Teach audio in your newsroom or classroom (here’s how)

It’s one thing to know how to do a task. It is quite another thing to teach someone to do that task.

Some people are great doers and poor teachers. Some people can become great teachers with just … a little … help!

This post is designed to teach you how to teach audio gathering and audio editing for online journalism. You can use this method for young students, old journalists, or anyone in between.

What You Need

1. Audio kits* — one kit for every two people in the class
2. Audacity or other simple audio editing software, with at least one computer for every two people in the class (but preferrably one-for-one)
3. All cables and software** necessary to get the audio files from the recorder onto the computer

* Audio kit: Digital audio recorder, decent headphones, and a decent external microphone (unless using a high-end recorder such as the Edirol R-09); headphones are NOT optional!

** Most audio recorders take a USB cable for transferring files. If your recorder saves the file in WMA format, it cannot be edited in Audacity. You must first convert the file to WAV or AIFF format. There are free programs that do this, such as Switch.

First Audio Class

Time needed: About two hours, possibly less

This first experience is designed to be impossible to fail. It is quick and very easy. Resist the temptation to complicate it.

A. Gathering

1. Show everybody how to turn on the recorder, plug in the mic and the headphones, and press the Record button. Talk about how to make sure the device is, in fact, recording. Make jokes about how simple it is, but show them — and not too fast! You are creating confidence. Use psychology.
2. Show them how to hold the mic (or the recorder) in a way that will not make noise. Point out the proper distance. “Here’s how to turn it on. Here’s where to hold it. Don’t say uh-huh (the reporter needs to shut up and LISTEN). Don’t move your hand on the device, or it will make noise. The reporter always holds the mic. NEVER give the mic to the subject! AND WEAR HEADPHONES!!!” Talk about using eye contact to keep the interview subject’s mouth from pointing down at the mic and blowing on it! Eye contact is also how you keep them talking. Nod and smile. Do not say “Uh huh”!
3. Assign pairs. Boy-girl is better than boy-boy and girl-girl. Strangers are better than friends.
4. Give them their assignment: Two people with one recorder. Person A interviews person B (five minutes). Then B interviews A (five minutes). This must be a real interview. It can be about anything — a hobby, a past news event. They must ask for an ID at the end, e.g., “I am Mary Jones, and I work for the Gazette.”
5. Caution them to find a quiet place to conduct the interview. Do not go to the cafeteria. Do not stand near a heating unit. Send them out. Give them half an hour.

This first part of the training takes about 20 minutes, plus the 30 minutes for the interviews.

It is important to get them editing immediately after they come back. They will learn how to do the interview better next time if the act of interviewing is fresh in their minds when they edit for the first time.

B. Editing

1. Show them how to copy the audio file to the computer. If necessary, show them how to convert the file (see above, under “What You Need”).
2. Check and make sure that everyone now has a WAV (or AIFF) file on the computer he or she is using. Make them show you the file.
3. You have a screen and a projector, yes? Open Audacity and show them delete, cut and paste. Nothing else! Be sure to use a VERY simple audio file, such as this one, for your demo.
4. Tell them: Open the audio file in Audacity. “Save as Audacity Project.” PAY ATTENTION to WHERE you are saving it and what you NAMED it. Tell them: SAVE OFTEN!!! Check everyone’s screen.
5. Tell them they must edit it to ONE MINUTE and NO MORE. Cut out all “ums” and “ers.” They must also MOVE (cut and then paste) the ID ( “I am Mary Jones, and I work for the Gazette”) from the end to the beginning. USE YOUR HEADPHONES!!! Never edit audio using the computer’s speaker(s). Give them 30 minutes to complete their edit.
6. Listen to each file as each person finishes. Give them gentle feedback. Remember to say something good.
7. Have the interview subject listen to the interviewer’s final edit (a useful learning experience).

C. Exporting the MP3 File

This should be perfectly simple, but sometimes your IT people have not set up Audacity properly. To export the MP3 file, the LAME encoder must be installed. Sometimes the IT people fail to do this.

The other snag you might encounter is that the IT people did install LAME, but they did not tell Audacity where they installed it. The first time (and only the first time) that you attempt to export an MP3 file from Audacity, the program will ask you to show it where the LAME file was installed. If you did not install it yourself, this can be a big freakin’ problem!

The following instructions assume that LAME has already been (a) installed, and (b) located for Audacity on the computer being used.

1. Save the Audacity Project file (.aup) one last time.
2. Check all the Audacity settings for export (see this handout). If the proper settings are not used, the MP3 file will not work in Flash or in Soundslides.
3. File menu > Export for MP3. Please caution your students to PAY ATTENTION to WHERE they are saving the file and what they NAMED it.

If you have followed this plan, everyone has succeeded and has done all the easy stuff.

Putting It Into Practice

My new online friend, John Kroll, tried this in the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer newsroom after he had been using some other training techniques. Here’s how it went for him, according to an e-mail he sent me last week (quoted with his permission):

“Though I felt like I was on hyperdrive the whole time, students walked out in a much better mood and with fewer questions than before. Sending them out to do those brief interviews with each other helped a lot; so did giving them more hands-on time with the equipment in general.

“It seems obvious, now, that having them go through the whole process works best. But before I tried it, it had seemed that would take too much time. The contrary was true — many fewer questions. I also wasn’t sure how our staff would like the idea of being paired up arbitrarily, but there were no grumbles, and people helped each other out.”

Hooray!

Give Them Homework!

Before they leave the first class, give everyone an assignment. It should be due in about two or three days for a daily newsroom — make them take the recorder out on a real story, get audio, come back and edit it, and send you the MP3.

Everybody who does it within three days gets praised to high heaven. Just a straight interview, nothing fancy. Give them cookies or something too. The losers just get ignored. (Silent message: See you at the unemployment office, Bubba.)

Second Audio Class

Cover multitrack, noise filtering, getting a sound bed, ethics, copyrights.

Start with a good example, like one of these. Then say: “You can do this!”

And they can.

From here on, they’re on their own. Tell them to download and install Audacity at home. Tell them you know they can figure out ways to incorporate this into their normal reporting. Encourage the reporters to buddy up with the photojournalists. Then let them go. Those who will, will.

Maybe a week or two later, have a show-off session. Free pizza. Everybody who comes brings their best audio. Play them all. Everyone is asked to make positive comments about each example heard. After everyone comments on mine, then you ask me to say what is wrong with it. This is a very good method. No one criticizes negatively except the person who made it. Everybody learns and feels good. It’s worth it!

Here are some audio resources, including Audacity how-to handouts.