COJO 3530: Online Journalism
Audio Profile (125 points)
Raw Audio File (25 pts) Due Date: Mon. 10/17 by 11:59 p.m. Mountain time
Edited Final Audio Profile (100 pts) Due Date: Fri. 10/21 by 11:59 p.m. Mountain time
Overview
For this assignment, you will (1) conduct a 5-minute interview of ONE fellow student for a short audio profile, (2) post your raw audio file to your blog using SoundCloud, (3) edit your 5-minute audio down to 2 minutes, and (4) post your edited profile on your blog using SoundCloud.
Background
· In your career, you may need to conduct an audio interview and edit it for a radio or online audience. Learning how to conduct an audio interview and how to edit audio is an important process.
· Gathering audio is a difficult task. There are a lot of issues to consider both before and during your interview, such as the location of the interview, the background noise during the interview, and the interviewee’s answers to the questions.
· Before conducting your interview, refresh your memory on the important tips at the class blog posts on “Audio Storytelling” and “Gathering Audio.”
· For an example of a short audio profile, consider The New York Times’ One in 8 Million series (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html). Those are the types of profiles we are doing.
· Also, listen to a student example of a raw interview and then the edited interview.
Blog Post 6: Raw Audio File (25 pts)
Due Date: Mon. 10/17 by 11:59 p.m. Mountain time
Instructions: 5-Minute Interview
· Ensure your audio recorder is set to record in the “WAV” format (if possible).
· You need to interview ONE (and only ONE) fellow student in our class for 5 minutes.
· You will lose points if your interview is more than 30 seconds OVER or UNDER 5 minutes.
· IMPORTANT: You need a clear complete self-ID from the subject. For example, you need to ask them to say their name and a description relevant to the story or their life: “My name is Kristen Landreville, and I’m a new media professor at the University of Wyoming.” If the story is about them volunteering, they can say, “My name is Kristen Landreville, and I’m a volunteer for United Way.”
· The subject (your interviewee fellow student) can choose to discuss one the suggested topics below, or they can discuss something completely different and of their choosing.
· Encourage your interviewee to discuss something that they are passionate about and can discuss for a few minutes.
· You both do not have to discuss the same topic.
· As an interviewer, you need to develop more questions, but here are some ideas for you to consider
o What has been your favorite vacation in your life?
o Why did you decide to become a journalism/communication major and how do you plan on using your journalism/communication major? What are your plans for after college graduation?
o What has been your greatest achievement in your life? Describe why it has been a huge achievement.
o What extracurricular activities are you involved in and/or interested in? Volunteering? Greek life? Sports? Music? Politics? Describe what you do for this group.
· These topics are fairly narrow because the interview only needs to be 5 minutes.
· As the interviewer, you probably only need a few prepared questions (around 3-5 or so) because 5 minutes goes by very quickly!
· If your subject needs to provide more detail to a question, don’t be afraid to ask for more detail. If your subject is going into too much detail, then you need to ask politely for them to move on to the next question.
· You are NOT required to collect ambient noise for this assignment. But, you may collect ambient noise and use it if you want to. (See instructions below for adding ambient noise to your interview).
· I suggest leaving a second or more pause between when your subject stops talking and you begin asking the next question. You need to leave some dead space, which will help during editing.
· And avoid those little comments like “yeah” and “uh-huh”. As the interviewer, you want to keep quiet when the subject is talking!
· Finally, don’t fidget! Don’t move your hands on the recorder, don’t sniffle and cough (if you can help it), don’t move your body in a way that makes noise.
Instructions: Posting Raw Audio File
· Log into SoundCloud and upload your 5-minute raw interview (no editing).
· Embed the raw file into your blog post.
Instructions: Writing Your Blog Post
Please answer the following questions in your blog post, which should be 300-800 words.
1. Describe your interviewing experience. How did it feel to interview someone using an audio recorder? ALSO, how did it feel to be the interviewee and be interviewed by someone using an audio recorder?
2. What did you enjoy and not enjoy?
3. Do you wish you could have done anything different? Or do you wish something went more smoothly?
Grading Rubric for Blog Post 6 – Raw Audio Profile
Grade / CharacteristicsA / Audio is within 30 seconds of 5 minutes (4:30 to 5:30). Content includes a clear complete self-ID. Sound quality is excellent. Content is interesting. No distracting background noise. File is MP3. Post is between 300-800 words. Follows all requirements. Answers all of the required questions for the post. No spelling and grammar errors.
B / Audio is within 31-45 seconds of 5 minutes (4:15-5:45). Content includes a complete self-ID. Sound quality is good. Content is mostly interesting. Some distracting background noise. File is MP3. Post is between 300-800 words. Follows most of the requirements. Answers most of the required questions for the post. One to three spelling and grammar errors.
C / Audio is within 46-60 seconds of 5 minutes (4:00-6:00). Self-ID is not clear or complete. Sound quality is OK. Content is not very interesting. Distracting background noise. File is not MP3. Post is not between 300-800 words. Follows few of the requirements. Answers few of the required questions for the post. More than four spelling and grammar errors.
D / Audio is more than 1 minute beyond or too short of the correct length (< 4 minutes or > 6 minutes. Self-ID is not clear or complete. Sound quality is poor. Content is not interesting. Distracting background noise. File is not MP3. Post is not between 300-800 words. Follows few of the requirements. Answers few of the required questions for the post. More than seven spelling and grammar errors.
F / Incomplete work that is missing nearly all of the required information. More than ten spelling and grammar errors.
Blog Post 7: Edited Final Audio Profile (100 pts)
Due Date: Fri. 10/21 by 11:59 p.m. Mountain time
Instructions: Audio Editing
· You are required to edit your interview down to 2 minutes.
· Your voice should not be heard in the 2 minute profile. The only voice that should appear is your interviewee’s voice.
· I suggest importing your interview into Audacity, saving it as a project, and then adding a new track below your raw interview. This way, you can build your 2-minute interview onto a new track by copying and pasting from the original.
· You can mute tracks that you don’t want to hear when you click the play button by dragging the little icon toward (-) mute.
· Of course, when you are finished building your new/edited track, you need to delete that original track by clicking the “X” in the upper-left corner.
· Editing audio in Audacity uses the same Delete, Copy, Cut, and Paste functions as Microsoft Word.
· One great suggestion is to Zoom-in so you can edit more effectively. To Zoom-in, go to View à Zoom In. Or, you can hold down “Control” and “1” at the same time on your keyboard. Or, you can use the “magnifying glass” icon in the tools icon area.
Deleting Audio
· To delete something, first you will click, hold, and drag to select the section. Find the selection tool in the upper left corner of Audacity.
· Now find the spot you want to delete. Click and drag the selection tool to where you want to stop. A shadow will appear on the selection you just highlighted. Note that a “hand” icon may appear instead of a line now.
· Then press the Delete key on your keyboard. (Note: The player must be stopped, not paused, or else this will not work.)
· If you make a mistake, hold Ctrl (Control button on Windows) or Cmd (Command button on Mac) and press “z”.
Moving Audio
· To move a section from one place to another, first select it (as shown above), but hold Ctrl (Win) or Cmd (Mac) and press x (for cut).
· Move the cursor to where you want to add the cut section, and click once:
· Then hold Ctrl (Win) or Cmd (Mac) and press v (for paste):
Advanced Audio Editing (optional, not required)
· If you’re feeling audio-savvy and want to play around with different audio effects, then I recommend you try these effects. Go to Effect à and you can try these options:
o Amplify
o Fade In
o Fade Out
· If you want to increase or decrease the sound of a specific part of your audio track, you can highlight that part, then go to Effect à Amplify. You can increase or decrease the number as you see fit. If you increase or decrease the sound by a lot, then you should consider amplifying the surrounding sound as well, but by less. Thus, think of the process as a step. The audio is level, then you amplify a little for the first step, and then you amplify even more to your second step and the peak, then you amplify down after the peak.
· To work with Fade In and Fade Out, you select the audio you’d like to fade in or fade out. Then, go to Effect à Fade In or Effect à Fade Out.
· This may be helpful for the beginning and ending of your audio profile.
· If you want to add silence to your track, you can go to Generate à Silence.
Adding Ambient Noise (optional, not required)
· If you collected relevant and appropriate ambient noise for your audio profile, then consider adding it to your story.
· To add ambient noise, go to File à Import à Audio
· Select your audio file of the ambient noise you want to add.
· It will add the file below the current track (i.e., it will add it below your interview track).
· Now, go to the beginning of your interview file and select play.
· It will play your ambient noise in the background now!
· You can cut and paste where exactly you want the ambient noise to appear during your story.
· To lower the volume of your ambient noise, so it is softer than the interview. Go to your ambient noise track and move the cursor from the center of the [–] and [+] to more toward the [–] side. To increase the ambient noise, go more toward the [+] side.
Instructions: Converting Stereo to Mono When You’re Done Editing
· If you have more than one track in Audacity, you need to convert a stereo file (two tracks) to a mono file. For example, if your file opened with two tracks in Audacity, then you need to do this step. Or, if you added ambient noise to your story, then you’ll need to do this step. This reduces the file size by 50 percent or more.
· Click the track name to open the menu (here it is “counting_or”; yours will be different).
· Once the dialog box is open, select “Split Stereo to Mono”. Do this for all of your tracks that are stereo (two tracks).
· Finally, go to Tracks à Mix and Render
· Now, you should have just one track. Play this track. Everything is still there, but it’s in one track now.
Instructions: Exporting as an MP3
· You want to submit your work as an MP3 on your blog because it takes up a lot less space and downloads faster than a WAV file.
· To do this, you need to download the LAME encoder file on your home computer (I’m doubtful that our lab computers in A&S 228 will allow you to download this file). Follow these instructions to do so: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3
· It is very important that you know exactly where you saved the lame_enc.dll or LameLib file. Reason: The very first time you try to export an MP3 file from Audacity, it will ask you: Where is the LAME encoder file? You must show Audacity where the file is. You will do this only once.
· Once you’ve downloaded the LAME encoder file, you can go to Export à Change the “Save as Type” to MP3.
· Now you should have an MP3 file of your work! Upload this file to SoundCloud.
Instructions: Uploading to SoundCloud and Your Blog
· Log into SoundCloud and upload your MP3 file.
· Now embed this file into a new blog post.
Instructions: Writing Your Blog Post
Please answer the following questions on your blog post
1. Describe your audio editing experience.
2. What did you enjoy and not enjoy?
3. Did anything surprise you?
4. Do you wish you could have done anything different? Or do you wish something went more smoothly?
Remember that this blog post:
· Is between 300 and 800 words
· Links to any websites that are mentioned or any places that are appropriate
Grading Rubric for Blog Post 7 – Edited Audio Profile