The End of the Dial

We Continue to Tweak, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (The Unit) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:16:00 +0000

By contrast, "Halloween Without Candy 2.0" intends to provide complementary but not overlapping information in the video and audio tracks.

We look forward to hearing what you think of this ongoing experiment.

We Continue to Tweak, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (The Unit) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:18:00 +0000

We've heard various critiques of our attempt to bring about an evolution in sound reporting on the web. Instead of giving up, we've incorporated suggestions (a different color background besides black, less information in the titles). Here are the two previous pieces, reproduced with titles, each slightly different in approach.

"A Good Bag," (formerly titled "Cornhole!") offers a deliberate redundancy between the visual text and the aural elements of the piece. (Continue to next post.)

A Belated Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (The Unit) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:31:00 +0000

to The End of the Dial, home of new work produced by the audio reporting workshop in NYU's journalism department. It's a place where we're working out solutions to problems that arise when you post audio journalism on the internet. For example:

1. How do we meet the internet's demand for visuals in a way that is true to our medium? We resist the addition of photos or video, since the beauty of working in sound is it requires the listener to supply the pictures. If we wanted to do our audiences' seeing for them, we'd have become filmmakers.

2. Can we take advantage of the internet to compensate for radio's main weakness, which is that it is a terrible medium for communicating information? We've tried to offload some overly specific information onto the screen, freeing the reporter's storytelling from encumbrances. Our first attempt may have overloaded the part of the brain that processes words. We've posted two other sound-only files until we work out the kinks.

3. Some people want to simply download audio and listen while driving. Even if they are streaming over their computer, they may want to do other tasks that don't require them to look at a screen. Our goal is to create work that is self-sufficient as audio but offers added value when viewed. Is this possible?

4. How do we create the expectation in the end user that this is not going to be a movie? How do we communicate up front that nothing has gone wrong, for example, that only the titles had been rendered but the video track had been erased?

We invite you to listen and give us feedback.

Cornhole!

noreply@blogger.com (The Unit) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:48:00 +0000

by Leigh Kamping-Carder

NORMAN AVENUE, BROOKLYN--
Neighbors at play during a warm autumn night.

Listen.

Halloween Without Candy

noreply@blogger.com (The Unit) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:09:00 +0000

Dateline: Tompkins Scare Park
Katie Rolnick, reporter
Vincent Rossmeier, producer

What do healthy eating, TV celebrity Dr. Oz, 80s hip hop artist Melle Mel, and zombies have in common? We may never know.

Listen.

A Basement in Queens

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:08:00 +0000

World-class athletes training in humble surroundings,
by Anne Noyes

Download.