After watching both Ira Glass’ On Storytelling and Jad Abumrad on How Radio Creates Empathy, I actually learned a lot.  I’ve never been a big fan of radio before.  I’ve always listened to music in my car, but I have listened to NPR every now and then.  I’ve never really taken too much consideration into the art of radio though.  That is definitely one of the most important things that I can take away from watching these series of clips.

I liked how Ira Glass, in year eight, was still, as he put it, “underlying” words and putting extra emphasis on words that didn’t need to be emphasized.  His biggest tip was to just talk normal.  I’ve been video taping stuff a lot and people never really like the sound of their own voice so they tend to alter it or try to change it on camera.  That actually makes it worse in my opinion.

Jad Abumrad had a really good thought in that radio is co-authored.  The best way that he explained it was that he is painting a picture, but the audience is the one that has the paintbrush.  When someone tells you something, you are making your own interpretation of what they are saying.  I found that to be extremely helpful.  Providing a lot of detail is going to be great, but every person is going to think something different.  In the movies, everyone sees the same exact picture.  Everyone hears the same exact sounds.  You may feel something different based on what you saw, but the difference between the movies and the radio is that, in the radio, every single person that listens experiences something new.

I would have to say that those are the most important points that will stick with me through the ‘radio show’ that we have to do.  Detail is definitely important, but just be yourself.  Talk like you normally would.  Don’t put too much into something and let the beauty of the words take care of the rest.  Always keep bringing up questions and always keep answering questions.  I believe that was in the beginning of the Ira Glass interview.