It´s implicit in a journalist job to try to prove themselves through a good story piece. Reporting, audio, videos and photograph experience has played an important role in journalism students who are seeking for internships at big news organizations. “One in 8 Million” is a series by the New York Times that combines all segments of what it means to be considered a full journalist in today´s world. The series provides audios and photographs of people telling their stories, and a brief paragraph explaining why the reader should care about them. Most of the time, we can even relate to them.
“Elizabeth Cousins: The Teenage Mother” tells the story of a 16-year-old woman who lives with her daughter in Brooklyn. Through pictures, the reader travels in the young mother´s journey of raising a 19-month-old child almost alone. We can see Cousins´ face in the beginning of the slideshow, and then pictures of her in action, walking and taking care of her daughter. Towards the end, the photographer gives us an insite of her background, by showing a picture of her family. Black and white pictures give a serious environment for the story. I can say that I felt compassion with them. My cousin is 19 and she just gave birth to a boy. Fortunately, her parents and my entire family is very supportive but listening to Counsins´ fears of telling her parents about the pregnancy made me very emotional. On the other hand, “Maggie Nesciur: The Walker” makes the reader to have a walk with a woman who is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nesciur walks every day because she is afraid that one day she will not be able to do it anymore. However, we can´t know all that by just listening to her audio. It´s not explicit. What the series did, instead, was to provide a small explanatory paragraph, in which Nesciur story can be better understandable. Although I liked the audio piece by itself, I could never imagine that the character is afraid of losing what she likes most due to health complications. Sometimes a small introduction can be the key to the reader understand “what´s going on” in an audio and video story. “Jesse Popp: The Struggling Stand-Up” express the difficulties of a stand-up comedian in his daily basis. The natural sound of people laughing in the background while Popp tell his jokes show how the reporter followed him in his work, to capture a part of his routine. The audio piece capture motion and emotion as the main character gets to make people laugh while working. It is also a little shocking to see that even comedians can struggle to find their jokes. I could not imagine how hard their job could be. What I liked most about this piece was the way Popp laughed at himself when telling the time when someone came and told him that he didn´t like his jokes. He was surprised by the commentary and learned that not everybody was going to like his work at the same level. A good audio piece should include five things: character, emotion, motion, shock and awe. “One in 8 Million” series provide then all. Moreover, tension and intimacy are included in some of the series pieces, which makes it way more compact and interesting for the listener. As a journalism student, I know that I should follow great audio stories in order to succeed, and listening to good podcasts can be a start, for sure.
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AuthorGiovanna Kubota is a 22-year-old Brazilian pursuing a master's degree in Communication at the University of Central Florida. |