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Audio Essay Final Revision

CULT OF PERSONALITY

In the cover letter for my first draft, I blasted Ira Glass and dismissed his advice on broadcasting because I wanted to set myself apart and make a statement using my own ideas about broadcasting. But when I discovered that I still had a lot of editing to do with my draft, which my peers and Professor Smith found to be incomplete, I decided that there may indeed be something to what Ira Glass had to say about broadcasting. So I listened to his advice yet again and found two key points of advice that I tried to follow in my audio essay. The first building block of any good story is the anecdote, which follows a linear sequence of events and is told in a way so that no matter how boring it is, its own momentum carries it forward and makes it worth listening to (Ira Glass on Story Telling, Part 1, 0:38). I relied extensively on the stories that my friends told to highlight my message that academics can bring even the fiercest of rivals into a friendship. The progression of their stories mirrored the evolution of our friendships. As they talked about my competitive nature, mental images of my fist shaking were brought up in the listener’s mind. When they proceeded to talk about how we help each other out, the listen could envision me helping out my friends with school or managing stress. The power of the anecdote is indeed very real and really stresses the message that the broadcaster is trying to convey to his / her audience. Ira Glass also stresses the importance of being ruthless (Ira Glass on Story Telling, Part 2, 2:39) in order to have a good story. Many people mistake ruthlessness as being mean or cruel or evil. But ruthlessness is a means to an end; it’s about going directly from Point A to Point B through any means necessary without getting sidetracked. In the case of a radio broadcast, I think that being ruthless in storytelling means that you have to do whatever it takes to convey your message. If you have to use sound effects and music, then use them. If you have to talk in a low tone or shout in a high pitch, then you must do so. You shouldn’t have to worry too much about what or how the audience will feel as long as the listeners receive the message loud and clear. I was ruthless in my attempts to compile this audio essay. I got my music and sound effects, I got the interviews, and I combined them together in a manner that made sense to me. I wasn’t worried about what my listeners would think of my organization of the interviews or the sounds that I inserted in between segments as long as they understood that my friendships with Daniel, Anahit, and Sandra came about because of my competitive nature and evolved and mature  thanks to it.

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