On November 8th of 2016 voters all around the nation come out and fill their ballots, including seventeen different propositions. In an effort to inform the public on what these propositions mean and who they affect, we created a series of podcast regarding a few in California. Myself and my group of three other students narrowed down our search to Proposition 64, which requires background checks to ammunition purchases in an effort to decrease gun violence.
In order to create our final podcast, we went through several drafts of audio, each different than the other. Our first draft was simply our narration and a few montages. As a group we would listen to the draft together and take notes on what needed to be included, where, or taken out. After making these adjustments we created a new draft, and the process was repeated till the point in which we no longer were making drastic changes, rather "polishing" our last drafts.
This process was what worked best for my group, it forced us to discuss every change made to the podcast and let members make contributions. Nonetheless, this process created a few obstacles. The editing of the entire podcast could not be done at school, rather for the most part by me at home because we did not have access to GarageBand on the school computers. GarageBand in comparison to Audacity is much simpler to use and I was already familiar with editing audio using this application.
The "polishing" of the final drafts of our podcast are the most memorable moments because that is when our group realized we were on a good track to finalizing. "We should put music there" or "Could you fade out the interview more there?" were relieving things to hear from my group. |
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On November 7th, 2016, groups proudly launched their podcasts at the OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista to a crowd of teachers, parents, other students, and visitors. When we first walked in to the site, a few of the early students got to take a look around. We awed at the carefully decorated stage and peeked in the studio that overlooked the crowd, controlled the speakers, and managed lighting. The Q&A of our podcast went by smoothly, but if I had one suggestion for other groups doing an exhibition like ours it would be to run through all the questions with all your group members before exhibition. Doing this makes sure your group is prepared to answer the questions, you can decide who will answer which questions if they are asked, and reassure you all agree on certain aspects of how the podcast was created. Creating a great podcast with my group was a terrific experience that I will not forget. I have learned what it means to have an even division of labor and why it is important to always hear out and take advice from your group. |
If you are interested in learning more about the creation of our podcast...