Who would have thought talk radio would actually be the part of the old radio stations that stick around. If people want music they go to Spotify so that is still around but I never thought a couple of radio hosts talking to each other would be the thing that piqued people's interest. But Podcasts are a great resource for entertainment and for me I particularly like it for learning. As a writer, I gobbled up things like Writing Excuses and even do my own about writing with Specficnz.
You could do this lesson on whatever podcast you already listen to but for this lesson, we will be focusing on Stuff you should know.
Stuff you should know is a podcast about things that most people don't know a lot about. From beekeeping to how to train dogs to rescue people. The first thing you need to do is pick a topic. It could be something you know about that others don't or it could be something that you are interested in and want to learn about. Once you feel like you are an expert in a topic you are ready to write a script for your podcast. (Keep all your references as you can hand this in for research)
The Script
From experience, you want to keep a balance between enough written down so you don't get lost and little enough that it sounds like you are naturally speaking. The other alternative is to practise it a lot. If you are working in a group the byplay is part of what makes the podcast interesting. (You can use the script for a Media Studies unit so make sure you make it the best you can)
There are a lot of software out there but I find Audacity works very well if all you want is sound. If you want to have a visual aspect then try Zoom. Zoom separates the audio from the visual so you can sync up the sound with the image afterwards. You can use any video editing software but Shotcut is free to use.
Practise and do your show over and over until you get one that you are proud of.
Level 1 - 3 min of talking
Level 2 - 4-5 min of talking
Level 3 - 6 min of talking
If you are in a group you should keep in mind that everyone should have equal time on the podcast.
All the software for this lesson is free but the other things needed are a sound booth and a mic.
Basically anywhere that is smallish with soft things on the walls. For the mic the midrange ones are actually very good.
I recommend the Blue Snowball and the Samson Meteor Mic. But you are pretty much looking for a condenser mic with a USB connection. I have the Samson Meteor myself and it is very robust and has beautiful sound.
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