Participating in NPR’s Next Generation Radio program at CapRadio was an experience I’m grateful for, especially as my first experience with audio journalism. When applying for the project, I didn’t expect to make it through to the final cohort. I have not delved into audio journalism, as most of my work in audio has been one-and-done projects for my classes. This was my first try at creating a high-quality audio story.
After all of this, I’m so glad to have had this opportunity.
The mentors taught me so much about the world of journalism that I hadn’t quite known before, expanding my knowledge in areas like solutions journalism and best-practice techniques when it comes to audio editing software.
The looming Friday deadline was intimidating, but having amazing editors, artists and audio engineers made the experience smooth and educational.
I have to say thank you to my mentor, Laura Tsutsui, who was so supportive and helpful in teaching me and helping bring my story to life. She didn’t hesitate to check in on my work, and she offered amazing advice on how to develop my own skills. Plus, having another Fresnan on this project made it comfortable and I have to say she made this a super fun experience.
After this project, I want to incorporate more audio-based media like audiograms into my reporting, or even use these skills to improve the sound quality of my videos.
This week, I’ve realized that journalism can be much more than simply hard news: issues can be addressed, but we are also capable of telling the stories of the people facing these issues head-on and how we are always working towards solutions.
I’m going to continue to develop the skills that I gained through this project, and I know that everything I’ve learned is going to serve me well in my future journalism career.
