Radio Journalism Toolkit
CONTENTS:
1. Exercises
2. Example of common audio problems
3. Radio packages
4. Internet links
1. Exercises
To work on these exercises, download the chosen audio exercise file [on the right-hand side] and open it with the sound editing software of your choice.
Lorraine Mkabela interviews Donna Smith from ‘The rose has thorns anti-hate crime campaign’. (2002)
Lorraine Mkabela interviews an unnamed woman participating in a demonstration against the Iraq war. (2002)
Franz Krüger interviews Malcolm Midgeley, spokesperson of Johannesburg emergency services, on train surfing and other railway hazards. (2006)
2. Examples of common audio problems
Cable sound 1
Hissing sound 2
Cable sound 2
Humming sound
Crackling sound
Loud voice recording
Crosstalk sound
Muffled voice recording
Echo sound
Popping voice recording
Fluctuating sound
Scratchy voice recording
Fuzzy sound
Soft voice recording
Hissing sound 1
Static voice recording
3. Radio packages [examples of great radio reports]
TRC Cantata, by Angie Kapelianis:
Can the recorded testimonies of victims and perpetrators from the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission be used in art? This is the question confronting composer Phillip Miller, who’s writing the score for a TRC Cantata. Miller recently presented extracts of his envisaged Cantata at the Spier wine estate outside Stellenbosch.
(Broadcast SAfm, April 2006)
The exploitation of Northern Cape mineworkers, by Mercedes Besent:
The National Union of Mineworkers in the Northern Cape has raised concerns about the treatment of miner at small and big companies in the province.
(Broadcast SAfm, August/September 2004. This report earned honours in the radio feature category in the 2005 Vodacom Journalism awards).
Madiba is coming, by Franz Krüger:
A tale of wonder from the people in a South African village getting their first glimpse of Nelson Mandela.
(Broadcast on Dispatches, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, March 21 2001)
4. Links
BBC training and development offers free online courses, the BBC’s styleguide for broadcast writing and much more:
www.bbc.co.uk/academy
The International Women’s Media Fellowship has an online radio training course at
www.iwmf.org
Itrainonline offers several online courses that are relevant to radio journalists:
www.itrainonline.org/itrainonline/english/multimedia
A guide to writing for radio is at
www.newscript.com
Listen to feature packages from the CBC’s Dispatches programme, at
www.cbc.ca/dispatches