Making a podcast proves to be engaging, fun challenge

As a freshman at Sam Houston State University, I knew I was dead set on being a print journalist. In high school, I was editor of the school paper and jumped into the college newspaper The Houstonian before my first day of classes.

The longer school went on, the more I realized that there was more to journalism than ink and newsprint. Journalists had to provide content in the form people want.

Now, enter the podcast. Ever since NPR’s “Serial” broke the podcast into the mainstream, anyone with a microphone and opinions seems to have their own show. This isn’t to say the market is oversaturated (although that can be debated), but that podcasts are obviously here to stay and wanted.

At our Student Media camp two weeks ago, I was talking about how our big goal this year was to beef up our online presence. Examples of some of the things we could do as a staff I provided included video interviews, interactive infographics and, yes, a podcast.

About four students immediately perked up and said, “We can do that?” I said, “If you want to do it, we will.”

We have a meeting this week to decide what the podcast will be and how to put it together.

Before I can assist my students, I need to go through the process of creating a podcast myself. Luckily, the Kent State program provided the perfect timing for this. I needed to create a podcast about any topic related to scholastic media.

There is such a thing as paralysis of choice. So, as I also tell my students, I chose a topic I know a lot about, which helped to write a script quickly, give a natural delivery, and even go off script a little when something came up naturally.

My podcast was thus created: Green Around the Quills, a podcast designed to help beginner advisers navigate the world of scholastic journalism. My first episode, tips for interviewing, came straight from a universal problem every adviser deals with and one I am all too familiar with as a former professional, collegiate and scholastic journalist that focused on reporting.

Not having the need before, my equipment was limited. But, as a professor once told me, the news waits for no one so work with what you’ve got. In my case, that is an iPhone 12 Pro Max and a sock.

My undergrad included several classes on audio production including my own radio show and stories on the radio newscast. One lesson we dealt with because of limited equipment was to use a sock on your microphone to cut down on background noise.

So, I locked myself away in the office with a sock around my phone, tested the audio and read the script.

The script proved difficult because my writing can be a bit verbose, which audio journalism has no time for. I found myself 15 minutes in before the script was done. There was no choice but to attack the script with a machete and hack away until I was down to five minutes. I decided that beginner advisers, many of whom do not have professional journalism backgrounds, might be better served with interviewing tips that help my students most rather than activities and deep explanations of why everything works.

After it was all said and done, I popped the audio into Adobe Premiere, cut out the pops and mistakes, and exported to an MP3 before uploading to SoundCloud. To make the account look more professional, I used Canva’s free templates to create a photo and added royalty-free music from incompetech.com to make the podcast feel a bit more intentional than me in my pajamas talking to my phone.

In all, the process went smoothly. To improve the podcast, there are three things I would change for the next time: interviews, hardware and software, and feedback.

First, my voice is about as exciting as Ben Stein reading a tax return. Just like kids in a classroom, you don’t want to only hear from the teacher non-stop for 50 minutes. Having a diverse set of voices would make the product more engaging.

Next, I would use a software designed for audio editing like Adobe Audition (as I am an Adobe fan) or an open-source editing software like Audacity. Using Premiere was a requirement of the course, but, frankly, overcomplicates the exporting and editing process. However, if you are already familiar with Premiere and not Audition, the editing can absolutely be done on there.

The other part of the editing/recording process that needed improvement would have been having a soundproof area (although the sock helped enough) and a good microphone to record with to reduce hissing, pops, background noise and control the echo.

Lastly, the whole experience is meant to help people. It would have been nice to be able to create a podcast to address a specific need and not a need that I think people have. Audience engagement is important to make people feel like they are part of the production process and keep them coming back for more.