Week 5: Sound Lecture

This week's sound lecture touched upon many aspects of radio and media.

Richard Fidler really impressed me when he said that he thought that the most important thing was the he was fully interested in what he and his guest were talking about, which I really liked :) It's great to hear from someone who is passionate about his work.

Another thing I appreciated that he said was that he likes to let the people talk and enable them to feel comfortable enough to keep going by not interrupting too much. I think more radio presenters could learn from him in this regard.

A few key points from both interviews I got were:
- If you work with media, it helps to be versatile
- Good TV does not translate to good radio
- TV is a high impact media
- The key to a good interview is to create a safe and comfortable environment for your guest
- Different styles of interviewing work with different guests - e.g. a TV presenter may need to be more normal so crack a few jokes, or if you want someone to talk freely don't fire questions at them
- Show your guest respect by listening to them
- Silence in radio is very powerful, it is both truthful and revealing
- Keep asking questions + reading the paper
- Think about what the audience wants/needs not what you want to talk about
- Radio is the 'theatre of the mind'
- Be human and go for the human experience
- Don't ask what they ask you not to ask
- Don't give up even if you're not naturally talented

Steve Austin was also a very interesting person. I liked most what he said about not giving up on something just because you're not naturally talented at it. Since I am also a person who is not naturally talented at many things but is willing to work at them, I was relieved to hear someone who has succeeded due to hard work and not due to natural abilities.

I really enjoyed the sound lecture. It was a great example of how you can get a look into someone's life without even seeing them. Everything they both said about getting to know the person despite only hearing them talk really hit home because after I finished listening to the two interviews I felt like I had been in the conversation as well, it was very well done. It has also given me ideas about our upcoming factual storytelling exercise assignment. Perhaps I should follow the wise words of my tutor (Ms. Carmel Rooney), who said that we should use this assignment to broaden our experience with different forms of media, and give a sound piece a go? It's a medium that I would like to become more experienced with and this would be a good opportunity to try.

It's definitely something for me to ponder. We shall see...