CNN Student News Video Podcast, September 20, 2016

Podcast Link: CNN Student News, September 20, 2016. (Note: This podcast is produced the day before it airs so that teachers can retrieve it and use it in their lesson plans. Thus, even though it is dated September 20, 2016, I found it on September 19.)
Why I Chose It: I’m unfamiliar with podcasts, so I figured I couldn’t go too wrong with one geared toward middle and high school students. This one was a video podcast.
What I Liked About It:
1. I liked the fact that it explained unfamiliar concepts briefly but well. For example, the broadcaster stated the term terrorist cell, and then gave a brief definition (a small group of terrorists) so that his viewers would know what it is. This helps students especially, who may be unfamiliar with concepts and nomenclature we as adults take for granted.
2. I also like the fact that it took breaks from the narrative by filming (with audio) some nice B-roll elements that supported the story. For example, at one point we hear an off-camera officer shout “Fire in the hole!” three times, each time the scenery panning to a different place on a near-empty bomb range. The final shot (with audio) is of a van exploding in slow motion, a brief shot of music, the approach of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agents to the exploded van, and an interview with one of those agents.
Interview Segments and Voiceovers: I’m still new to the terminology of podcasts and a Google search was not as revealing as I would have preferred, so I’m going to guess at what what these terms mean.
1. This podcast had interviews with ATF Trainer Agent Will Creech and ATF Public Information Officer Michael Knight in a segment explaining what ATF agents do in processing a bomb scene; during their interviews, they were sometimes in the shot while at others B-roll footage was creating the visual.
2. This segment then flashed to the next stage of bomb-scene processing, lab analysis, and the podcast played an interview with forensic scientist Natasha Neel while lab B-roll footage played intermittently.
3. Then it flashed back to the ATF guys before returning to the broadcaster.

NYT Infographics

I chose the NYT How They Got Their Guns article as my infographic. It covers a range of different shootings, including the Orland Pulse nightclub shooting and the San Bernardino shooting, to juxtapose how the different mass shooters obtained their weapons. I like that it explored the overarching fact that most of the guns were obtained legally. I think it was also helpful to have the visual infographic because I think a story that compared the different shootings strictly by text could get somewhat convoluted by the many different details like victim counts, assault rifles vs. glocks, etc. But the clean layout and visuals made it much easier to absorb the information and naturally compare them.

NPR Politics: Monday Mail (Early Edition)

I chose to listen to the NPR Politics Podcast, mostly because it is a podcast that I listen to regularly and very much enjoy. I think they have a good mix of humor and knowledge that help to make the topics they discuss interesting without veering into John Oliver (though I love him) and Stephen Colbert territory. For this post specifically, I chose the Monday Mail episode from September 5. I picked this because it was one that I knew talked about some interesting topics — Trump on Birtherism, Hillary Clinton and building a resume because of her gender, John Oliver (this is a theme) and the really, really fascinating Ohio Senate race (seriously, if you’re into politics, read up on it), among other things. I feel like it gives a good feel of what the show is about and what kind of content they like to showcase for people who may not be familiar with it. Other than content, there are a few other things that I really like about this podcast (and all NPR podcasts that I’ve come across, really). Quality. Everything is quality, from the musical intro to the sound throughout the podcast to the questions selected to be put on air. They just produce great content.

Segments: An early edition of Monday Mail

Voice Overs: Campaign Reporter/Host Sam Sanders, Congressional Correspondent Susan Davis, Political Editor Domenico Montanaro, and recordings from listeners.

Photo Gallery: Washington Post on the Water Crisis

The Washington Post published the photographs of Mustafah Abdulaziz, a Berlin-based American photographer who had dedicated the last five years to photographing the global water crisis. These photos are beautiful and powerful. They tell the story of the water crisis not just in one area, but in many areas all around the world and of how people living in those different areas are experiencing it. I found two of the photographs particularly poignant — the photo of the children journeying to water and the photograph of the Nigerian water pump, surrounded by visitors. I think these two photos stood out to me because they did more than simply show me a dam that had gone dry or a boat. These photos put faces, emotions, and struggle to the event. They made me feel something, as did the photo of the empty Ganges riverbed. We can hear about a water crisis, we can hear how bad it is… but, sometimes, it helps to see it for us to really understand. These images did that for me. That said, I think the gallery would benefit from better captioning. The images are powerful alone, but I’d like to know more about each photo. Where are the children journeying to in order to get water? How long have they been traveling? What did Mariam Terkuma experience that made her a good choice for a photograph in this collection? What are the people doing in the photo captioned ‘Bewatoo, Tharparkar, Pakistan’? Better captioning would give this gallery more impact.

Infographic: “2016 Election Forecast: Who Will Be President?”

The New York Times’ “2016 Election Forecast: Who Will Be President?” infographic is very interesting because it has so many different elements and ways of looking at the election. It does a good job of presenting it from all sides — it shows the general election forecast, state by state forecasts, compares its forecast to forecasts made by other news outlets and predictors, shows what outcomes are most likely going to occur with electoral votes, and even allows users to toggle between candidates for swing states to see what other possible outcomes could occur given different situations. I found this aspect of the graphic particularly useful and cool because it really shows which swing states are the most vital for both candidates.

In terms of Tufte’s principles:

Right away, I know that this infographic does a good job of showing comparisons. It’s comparing potential outcomes, it’s comparing its own data against data from other sources, it’s showing the many different ways each candidate could be affected by swing states. It also compares likely electoral votes for both candidates. Tufte’s second principle of analytical design — Causality, Mechanism, Structure, Explanation — also applies to this infographic. We are able to see what voting in which states would cause a candidate to win, and it provides explanations as to why. This graphic also uses multivariate analysis, in all of the ways that I’ve already mentioned. It does a good job of integrating evidence through diagrams and graphs. It is well documented, giving a title, contributors and explaining the data. And, of course, I believe this graph has excellent quality content.

2016 Election Forecast

There are a number of infographics on this webpage from fivethirtyeight.com, and they all work together to give a picture of the political landscape at this time. I’ll restrict my comments to the map at the top. I chose it because I’m a political junkie and this is an updated projection. The infographic uses comparison between candidates in terms of likely electoral votes. Color gradations are used to show likelihood of winning for the candidate currently favored in that particular state. Tufte’s principle of comparisons is exemplified here. This map shows a series of comparisons between the candidates, making clear that one is being compared to the other in terms of her or his likelihood to win each state. Likelihoods are presented in percentages for each candidate for each state, found by hovering over that particular state. Of course, a projected grand total of electoral votes and chance of winning is also given, clearly conveyed at the top.

I just learned something from reading Katie’s post, which was made while I was composing mine – looking at multiple inforgraphics on the page as example of Tufte’s principle of integration. That makes sense. Thanks, Katie!

2016 Election Forecast Infographic

I am in a public opinions class based around the 2016 election with Barry Hollander, so I am very familiar with fivethirtyeight.com. When I read the assignment, I immediately thought of an interactive, infographic-filled story on the forecast of the election. Because the story is made entirely up of infographics, I decided to choose two that really explained the current election in a matter of seconds.

This infographic shows the map of the US, colored in with states each candidate is predicted to win. We’ve all seen this map in practically every election story put out, but what I think confuses a lot of readers (including me) is how it seems like there could be so much red for Trump, and yet Hillary is still winning? Enter infographic #2…

This second infographic helped me to quickly understand and interpret the confusing message of the first, far more common infographic. This graphic, though wonky, is still a map, just laid out as an interpretive guide to electoral votes. By giving each state, no matter how big or small the same size vote, but showing how many votes each state is represented by, readers are able to see more definitively how a confusing concept like electoral votes matter to an election.

These infographic pieces use Tufte’s Principal of Integration of Evidence– including not only words, but images, interactives, diagrams, and symbolic representations of data.

The Handsome Family Podcast

I chose to listen to “The Handsome Family” podcast on NPR’s website. I chose this podcast from the Fresh Air segment of NPR because I have listened to NPR since I was little, riding around in the car with my dad and waking up to it in the mornings and Fresh Air was always the most interesting to me. As a kid, of course, I was never interested in the current events and political discussions on NPR, but the calm, unhurried voices discussing art and culture in artistic detail always appealed to me, even as a child. The first podcast to pop up was also what seemed the most interesting to me.

The description talked about the married couple Rennie and Brett Sparks who write music and the influence of their desert life on their songs. I could already tell that I would enjoy the segment and its detailed topic. The Handsome Family exceeded my expectations, discussing not only their musical sound, but also their individual mental illnesses, religious influences, and life as a couple. The interview was incredibly well-rounded and kept me extremely interested. Afterwards, I was ready to look up the band and download a few songs!

Voiceovers:

Terri Gross– NPR’s Fresh Air, interviewer
Rennie Sparks– vocalist and musician of The Handsome Family
Brett Sparks– vocalist and musician of The Handsome Family

Small Batch: You’re listening to Delilah

This was a very delightful exercise, almost like a trip down memory lane, because my days of driving forever to get to a store or pretty much any destination have been left behind since moving to Georgia. Everything is so conveniently located here! I barely drive more than 15 minutes at a time. But back in the days of looong drives on almost a daily basis, NPR was a wonderful companion.

It was difficult to choose one podcast from the NPR site since there are so many great ones. But, I went with one from the pop culture happy hour, just for fun. I choose a David Greene piece about the Delilah radio show, featuring an interview with Delilah. I’ll confess that I’ve listened to that during at least a few nighttime drives. Schmaltzy but still … it draws you in!

So, enough back story. One thing I liked about this podcast was its smooth transitions between segments. It’s seamless. For instance, at one point, Delilah says that everyone thinks she’s so nice but she feels like screaming that she’s really just exhausted (a false dichotomy, but this isn’t about logic …). Greene picks up the next segment by talking about all the things she juggles in her life. Another thing I liked was the clarity with no competing sound in the background. Along with that, there was no talking over one another as might be the case on some podcasts in which rapid fire dialogue results in more than one person talking at once. Of course, this is NPR, so we can expect exemplary standards!

The podcast is available by scrolling down to Aug. 17, 2016 on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour website.

Segments:

0:00 – 0:10 Intro music
0:10 – 3:20 Dialogue between Linda Holmes, editor of Pop Culture at NPR, and David Greene, host of the Morning Edition. In this dialogue Holmes “chats” with Greene about his interview with Delilah. He gives an overview of the Delilah show.
3:21-3:41 Greene speaks to Delilah (interview). This is just the introduction as he greets her and she gives her signature words, “This is Delilah.”
3:42 – 3:59 Voice over by Greene
4:00 – 4:15 Greene plays a clip in which Delilah is talking to a caller.
4:16 – 4:26 Voice over by Greene
4:27 – 4:40 Greene speaks to Delilah (interview).
4:41 – 5:01 Voice over by Greene
5:02 – 6:36 Main part of interview of Delilah by Greene begins
6:37 – 6:44 Voice over by Greene
6:45 – 10:00 Back to interview with Delilah
10:00 – 10:09 Song chosen by Delilah to end interview begins to play softly in the background while interview winds down, gets louder and louder
10:10 – 10:20 Song plays at higher volume after interview ends
10:21 – 10:31 Greene gives concluding synopsis of piece and does sign-off
10:31 – 10:44 Song plays at full volume

How I Built This: Instagram

I chose the podcast “How I Built This: Instagram” on NPR. I chose this podcast because NPR is a trusted source of podcasts. Instagram is an app that I use daily, and learning the foundation of its invention interested me. Also, this podcast was only a half an hour and that fit best into my schedule. I liked background music in the introduction and throughout the entire podcast. It went in and out of narration and interviews and alternated in a way that kept me interested but was still easy to follow. The quality was incredibly clear, and the light beat that played under the talking meshed well together. The narration and interviews sounded conversational and not too staged, but the information was still concise and interesting. When the tone of what they were talking about changed, the background music did as well. When the inventors were talking about times they struggled, the music became more ominous and slow. I also enjoyed that there were thoughtful breaks and pauses after powerful statements were made so that I had time to digest and think about them without missing anything important.

Interviews:

Guy Raz: Host of the podcast

Kevin Systrom: Co-inventor of Instagram discussed how the idea came about and the evolution into what it is today.

Mike Krieger: Co-inventor of the app spoke about how Kevin asked him to partner on Instagram with him and how they have grown since the beginning of the journey.