Reading and Writing in Digital Environments – ENG 304, Summer I 2019

CAST FEED UNDER CONSTRUCTION, CONNECTIVITY ISSUES OCCURED

Per my last English class, English 304, with Dr. M J Cripps, in the summer of 2019, we were given an assignment that expanded throughout the entire semester worth of learning. In this assignment, we were given complete freedom to develop a topic for a blog to work on. In total, we had to give at least two posts in each of the next five weeks of classes and could do it in a written format, video format (VLOG), or any other way we could think of. For me, I decided to make a Blog Roll, called the Dog Blog.

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From doing this we learned how a blog platform functions, whether that is by writing posts that work within the “blog genre”, or even how we could have shaped our writing style into what a professional/successful blog would look like. Now that I am almost out of my door of UNE I wanted to leave a mark on it like no other. So, Instead of just leaving this as a Blog I am going to be making them into a series of podcasts, which I have so cleverly named, the Dog Cast. Get it? Its a dog podcast – Pun 100% intended.

I decided on doing a podcast series on this information so that it not only branches out to those who want to read more but, I am making it more accessible. Most people will generally listen to the music of some kind, something where it just plays in the background while they focus hard on work. For me, making this Blog into podcasts opens up the market for someone to go in and listen to my story with my own voice. The first five episodes will be below, please click on “The Dog Blog” to see rest of series.

Doing this project, I used my iPhone Xs. Usually, for podcasts, people use a real microphone and go into recording booths. Sadly, due to the current pandemic, I do not have that luxury. However, if given that chance to do this podcast again I would have happily re-done it in a professional setting. I ended up not using my phone’s regular audio recorder, instead, I dabbled into both Audacity and Garageband.

To start with, I will record each episode on Garageband. From there I will transfer the data to Audacity which is a form of medium that I am the most comfortable with. I will use Audacity to do my minor audio edits on each podcast. From there I will go back to GarageBand and add my sound effect and background sound. I am choosing to do it this way because again, I am most familiar with Audacity for recording and editing, but, I am knowledgable in how to layer sounds using Garageband. Additionally, Garageband gave me the ability to add additional sound effects that Audactiy could not.

Since I am doing it all locally, I went ahead, grabbed a cut of coffee, and let it begin. Instead of sitting there holding my phone, I used a Bluetooth operated microphone so that the diction and clarity were persistent. Once all of these podcasts are edited, I will be adding in other background sounds as well as intro and outro music. My reasoning for making this blog into a podcast is so it makes it easier for someone to listen too while doing other things. This way my story is getting heard in a manner that is easiest for both I and the listener.

For this podcast, I choose to do it in one setting by taking breaks in-between each post.  This way it could give me time to add a blank space while editing and give the listener a chance to take in the information they just heard. The day I recorded it ended up being quite windy outside, but, when layered with the ocean sounds it blends in for a natural-sounding effect. I, of course, also had Bella with me while I recorded. After all, her opinion on this matters the most.