For the assignment 3&4, I got two excellent teammates doing this project together which we are proud of. Although we have encountered many difficulties, especially working during the quarantine, through our persistent efforts and enthusiasm for this assignment, we overcome all the problems and finally completed it well.

When doing the presentation pitch for assignment 3, I wasted a lot of time to preparing it because I was on the way of going back to China. Due to network and regional restrictions, it was hard for me to contact my teammates, I even can’t do the online class normally. I was anxious and desperate about this situation at that time. Fortunately, the teacher and my team members showed their understanding and encouragement, helped me regain my confidence, and I also found a solution to the network restriction problem later, I am quite grateful to them. Although our pitch was not selected as the final one in the end, we are also full of enthusiasm for the work coming next.

This is my first time doing a podcast series, it was a fresh experience to me. When Kyla talked about ‘radio’, she said that she’s not referring to shock jocks and playlists, intercom and chatting, or even driving or having breakfast, but the creativity and sound-rich of a greater field of audio content referred to as ‘documentaries and features’(Brettle, 2016) . We were assigned ‘Hope’ as the theme of our episode, we were confused at first, this is a broad topic which hard to describe. After sharing the ideas on class, I got some suggestions from the classmates and teacher which inspired me. I wanted to make it real and creative, so I decided to tell the story which really happened on myself.

In the division of assignments, I suggested that I could do the final audio summation and editing, I have learnt also while doing the editing. As Peralta says in Natasha’s article, my work is to make sure the words are clear and strong, the music and sound effects won’t distract from what is being said, this is a subtle process. Learn to balance all the audios make them fit together naturally is important for a podcast(Johnson, 2018). Expect combining the audio of everyone, I need to add the real intro, outro and sound effects of the entire podcast which is ‘The yearly check-up’. Music creates textures or moods, it can be emotional, or help to emphasize a story through a particularly part or add structure which signally the end of something and start of something else. Choosing an appropriate music or effect enhance the story and deepen the listening experience without being obvious. (Johnson, 2018).

After finishing the episode making, we uploaded it on Anchor, this is a step to spread and share our story, and it’s also the meaning of doing a podcast. For understanding the podcast phenomenon, we argue that it must be considered from a cross-media perspective where various social media technologies are integrated, through this combination, the affordances of the podcast and audio broadcasting more generally are expanded (Linares, Fox, Berry 2018).

Reference

Brettle, K 2020, ‘Radio is Dead: Long live radio documentaries and features’, The Wheeler Centre, blog post, viewed on 19 October 2020, <https://www.wheelercentre.com/notes/radio-is-dead-long-live-radio-documentaries-and-features>.

Johnson N, 2018, ‘Backstory: The (subtle) art of podcast sound design and why it matters’, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/about/backstory/radio/2018-11-13/the-art-of-podcast-sound-design/10481114>viewed 19 October 2020.

Llinares, D., Fox, N., & Berry, R. (Eds.), 2018, ‘Podcasting: New Aural Cultures and Digital Media’ viewed on 19 October 2020.