This weeks lecture was the sound lecture, taking the form of a series of radio interviews it successfully showed me not only the strengths of sound only journalism but the drawbacks that plague it as well.
As far as JOUR1111 lectures go, this has to be my least interesting so far. That isn't to say the quality of the lecture was anything but excellent. On the contrary the content of the lecture was engaging and the rapport of good radio conversation can be very engaging. The issue I found was that I am a visual learner. At the very least I would like to see who I am being spoken to by. If I can't identify with the voice I'm hearing all of the assumptions I make about the speaker and their motivations is lost and as such much of my attentiveness goes with it.
Regardless, those are simply my issues with the format of the lecture, the content was another story and here are the points I took from it:
Radio and television are completely different mediums: Radio is not television without the visual element and vice versa. The style of speech is completely different and the way that information is communicated must be changed. Compared to television, radio must constantly be introducing new topics of conversation so as to not bore the listener.
The listener is dominant: Radio presenting diminishes the power of the speaker over the listener. It is so easy to become disengaged from communication, a problem I often suffer from. The onus lies with the speaker to maintain the attention of the listener through the way they speak. I think it is the rare presenter who can truly manage to do this with someone as inattentive and easily distracted as myself.
Be sincere: When your on radio people can tell far more easily when your being " fake". Be sincere and genuine and the listeners will respond to this. I think this ties in with what Richard Fidler said about relaxing during the interview. When you have won the favour of the listener, when you know they are willing to not only listen but to allow themselves to imagine the story you depict for them. That is when you can relax and when sincerity rewards the speaker. Even when the listener instils this trust in the speaker there is no point in which the speaker can admit to having won their attention. The second the speaker seems to be attempting to curry favour the listener is alienated irrecoverably.
For me personally I don't have much care for radio. As a listener I find myself disengaged and often sceptical of who I am listening to and why I should listen to them. I need to see the speaker to connect with them and their story. As a speaker I am someone who relies on body language, facial expressions and other para lingual methods of communication. Without these things I doubt my ability to sound anything other than stilted and disconnected.
Regardless of my negative disposition regarding radio, the lecture expanded my knowledge regarding sound as a primary means of communication. I am thankful for that but look forward to another face to face lecture next week !
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