like it and want to keep one of the podcasts you will have to make a donation, which seems only fair - TAL is a US public radio production, which means it survives on charitable donations.

Could you do better then?

Having produced radio drama for a number of years I am always interested in finding new talent or just hearing new stuff. The net and podcasting has caused something of an explosion in the world of am-dram (and I'm not talking agonising evenings clock watching and clapping politely in the village hall). Some stuff can actually be really good and some is just great comedy, for all the wrong reasons!

The accessibilty and price of the technology required to produce audio drama means that virtually anyone with an interest can do it.

I came across Dramapod last year which is basically a sort of directory of links to drama podcasts with ratings and comments etc and think it's content is pretty good on the whole, but I also think that most of you could produce work which is just as good or better. Have you ever fancied having a go? Your new editing skills and approach to storytelling should be an encouraging starting point?

Speechification

OK - it's a picture of Jarvis Cocker. So what's it doing here? Let me explain...

There are obviously lots of excellent things on Radio 4. But there's also a fair amount of dreary rambling too.

If you want to catch up with good stuff you may have missed/didn't even know was on, you could try Speechification, a blog about Radio 4 set up by some mildly geeky/techie blokes from the UK net scene.

Now I know this sounds like the deeply wrong outcome of some misguided effort at logical reasoning, as in:

• All geeky/techie blokes keep blogs
• All geeky/techie blokes like Radio 4
• Therefore, all geeky/techie blokes will eventually end up blogging about Radio 4

But actually, it's quite good. Also, strictly speaking, it's not a blog 'about Radio 4', they say. More a blog 'of Radio 4'. The idea is not to comment on the station but simply to link to interesting shows on it.

The good thing is that Speechification doesn't just link to the Listen Again service, which only retains shows for a week after transmission. Instead, it provides links to downloadable MP3s of shows from much longer ago. So, back in January, Jarvis Cocker did an interesting two part series on zines and alternative media. If you missed it, thanks to Speechification, you can still download and listen.

There are lots of other interesting things/links buried in the back pages - so it's worth looking round on the blog. The people behind it have also set up Watchification, which sets out to do something similar for BBC TV shows.

(By the way, the pic come from a Seattle magazine, The Stranger, via Google, but it's all over the net).

Can anyone recommend some interesting podcasts?

So, obviously, I know about your own podcasts. But I was wondering if anyone could recommend some other podcasts that are worth a click. In particular, non-mainstream media podcasts.

One of the reasons I got interested in the net and online media was because it offered an alternative to the mainstream. That's why I was drawn to blogging - because at first, at least, the kind of people who were blogging weren't traditional journalists. So you didn't get the same old perspectives and ideas.

It seems to me that, at first, the whole podcasting thing had a similar alternative feel. But in the last couple of years, all the grassroots/experimental work done by ordinary people has been swamped the work of the big broadcasters. When you go on iTunes now, the podcasts that you're most likely to be exposed to are by well known media companies. The more individual stuff just doesn't appear.

Now podcasting is clearly brilliant as a distribution tool - it lets you listen to mainstream radio on demand, when you want. And it broadens the range of radio you can listen to - for example, have a look round the podcast directory put up by National Public Radio in the States - there are loads of interesting shows available for download.

That's all great. But what about the idea that podcasting can provide a different take on radio, a more experimental approach to using audio as a tool for recording and reporting the world? Perhaps I just don't know the right places to go.

So can you recommend anywhere? Have you found particularly interesting podcasts you want to share?

All the world's a stage...

The experimental work and class exercises you've been doing have shown the real depth of talent in the room and the interest in the process and methodology of expressing ideas outside of the usual conventions of radio broadcasting - but we have been struggling a little to find a new place to play. The web and audio platforms, such as podcasting, give you a unique opportunity and an extraordinary freedom to get your toys out and throw them around without fear of regulation-junkies or limitations of target audience expectations.
The content and subject matter of the pieces played yesterday largely pointed, directly and indirectly, to issues faced by young people. The discussions, critique and q&a sessions revealed your wish to be proactive and to use the audio in a positive, discursive and educational way - but how and where?
A really good example of young people creating their own unique platform is in Canterbury where the concentrated schools, FE and HE student population have got together to form an FM radio station called City Sound. They have secured a five year professional license for 50% speech and 50% music and have been very well supported by the universities and their unions. The creation of CSR which runs a fairly traditionally styled operation has also presented an opportunity for less traditional production output to be aired - but the unique qualities of the web have allowed this to go much further. One group of students put together a sit com about a fictional university called the University of Konkerbury which has taken on a life of it's own as you will see. The sit com episodes can be heard live on CSR on Wednesdays at 9pm or downloaded via the Konkerbury site.
A little further afield is Youth Radio which is well worth a look and listen to see what other young people are talking about and trying to achieve through the audio-web arena. There are lots of examples like this which you can find on the net - let us all know what you find.
Yes Amanda, but what does this have to do with me and my experimental features class? Well, the problem is clearly not a lack of talent, production ability, ideas or motivation to make positive change - but perhaps the lack of a stage upon which to express your ideas and get some exposure.
As an author from the West Midlands once said, 'All the world's a stage' and thanks to the web that is a tangible reality - so why not take the lead from your peers in Canterbury and create your own theatre, build your own stage and direct your own production as you like it.

The 5 Live Report

I'm sure you know about the 5Live Report already - I've talked with Michelle about it during the Online Journalism classes. If you don't, it's definitely worth trying to catch it - it runs for half an hour on Sundays at 7.30 PM on 5Live.

Each show gives the documentary feature treatment to an ongoing news story - subjects covered recently include the growth of cannabis use in the UK (and the dominance of skunk) and the way some teachers now cheat to boost their pupils' results in SAT tests and GCSEs. I like the shows because they generally succeed in making subjects accessible without getting too tacky/sensationalist.

Sometimes the show turns up excellent stories that don't get much play across the rest of the media. About a year ago, I heard a great report into organised attempts to defraud the student loan system. Basically, con artists were signing up at multiple university courses and claiming loans, using stolen birth certificates. The programme focused on one guy who had signed up to around 20 courses at London colleges - often several at the same institution.

The show was a good example of the usefulness of court reporting. The starting point for research on the documentary seemed to be the sentencing of this one con man. The reporter had picked up the story from there, talked to the police then built up the report.

Anyway, it was a great programme. Unfortunately, it's not available any more on the 5Live site. However, you can still listen to some recent shows via the series site and also sign up for the weekly podcast.

Radiolab on WNYC New York Public Radio

One of the great things about the net is the way you can listen to radio from around the world, sample different approaches to radio news and documentary features. But you know all that already. So I should just cut to the case and post the link.

One interesting show that's worth a listen is Radiolab, which is produced by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich for WNYC New York Public Radio. They take a fairly open ended approach to documentary, tackling big themes - laughter, mortality, deception, memory and forgetting - in a imaginative way that shows a real feel for sound. I love the idea of doing a show about laughter - because as soon as you hear someone laughing, you're amused, engaged and kind of laughing along too.

Some bits of the shows are irritating - I'm not sure of the dialogue between the two guys works - it gets a little confusing at times. But perhaps that's a product of listening on the net. I think the way they put the shows online is really interesting. You can listen to all the shows online or download the podcast. But they also document all their sources and provide links to their websites - look at the page for the Laughter show as an example. (Incidentally, the pic above is of a laughing owl - apparently - and comes from the Radiolab site).

Avant-garde Sound Art

If you feel like broadening your horizons a little (OK a lot) then why not look around on UbuWeb. It's a huge online resource devoted to avant-garde audio-visual art. This covers everything from poets reading their work to artist films and sound art. OK - this may be a bit too out there, given that you are doing a Journalism course. And the site is a bit art theory jargon-heavy. That said, sometimes you can pick up really interesting ideas from this kind of thing.

I liked the Komar and Melamid and Dave Soldier audio art project, in which the artists (the first two) did a number of surveys on what people wanted from music and then, with the third guy (a musician) used the statistical data they got to create a Most Wanted Song and also a Most Unwanted Song. You can listen to both online. (They did the same thing to create a Most Wanted Painting - that's the pic shown above. I found it on Bob Rini's blog but it's all over the place online).

I also found a good selection of recordings of William Burroughs - the 20th Century American experimental author who worked with cut-ups (of tape and newspapers) to create novels and poems. If you've never heard him read before, it's worth a quick go.

Welcome to the unit blog

Ok - so this looks like just another blog. And, let's face it - you've probably had enough of the blogging already from me. So don't think of it as a blog. Really, it's a bold experiment that aims to push the boundaries of current thinking on teaching and learning. Or something like that.

Actually, the idea is to see if blogs can be used to support your work on the Radio Features unit. So kind of like the thing we're doing with the Red Button blog. Amanda already uses Blackboard to circulate hand outs, handbooks and important info and links. The idea isn't just to do the same thing with this, though we will be posting links to interesting material, in particular interesting radio work.

Rather, the plan here is to involve you directly and see if the blog works as a tool for discussing the work you're doing on the unit. Once I've set it up properly, you will all be guest authors on this blog. You'll be able to post on here - add your own ideas and links.

What you post is, on one level, up to you. But we'd like to encourage you to post ideas or updates about the work you're doing on the unit. Perhaps you've heard something that really inspired you and you want to see what other people think. Perhaps you've got an idea and you want to test it out on the class. You can do that on here. You can also leave comments - on the ideas people post here, on the links people highlight.

Now, clearly, it's possible to have discussions on Blackboard. But if we do it on the blog, it's easier to link out the web and connect what you talk about to other resources online.

That's the idea. It may turn out that it doesn't work that way at all. You may discover an alternative use for the blog.

But however it goes, I hope you find it useful.