For years, Soundslides has set the standard for audio slide shows, but it’s certainly not the only option. Andrew Lih, who teaches at USC, says he’s been using Final Cut Pro (FCP) to teach student journalists the same principles. He…
Tag: Audio
College radio in an Internet world
Is your campus radio station threatened? A couple of high-profile cases lately have spotlighted what some college radio supporters call a trend of universities selling their FM licenses and moving their campus stations online. The most recent case involves Duquesne,…
Natural sounding storytelling
It’s one of the trickiest things about delivering a broadcast story: You have to practice sounding natural. Media consultant Joanne Stevens says on the RTDNA website that the trick is to think about “cognitive chunks.” According to Stevens, you should…
Going live via phone
With all the new demands on TV reporters these days, who would have thought that going live over the phone would be a challenge? Turns out that it is, at least for Marissa Pendergrass, a reporter at WHBF in Rock…
How to breathe more quietly
When you record narration for a multimedia story, do you sometimes hear yourself gasping between phrases or sentences? Those audible intakes of air can be a distraction for the audience and can also make you sound nervous, undercutting your credibility.…
Radio news writing tips
Keep your multimedia voice healthy
What’s the most harmful thing you can do to your voice? That’s an easy one: Smoke. When I first started working at CBS News, I sat across from Dallas Townsend, the longtime radio anchor of the morning World News Roundup.…
Broadcast narration for new platforms
By Dave Cupp & Ann Utterback Much has been written about the new and varied media platforms journalists are now asked to master, but one area that has not been explored is what delivery style works best on these new…
Breathing for broadcast
All the effort you put into writing and shooting a story may be wasted if your narration doesn’t measure up. Voice coach Ann Utterback says how you sound can make viewers decide to click away or stay tuned for the…
Articulation matters
Delivering the news in a conversational way should not mean sounding sloppy on the air. Articulation makes the difference. If you suffer from “lazy mouth,” you may be hard to understand. Worse yet, you may lose credibility when poor articulation…