The Ins, Outs, Goods and Bads of Audio Storytelling

Ira Glass’ Series

                First and foremost, I learned to erase my mind of everything I learned in high school about the way storytelling works. And in Glass’ words, that is exactly what they taught me; create a topic sentence and follow with supporting facts. WRONG. As I learned today, Glass presented me with two major building blocks which will indefinitely create a story. The first building block is an anecdote. This is where a sequence of events compiles together making a story what it is intended to be. One event will lead to another, which will lead to another, so on and so forth until the final event happens and the story is completed. The second building block was simply a reflective point. This is where the bigger picture of everything is told. [Raising] Questions will be asked throughout the story, which keep people reading or listening, with answers appearing at times throughout it. The reader or listener will finally realize (if not already) why they even watched or listened to the story in the first place. A good note to keep in mind is to keep the anecdote as least predictable as possible; you want to keep the attention of all viewers as well as keeping the story interesting and not ruining it.

Common errors that are typically made are that people try and talk and act like others they see on TV or hear on the radio. Act like yourself and talk like you regularly would on a daily basis. Trying to go the extra mile to be like someone else will get you nowhere. Having a good personality is a must. Do not talk about yourself ALL the time; be involved in conversations with everyone else. Talk a little about yourself and what is going on with you, and then switch up the conversation to another person. The point is to gain knowledge of everyone, everything and what is going on in the world if possible. People do not want to hear “me, me, me”.

Jad Abumrad: Radio Creates Empathy

                                The absence of pictures enables imagination. The listener and the host of the show always build a relationship, good or bad, it is still a relationship. Jad Abumrad made a point that radio shows create co-authorship. That being said, the listener(s) and the host must work together to combine thoughts, ideas and feelings to fill a gap where pictures should be, but aren’t present until formed by the group. Anytime I have listened to the radio before now, I knew I connected with what they were talking about, especially early morning shows on 98.7 and 93.3, but now I know that having a connections with listeners is one of their ultimate goals. Having that connection creates a greater listener base, which creates profit and revenue (if you want to look at it in the money aspect)