Readings and Practicum in Aural History and Historical Audio Documentary Production

http://www.albany.edu/faculty/gz580/documentaryproduction

COURSE INTRODUCTION:

Be prepared to do a lot of listening in this course -- in class and out! This course will introduce you to:
1) the historical study of sound, soundscapes, and heritage audio recordings -- both for their value in helping us understand important aspects of past cultural, social, and political life, and for their usefulness in helping us reconstruct accurately the aural past in audio documentaries and radio features;
2) aural history composition techniques and theory (especially radio documentaries and features, but also aural essays and museum audio installations);
3) the various audio delivery technologies available to communicate historical ideas to broad audiences via sound.

Students will learn the full range of skills needed to complete historical radio documentaries and features -- both theory and practice. The class will explore the various formats and styles of aural composition work, giving plenty of attention to the aesthetic and technical aspects of production. The course's range is broad; it includes coverage of grant and proposal writing, textual and archival audio source research, 20th and 21st century historical radio documentary work, analysis of audio documentary forms and non-fiction storytelling techniques, scriptwriting, technical instruction in the art of audio recording and post-production editing and mixing, audio preservation and restoration techniques, and an introduction to traditional and modern technologies for the transmission and dissemination of documentary and related audio work. This course is a core offering in the History Department's MA curriculum in History and Media and in the interdisciplinary undergraduate Documentary Studies Program.

Along with several assignments/projects -- including media research, recording, interview, editing, and short production assignments -- students will be expected to write a script and produce a full and well researched historical documentary over the course of the semester, one that would be worthy of being aired on radio (and hopefully will be). Since the campus is about to commemorate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's and Samuel de Champlain's 17th century explorations of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, projects focusing on the last 400 years of history of the Hudson and Lake Champlain regions are especially welcomed. Productions may become part of our on-line and on-air aural and visual commemorations of these explorations. More on this in class.

GRADING:

Grades will be based on class and on-line Blackboard blog participation (20%), projects and short writing assignments (40%), and a final audio documentary—including script (footnoted and with a bibliography) and recording of the final production (40%). Graduate students are expected to produce a 22-30 minute audio documentary as their final project; undergraduates are expected to produce a shorter piece -- a 14-18 minute production. Please type all writing assignments and submit them electronically. No paper submissions!!

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:

The following statement of policy is required by the University at Albany: It is assumed that your intellectual labor is your own. If there is any evidence of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, the minimum penalty will be an automatic failing grade for that piece of work. Plagiarism is taking (which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one’s own work. If another person’s work is quoted directly in a formal paper, this must be indicated with quotation marks and a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas are to be identified by proper citations.

READINGS AND RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

All reading, listening, and viewing assignment for each class are listed under the individual class date. Make sure to complete all assignments by the time we meet. All assigned readings, sound files, and video will be made available to class members through direct links fom this syllabus, on electronic reserve (usually listed by last name of author), Blackboard, ITunes U., or other means specified in class. Required and recommended assignments will be drawn from many of the books, Web sites, and media listed below:

• Durand R. Begault, The Sonic CD-ROM for Desktop Audio Production (Academic Press, Inc., 1996). [CD]
• Audio: The Movie (Tracer Technologies, 2006). [DVD].
• Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination . . . from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern (Times Books, 1999). Selections (available on electronic reserve.)
• Charles Hardy III, "Authoring in Sound," [Essay available on the WWW. See this entry for link. My thanks to Charles Hardy for permission to post the essay on the WWW.] Also, "'Thinking Sound' Tape Samples" selected by Hardy to illustrate various production and recording techniques/approaches are available on the WWW though links below.
• Articles, chapters, and additional readings are available on the World Wide Web or on electronic reserve or Bloackboard. Some items, due to copyright/fair use restrictions are ONLY available to enrolled class members on electronic reserve or Blacboard. Selective assignments will be made from the following texts/resources. More details on access to these readings will be provided in class.
• Michael Bull and Les Beck, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (New York, 2003).
• Richard Cullen Rath, "Hearing American History," Journal of American History vol. 95, no. 2 (September 2008).
• Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill, 2001).
• Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004).
• Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America (Baltimore, 2003).
• R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design (New York, 1977).
• Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (New York, 1995).
• Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech (Boston, 2005).
• Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity (Oxford, 2004).
• Richard Cullen Rath, How Early America Sounded (Ithaca, 2003.
• Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside, Martin Thom, trans. (New York, 1998).
• Horst J. P. Bergmeir & Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing (Yale University Press, 1997). [Includes audio CD].
• Howard Blue, Words at War: World War II era radio drama and the postwar broadcasting industry blacklist. (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2002).
• Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America (Sage Publications, 1996).
• David E. Reese and Lynne S. Gross, Radio Production Worktext, 3rd edition ((Focal Press, 1998).
• Michele Hilmes and Jason Lovigilio, eds., Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (Routledge, 2002).
• Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992).
• Jonathan Kern, Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008) [a newer version and much revised version of the above, by a different author].
  
• Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition (National Federation of Community Broadcasters, 1989)..
• Linda Wertheimer, Ed., Listening to America: 25 Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on National Public Radio (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995).
• Handbook for the URN Advanced Radio Journalism Course in Political Reporting (Parts 1-3):
  • PART 1: http://www.iwpr.net/pdf/urn_hbook_01.pdf
  • PART 2: http://www.iwpr.net/pdf/urn_hbook_02.pdf
  • PART 3: http://www.iwpr.net/pdf/urn_hbook_03.pdf
• BBC News Style Guide: http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsStyleGuide.pdf
• BBC Radio Training - http://www.bbctraining.com/radio.asp
  

AUDIO:


All audio files will be marked by this icon: . Audio files are available either through ITunes U, through our closed audio reserve page on Blackboard, or directly on the Internet as MP3 or RealMedia files. Most of you probably already have software capable of playing RealMedia and MP3 files installed on your computers, but they may be older versions that are incompatible with the present encoding. It's fairly easy and free to upgrade your older versions! For RealMedia files, click here and select "Free Real Player" to obtain RealPlayer software: real.com.
Please note that our course's Blackboard and ITunes U. sites are CLOSED sites, available only to enrolled students in this course. Your userid/password to this site will be distributed in class. You will need to install a free copy of ITunes on your computer to access the ITunes U. files. You may download the software from: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

VIDEO:

Several videos/films will be put on reserve at the library; others will be available on a closed server on campus, accessible only through our class Blackboard site. Still others will be placed on a password-accessible video viewing workstations at the History Department computer lab. Passwords will be announced in class.

WEB SITES:

• Talking History: Aural History Productions. Based at the University at Albany, a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Its weekly radio show is broadcast over the air and via the internet. Contributing and consulting producers include: David Cohen (New Jersey Historical Commission), Dan Collison (On the Job Productions), Curtis Fox (The Past Present), Charles Hardy (West Chester University), David Isay (Sound Portraits), George King, James David Moran (The History Show), Joe Richman, George Liston Seay (Dialogue), and many more.
• AUDIODOCUMENTARY.ORG. "Audiodocumentary.org is a first-of-its-kind guide to free radio and audio documentary content on the web. There are thousands of great audio stories available for free but many of the sites are not well known. And even great mainstream stories can get lost in the shuffle. This website strives to be part of a curatorial effort for all that great content. Basically we bring you links to stuff that we think is interesting and which might otherwise fly below the radar - that great piece from NPR, that unknown Podcast, or any other audio documentary content we want to bring to people's attention."
• Radio College <http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=3>. An excellent radio training Web site.
• MATRIX (Recording & Audio Guides): http://www.historicalvoices.org/oralhistory/audio-tech.html
• Joe Richman's Radio Diaries Web Site. Description from the Web site: "Radio Diaries, Inc. is committed to producing a new kind of oral history. We work with people to document their own lives for public radio; teenagers, the elderly, workers, prison inmates and people in the forgotten corners of America. Our mission is to find extraordinary stories in ordinary places, and preserve these voices for generations to come."
• Transom.org [http://www.transom.org]. An outstanding radio production resource site, administered by Atlantic Public Media [http://www.atlantic.org], a non-profit organization, founded by Jay Allison. Based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it is devoted to serving "public broadcasting through training and mentorship, and through support for creative and experimental approaches to program production and distribution."
• The Audio Dimensions of History: A Bibliography and Guide to Audio and Textual Guide to Audio and Textual Sources on Historical Documentary Production for Radio, General Radio Production Techniques, and related Topics and Resources. [This document is not quite up-to-date but will be updated soon. Students and others are encouraged to recommend additions to the list. The bibliography is intended to be a resource for scholars, students, and the general public.]
• AIROS: American Indian Radio on Satellite. A radio distribution service created to "inform, educate and encourage the awareness of tribal histories, cultures, languages, opportunities and aspirations through the fullest participation of American Indians and Alaska Natives in creating and employing all forms of educational and public telecommunications programs and services, thereby supporting tribal sovereignty."
• Current. The on-line version of Current, a biweekly newspaper that covers news about U.S. public TV and radio.
• Soundprint. Homesite of a major documentary production center.
• American Radio Works. A major producer of public radio documentaries: "AMERICAN RADIOWORKS is public radio's largest documentary production unit. American RadioWorks creates documentaries, series projects, and investigative reports for the public radio system and the Internet. ARW is based at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul and also has staff journalists based in Washington and New York."
• Association of Independents in Radio (AIR). Major organization that promotes excellence in radio production work. Education and advocacy organization.
• The Canadian Society For Independent Radio Production. An organization founded in 1998 to serve the needs of professional and amateur radio producers and sound artists in Canada.
• Battery Radio <http://www.batteryradio.com/>. Battery Radio, headed by award-winning Chris Brookes, is an audio production company specializing in radio documentary features. Their work has been aired by stations around the world. Their studios are located in St. John's, Newfoundland (near the birthplace of radio).
• David Isay's Sound Portraits WWW Home Site. Examples of excellent documentary production work; see also the quick guide to documentary production available at that site.
• Documentary Sound. [http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/documentary.htm]. Looking for specific sounds for a documentary? This Web site may help you find it. It's "a partial discography and guide to resources for documentary sound (son verite, field recordings, etc). These are things like recordings of the sounds heard at specific locations (beaches and forests, junkyards, highways), of animals/insects, of certain processes, etc."
• Lost and Found Sound. "Lost and Found Sound: An American Record is a collection of richly layered stories—evocative and haunting—that chronicle, reflect and celebrate the changing century-that mark the turn in sound. A special series designed to air on public radio throughout 1999 and into the year 2000."
• Canada's Version of Lost and Found Sound. [http://www.radio.cbc.ca/programs/thismorning/lfnsound/index.html]
• http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=20785]. This is Panos London's magazine audio portal, "reporting on development issues that are often neglected by mainstream media." The programs come from a "global team of local journalists we seek out the views of people on the edges of society and offer you fresh perspectives."
• This American Life. One of the best and most original shows on public/non-commercial radio. Features long-form and short-form documentaries and much, much more. Some history pieces, but mainly contemporary subjects.
• Third Coast International Audio Festival. [http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/]. "The Third Coast International Audio Festival is a celebration of the best feature and documentary work heard worldwide on the radio and the Internet. Organized by a team based at Chicago Public Radio, the festival includes a competition, nationwide broadcast, conference, website and Chicago-based listening series, making it the first of its kind in North America. The Third Coast Festival (TCIAF) was designed to bring extraordinary and format-breaking radio to broader audiences, drawing listeners to radio's powerful ability to document the world we live in. Our mission is to enrich the opportunities available to veteran and rookie producers who are working to perpetuate this craft in fresh and vital ways."
• Listening Between the Lines [http://www.listeningbetweenthelines.org/]. Alan Lipke, Senior Producer/Project Director. Produces an ongoing series which "explores roots of and remedies for what may be America's most powerful and lasting predicament: the racial divide resulting from the longest, bloodiest, most successful campaign of domestic terrorism and propaganda in U.S. history. It highlights the historic (and heroic) role of minorities in fighting for democratic values and justice nationwide."
• Race With History / Creative Change Productions [http://www.racewithistory.org/]. "The Race With History project seeks oral histories, music, dance, poetry and all forms of cultural expression that can help tell the untold stories of people whose roots are in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and all parts of the globe. Many such stories remain to be told, discussed, turned over in our minds for their meaning, like cave drawings or trail maps of broken twigs, like moss on the side of a tree or the drinking gourd in the sky." Creator and Producer: Alan Lipke; Executive Producer and Managing Editor: Jude Thilman.
• Broadcasting History Links (from Elizabeth McLeod).
  "There's a lot of information available on the World Wide Web for those interested in the history of radio and television-- the programs, the personalities, the networks and the stations. Much of it is useful -- but there's also a lot of misinformation out there! The purpose of this site is to sift thru the mass of material found on-line and suggest some of the most worthwhile resources for the serious student of broadcasting history."

EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE:

You will not be required to purchase recorders for this course. At the very least, you may be asked to invest in some inexpensive recording media (SD cards, CDs), a cable or two, and a small microphone stand for our flash recorders (we don't have many). For those of you who are interested in serious recording now and into the future, there are a variety of recorders available for high quality audio recording. There is lots of "junk" out there that is absolutely inappropriate for recording production quality audio; if you have a cheap cassette recorder with a built in microphone at home that you think might be useful in preparing assignments for this course, forget it. Leave it at home. Chances are, it simply doesn't meet the technical standards necessary for radio production -- and using a recorder with a built-in microphone rarely acceptable (some of the newer flash recorders with built in condenser microphones are perhaps the only exceptions). Pro-level analog and digital recording equipment (cassette and minidisk) will be available to you on short-term loan. Ideally, however, for those of you who intend to pursue audio recording more seriously in the future, you should consider purchasing a good quality portable recorder and a stand-alone microphone (you can get them through local vendors or through professional audio suppliers such as B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio Corp [www.bhphotovideo.com], BSW [http://www.bswusa.com], Bradley Broadcast [http://www.bradleybroadcast.com], Sweetwater [http://www.sweetwater.com], and Full Compass [http://www.fullcompass.com]). E-Bay is a good source of used equipment, though there are many other used equipment and auction sites now on the Internet.

Various software options are available to students for computer-based digital audio editing. Although we will utilize mainly Audacity -- a free program available for PC and Mac users -- and Adobe Audition in class, some of you might already be familiar with Pro Tools or other digital editing suites. Feel free to use whatever is most easily accessible to you and with which uou are most comfortable. Our labs our equipped with both MAC and PCs and have Audacity, Pro Tools, Audition, Sound Forge, and Vegas software. You can obtain information or purchase software at the following sites (as well as through third party vendors--some of whom offer educational discounts):

1) http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/main.html Adobe Audition. (formerly Synrillium's Cool Edit Pro).

2) Audacity <audacity.sourceforge.net>.

3) http://www.sonicfoundry.com or http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/ (Sony's Sound Forge and Vegas)

4) http://www.digidesign.com or http://www.protools.com (Pro Tools Free -- for Windows 98 and ME operating systems).



Course Outline

Please note: because of the large amount of resources used in this course and posted and linked to this syllabus, I will be making changes constantly -- correcting dead or incorrect links, adding materials to recommended listings, posting additional links to audio and video materials. I'll be making announcements of my changes periodically. Please work from the on-line document and not from a printed version of it, which will not reflect my ongoing revisions. Links to items on our closed server -- video and audio programs -- will be active ONLY within our Blackboard course site and not through the syllabus.

Class 1 (Monday, January 26): An Introduction to Aural History and Aural Composition Work

Readings/Listenings/Viewing:


• Michael Rabiger, Directing the Documentary, 3rd Edition (Boston: Focal Press, 1998), pp. 3-9. A superb guide to film and video documentary production, and much of what Rabiger writes is equally applicable to audio documentaries. Available on electronic reserve. Read it after we meet; I'll be referring to it in the introductory class. [On electronic reserve].
• Tony Schwartz: Audio Documentarian: Hearing Voices special featuring The Kitchen Sisters's "Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later” and “New York City: 24 Hours in Public Places.” [http://hearingvoices.com/news/2008/07/hv021-tony-schwartz/]

Class 2 (Monday, February 2): Researching and Reconstructing the Sonic Past Before the Era of Sound Recording ~ Theory and Practice

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:

• Martha Ballard's Diary (January 1, 1785 to May 12, 1812): http://dohistory.org/ [sample the diary; no need to read the entire manuscript].
• Michael Bull and Les Beck, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (New York, 2003), Part II: "Histories of Sound" [essays by Alain Corbin, Bruce R. Smith, Mark M. Smith, and Karin Biijsterveld; pp. 115-189]. [On electronic reserve~ listed under "Bull, Michael].
• A Midwife's Tale (DVD. Produced by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and directed by Richard P. Rogers, 1997). [On film/video reserve] We will be viewing portions of the film in class. If possible, view it before class. It will be made available on our closed Blackboard site. Pay attention to the use of SOUND in this film/video documentary.
• Rath, Richard Cullen. "Acoustics and Social Order in Early America" in Hearing History: A Reader, edited by Mark M. Smith (University of Georgia Press, 2004). [On electronic reserve.]
• R. Murray Schafer, "Open Ears," in Michael Bull and Les Beck, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (New York, 2003). [On electronic reserve.]
• R. Murray Schafer, "Soundscapes and Earwitnesses" (from Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004), originally in The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (Rochester, 1994) [On electronic reserve.]
• Emily Thompson Interview (on "Aural History") by Jamie Rodriguez, History News Network (1-23-2006).
• White, Shane and Graham White, "Hearing Slavery: Recovering the Role of Sound in African American Slave Culture,"Commonplace, vol 1, no. 4 (July, 2001): http://www.common-place.org/vol-01/no-04/slavery/white.shtml.
• Listen to at least one of the following:
  (1) The Reproach of Egypt (28.8) [27:11 Minutes. For 28.8 kbps connections] | The Reproach of Egypt (56) [27:11 Minutes. For 56 kbps connections]. A "sound study" exploring the roots of the Salem witchcraft incident of 1692. Produced by WHA Radio and the University of Wisconsin—Extension program in 1986 with funding from the Annenberg/CPB Project. Unfortunately, this is currently only available in this streaming format. I'm working on an MP3 version.
  (2) As It Was in the Beginning (28.8) [For 28.8 kbps connections] | As It Was in the Beginning (56) [For 56 kbps connections]. | As It Was in the Beginning (80) [For ISDN and T1 connections] A "sound study" exploring the settlement of Virginia. Produced by WHA Radio and the University of Wisconsin—Extension Program in 1986 with funding from the Annenberg/CPB Project. Unfortunately, this is currently only available in this streaming format. I'm working on an MP3 version.
• "The History Show: 1775." From the American Antiquarian Society, produced by Damora Productions. Written, Directed, and Produced by James David Moran.

Recommended:

• Curtis Fox's "America's Reconstruction." "
  28.8 | 56. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, examines the Era of Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, looking closely at the radical transformation of race relations during that period. Leonard Lopate talks with historian Eric Foner; archival recordings of African-American spirituals and actor readings of freedpeople testimonies inform and enlarge their conversation.
• Good Friday, 1865: Lincoln's Last Day."
  In this dramatic radio play, reconstructing the last day of Abraham Lincoln's life, "the character of a country, and its President, are revealed -- as a traumatic war winds down, and eerie events presage Abraham Lincoln's own end. Produced before a live audience at The Museum of Television and Radio (Paley Center for Media) in New York, this original audio docudrama by producer Craig Wichman is the recipient of a National Audio Theatre BEST SCRIPT "GRAND PRIZE." Mr. Wichman plays the 16th President, and Katie Nutt is Mary Todd Lincoln, in a cast that includes John O. Donnell, Emma Palzere, Vito LaBella, Derek Lively, Dan Renkin, Bernadette Fiorella, and John Prave. Directed by Jay Stern (Independent Feature, THE CHANGELING); Music by TONY AWARD-winning Composer Mark Hollmann, with Kathy McDonald and Darren Wilkes; Sound Effects by Sue Zizza and David Shinn (Sue Media); Engineering by Dominick Barbera, with John Kiehl (Soundtrack NY.)" [Restricted audio access].
• You Are There! radio series. This series, which began on July 7, 1947 and ran through March 19, 1950 on CBS radio, took listeners into the past by having newscasters John Daly, Don Hollenbeck, and Richard C. Hottelet virtually place themselves in the midst of major historical events and "report" on them. The series included ninety episodes, though not all have survived.
• "The History Show: 1775." From the American Antiquarian Society, produced by Damora Productions. Written, Directed, and Produced by James David Moran. [Audio links not yet available].
• The following two readings will be used in class in discussions of sonic reconstructions of pre-recording era events and communities:
  (1) Donald S. Johnson, Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson (New York, 1993), chapter 4. [On electronic reserve.]
  (2) Henry David Thoreau, "Sounds" chapter in Walden (1854): http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/WALDEN/hdt04.html. You can also listen to an "audiobook" version of chapter 4 and all of Walden at LibriVox: http://librivox.org/walden-by-henry-david-thoreau/.
• Richard Cullen Rath, "Hearing American History," Journal of American History vol. 95, no. 2 (September 2008).
• Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill, 2001).
• Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004).
• Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America (Baltimore, 2003).
• R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design (New York, 1977).
• Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (New York, 1995).
• Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech (Boston, 2005).
• Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity (Oxford, 2004).
• Richard Cullen Rath, How Early America Sounded (Ithaca, 2003.
• Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside, Martin Thom, trans. (New York, 1998). AUDIO TRACKS FROM CD ACCOMPANYING THIS BOOK: http://www.beacon.org/soundsofslavery/
• Peter A. Coates, "The Srange Stillness of the Past: Toward an Environmental History of Sound and Noise," vol. 10, no. 4 Environmental History (2005).
• The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). Founded in 1993, this organization "is an international association of affiliated organisations and individuals, who share a common concern with the state of the world soundscape as an ecologically balanced entity." Individuals dedicated to preserving the world's sounds. Go to: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/wfae/home/
• MANUAL OF ANALOGUE SOUND RESTORATION TECHNIQUES. by Peter Copeland (British Library).

Class 3 (Monday, February 9): Researching and Reconstructing the Sonic Past ~ From the 1880s till the 1950s / Introduction to Sound Recording and Recording Technologies, I

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Recording Basics (from <transom.org>): see: <http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_interviewing/200101.basics.jallison.html> and <http://transom.org/tools/recording_interviewing/>.
• Chapter 20 ("Documentary and Feature Programmes") in Robert McLeish, Radio Production: A Manual for Broadcasters (Focal Press, 1999).[On electronic reserve.]
• A. William Bluem, Documentary in American Television (New York, 1965), 60-72 ("Radio: The Forgotten Art"). [On electronic reserve.]
• Lawrence Lichty and Thomas W. Bohn, "Radio's 'March of Time': Dramatized News," Journalism Quarterly 51 (Autumn 1974): 458-62, reprinted in American Broadcasting, eds. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping (New York, 1975). [On electronic reserve.]
• Edward R. Murrow, "'Orchestrated Hell' and 'Buchenwald'," in American Broadcasting, eds. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping (New York, 1975).[On electronic reserve.]
• Searching for Virginia Woolf: S. N. Clarke, "Virginia Woolf's Broadcasts and Her Recorded Voice," Virginia Woolf Bulletin, no. 4 (May 2000). On line at: http://orlando.jp.org/VWSGB/dat/vw-voice.html#VWV.
• Stern, Jonathan, "Preserving Sound in Modern America," in Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004). [On electronic reserve.]
• Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition, pp. 27-87 (read quickly and don't get lost in the details; I'll go over the key points in class). [On electronic reserve.]
• Look over technical tips dealing with field recording (from the Radio College Web site): <http://www.radiocollege.org/readingroom/articles/craft/field_interview.php>. There are other helpful pages on this Web site.
• March of Time [www.otr.com/march.html] : early broadcasts from this early dramatic news series. Listen to one or two.
• Edward R. Murrow . Edward R. Murrow broadcasts, including one from Buchenwald. Originally aired April 15, 1945. Listen to the Buchenwald selection.
• Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:48.
  Alexander Kerensky, head of the provisional government in Russia just before the Russian Revolution of October (Nov.) 1917, recalls the events of those years in this short excerpt from a Ladies of the Press interview conducted with him in 1963 . For a short on-line bio of Kerensky, see: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSkerensky.htm.
• Listen to a couple of programs from Destination Freedom, available on our course ITunes U site. Access it at: https://maenad.csc.albany.edu/cgi-bin/itunes/login. This is a CLOSED site, available only to enrolled students in this course. USER ID/PASSWORD access information will be distributed in class. You will need to install a free copy of ITunes on your computer to access the material on this site. You can download the software from: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/. Destination Freedom was a half-hour show focusing on African American history and culture that was broadcast in Chicago radio station WMAQ back in 1948-1950. For an episode log of the series, see: http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logd1001.htm.
• "Freedom's People, 1941-42 (Opening Broadcast: Music)." Real Media | MP3. Time: 29:08. "Freedom's People" (1941-42), an 8-part series produced by the Federal Radio Education Committee in the U.S. Office of Education and broadcast over the NBC network, was the first major radio series focusing on African-American life, culture, and history. [NOTES: The stated goal of Freedom's People, was to "promote national unity and better race relations." The brainchild of Dr. Ambrose Caliver, a specialist in Negro education within the Department of Education, the program enlisted a wide variety of African American intellectuals, musicians, and actors -- including E. Franklin Frazier, Sterling A. Brown, Joe Louis, A. Philip Randolph, Fats Waller, Jesse Owens, Cab Calloway, Josh White, and Paul Robeson. This is the first broadcast in the series, aired in September of 1941. The series included all of the following segments: "Music" (Sept. 21, 1941); "Science and Discover" (October 19, 1941); "Sports" (November 23, 1941); "Military Service" (December 21, 1941); "The Negro Worker" (January 18, 1942); "The Education of the Negro" (February 15, 1942); "Creative Art" (March 15, 1942); "The Negro and Christian Democracy" (April 19, 1942). For more information on the incredible career of Dr. Caliver and his contributions to black radio and black education, and for more specific information on "Freedom's People" see: chapter 2 of William Barlow, Voice over: The Making of Black Radio (Temple Univ. Press, 1998); Walter Daniel, Ambrose Caliver: Adult Educator and Civil Servant (Syracuse University, 1966); and Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1999). For information on this particular recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Additional recordings of "Freedom's People" have survived in various archives. There are a number at the Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress as well as in the National Archives].
• Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), 1-16, 246-270.[On electronic reserve.]You can also listen to some segments of the programs New World A'Coming (1944-57), Destination Freedom (1948-50), and other anti-Jim Crow radio series at: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/jim_crow/newworld.html and at some of the above links.
• Bruce Lenthall, "Critical Reception: Public Intellectuals Decry Depression-era Radio, Mass Culture, and Modern America," in Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio, Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (New York: Routledge, 2002), 41-62. [On electronic reserve.]
• Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination . . . from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern (Times Books, 1999), pp. 3-39. [On electronic reserve.]
• An Audio Primer (Adobe)
• Digital Audio Tutorials: http://www.musiq.com/recording/index.html
• Digital Audio and Audacity Tutorials: http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-overview.html

Recommended:


• Old Time Radio History Web site. A valuable site produced by Louis V. Genco.
• Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933 (MIT Press, 2004).
• "CBS Radio Workshop." Go to www.archive.org to sample some programs from this early nonfiction radio series from 1936-1941. http://www.archive.org/details/CBSRadioWorkshop
• The Hindenberg Tragedy Real Media. | MP3. Time: 2:39.
  On May 7, 1937, the German zeppelin, the Hindenburg, landed at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. As it was landing, it exploded into flames. Of the 106 people on board, only 62 survived. This very famous spontaneous and emotive account of the explosion and fire that destroyed the Hindenburg was made by Herbert Morrison, an American radio reporter, and his audio engineer, Charlie Nehlsen. Both were working for Chicago station WLS at the time and were experimenting with delayed broadcast on-the-spot recording (at the time, networks eschewed the use of recorded material). It wasn't until after World War II that Morrison and Nehlsen's technique became widely adopted by news broadcasters. For more information on the Hindenberg broadcast, see: http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/hindenburg.html.
• Alan Lomax, "Mister Ledford and the TVA" (Radio script, Library of Congress production, 1941). Source: Erik Barnouw, Radio Drama in Action: Twenty-Five Plays of a Changing World (New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1945.  [On electronic reserve.]
• This is Our Enemy: Nazi Youth." 1942.   Real Media | MP3. Time: 27:17.  This recording is part of over 1,000 radio broadcasts made between 1941-46 concerning the war effort on the US home front. "This is Our Enemy" was one of several series produced by the Office of War Information in collaboration with WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting Network (these included "Soldiers of Production," "Three-Thirds of a Nation," "Neighborhood Call," "Hasten the Day," "Victory Front" and several others). It featured dramatic and personal stories about America's enemies during World War II. In this episode, #55 of the series, "a young boy leaves his family [in occupied Europe] to study in Germany and while there, is converted to a Hitlerite. He returns home, a changed person, and problems develop between" the son and his father. The young man's loyalty to Nazism leads to his betrayal of his father's friends and ultimately to the father's murder of his own son. Starring Frank Gallup, Frank Lovejoy, Bill Lipton, Charlotte Holland, Ed Latimer, Stephen Schnabel, Danny Leone. Written by Dorothea Lewis and produced and directed by Frank Telford. Special Commentary by Van Cleve. For more information on this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, Maryland.
• "Hear It Now" radio series. Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly created this CBS radio series in 1950. It ran through 1951, bringing listeners historical aural recreations and narratives about historical events from 1932-1949. For selections from this series, go to http://www.archive.org/details/hearitnow.
• Zoom H-2 Recorder Manual: http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/H2_user_manual.pdf
• United States Early Radio History. Thomas H. White's useful histories of American radio.
• The History of Broadcasting. Dr. Marvin R. Bensman's "The History of Broadcasting, 1920-1960" Web site.
• Broadcasting History Links (from Elizabeth McLeod). Excellent selection of links, many on the history of radio.
• Documentary Sound. [http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/documentary.htm]. A discography and guide to resources for documentary sound.
• Morton, David. Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America (New Jersey, 2000) (selection).  [On electronic reserve.]
• Horst J. P. Bergmeir & Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing (Yale University Press, 1997), chapters 1 & 5 [Ch 1: "The Making of the German Ministry of Propaganda" / ch2: "Propaganda Swing"]. [On electronic reserve.] Selections from the CD will be played in class.
• Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began (New York, 1993). Read the preface and ch.1.  [On electronic reserve.]
• Erika Brady, A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 1-9; 52-88. [On electronic reserve.]
• David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000), ch. 2 ("The End of the Canned Music' Debate in American Broadcasting").  [On electronic reserve.]
• Durand R. Begault, The Sonic CD-ROM for Desktop Audio Production (Academic Press, Inc., 1996). [CD]
• Audio: The Movie (Tracer Technologies, 2006). [DVD].
• Marantz PMD660 Manual
• Zoom H-2 Manual [http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/H2_user_manual.pdf]
• Henry Sapoznik, Dave Isay, and Yair Reiner, "The Yiddish Radio Project." First segment of the series. To listen, go to: http://yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/history/."
• Save Our Sounds. History Channel documentary. Focuses on Smithsonian/Library of Congress initiative to preseerve sonic treasures in our national archives. [On closed video reserve; available through Blackboard.]
• Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis. From the introduction: "The American Folklore Society and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress collaborated on a conference, Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis, held on December 1–2, 2000, and gathered experts to formulate recommendations for the preservation and access of America's folk heritage sound collections. They were supported in their work by the Council on Library and Information Resources, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities. This report represents the collected expertise, experience, and wisdom of the participants and proposes a strategy for addressing this crisis in a collaborative way."
• "Preservation: Cylinder, Disc and Tape Care in a Nutshell," [http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/record.html] A great resource from the Library of Congress.

(Monday, February 16): NO CLASS

Class 4 (February 23): Researching and Reconstructing the Sonic Past ~ From the 1950s to the Present / Introduction to Sound Recording and Recording Technologies, II

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:

• Stephen Smith, “What the Hell is a Radio Documentary,” and other selections from the Nieman Reports (Fall 2001). 8 pp. [On electronic reserve.]
• Check out some of the "From the Archives" segments on Talking History [www.talkinghistory.org].
• Edward R. Murrow, "The Case for the Flying Saucers." Available on Talking History: www.talkinghistory.org. See http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2004jan-june.html for the broadcast.
• Edward R. Murrow, "The Case for the Flying Saucers," (1950). Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:57.
  The modern UFO era emerged following World War II and is generally dated to June 24, 1947, when businessman Kenneth Arnold sighted a formation of very bright objects in the sky while flying over the Cascade mountains in Washington. Edward R. Murrow interviewed Arnold and others in this CBS radio special report, titled "The Case for the Flying Saucers." Utilizing interviews, actors, historical reconstructions, and narration, this documentary, hosted by Murrow and heard nationwide on the evening of April 7, 1950, explores the growing phenomenon of UFO sightings and reflects the growing public attention and concern during the Cold War era with flying saucers in general. [For more information on this audio, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. This particular recording came from Record Group 330: Records of the U.S. Department of Defense].
• Deborah Amos' Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown (1981) Father Cares. From NPR's description of this documentary: "On November 18, 1978, 913 men, women, and children --followers of cult leader Jim Jones -- died during a mass suicide and murder in Jonestown, Guyana. In the months preceding the tragedy, Jim Jones and his People’s Temple followers recorded their thoughts, their problems and their aspirations. The hundreds of hours of audio tape form the basis of the NPR documentary Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown. Airing in 1981, the documentary was written by James Reston, Jr and Noah Adams, and produced by Deborah Amos. Based on the tapes Reston acquired under the Freedom of Information Act, the documentary won most major broadcast awards including the Dupont Col umbia Award, the National Headliner Award and the Prix Italia." This is a long documentary. Listen to at least the first fifteen minutes or so, and then sample the rest. You can listen to one of the tapes -- the infamous "Death Tape" (11-18-1978) here: Real Media. MP3. Time: 44:30. The tape contains some of the final moments of the mass suicide/murder.
• Linda Wertheimer, Ed., Listening to America: 25 Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on National Public Radio (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995), pp. xi-xxiii, 70-81, 116-119, 124-128, 240-244, 340-343, 414-417. [On electronic reserve.]
• "Songs from General Electric's Association Island" (circa 1930s).
  Real Media.| MP3. Time: 4:25. Association Island is situated just off the coast of the northeastern edge of Lake Ontario in New York State near the outlet of the Great Lakes and the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. From 1907 until the mid-1950s it served as a summer retreat and conference center for managers and engineers from the National Electric Lamp Company and later the General Electric Company (GE), the National's corporate parent. The Island is perhaps more widely familiar to avid modern fiction readers as the satirized "Meadows" in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). In Vonnegut's novel the "flat, grassy island" located on the St. Lawrence River, was a corporate playground that also served as a rite-of-passage to status and power within a technocratic dystopia. There, in Vonnegut's fictional realm-as in real life-managers and engineers, all male, "spent a week each summer in an orgy of morale building." Through "team athletics, group sings, bonfires and skyrockets, bawdy entertainment, free whiskey and cigars; and through plays, put on by professional actors, which pleasantly but unmistakably made clear the nature of good deportment within the system, and the shape of firm resolves for the challenging year ahead," the Island worked "its magic" on its temporary inhabitants, helping to forge a male-centered brotherhood of managers. Yet, ironically, Association Island in 1952, when Player Piano was published, was entering the final years of usefulness to the corporation. Soon, a new corporate structure and ethos emerged and swept away the seemingly quaint fraternalism of the serene Island. In 1959, the company turned the Island over to the YMCA. The two songs featured in this selection, come from the GE archival collection of the Hall of History, at the Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY. I digitized it for the Museum some years ago, in an attempt to preserve these very rare recordings of the "Island Chorus," recordings of songs that reflect the culture of the Island during its heyday. For more information about Association Island, see: http://www.elfun.org/history/history.asp. For the post-GE fate of Association Island, see http://www.airvresort.com/History.htm
• Listen to and read script of David Isay's "Sunshine Hotel." Be ready to discuss the following in class: research, story structure, sound elements, transitions, and more.
• Vermont Folklife Center. "Digital Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide." [http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/archive/res_audioequip.htm]


Recommended:

• Audio Technology and Audio Processing: An Introduction from MATRIX: http://www.historicalvoices.org/oralhistory/audio-tech.html
• Digitizing Speech Recordings ~ guidelines (more great resources from MATRIX). Available at: http://www.historicalvoices.org/oralhistory/improve-ad.html or on electronic reserve.\
• Recording from On-Line Sources: A Short Guide.
• Audio tours and in museums: http://talk.transom.org/WebX?14@437.NavGaDquNrZ.0@.eeb70a3/1
• Documentary Sound. [http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/documentary.htm]. A discography and guide to resources for documentary sound.
• My thanks to Dale Willman and NPR for making the following NPR programs available to the class. We may revisit these later in the semester, as well:
  * NPR's Morning Edition. "Will Rodgers" segment from first show, 1971. [On electronic reserve.]
  * NPR's Morning Edition. "Apocalypse Now" selection from first show, 1971. [On electronic reserve.]
  * NPR's Morning Edition ("Graffiti" selection from the first show, 1971. [On electronic reserve.]
• Audio-Technica, "A Brief Guide to Microphones." On line at: http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/site/9904525cd25e0d8d/index.html. Also available on electronic reserve in PDF format.
• Minidiscs and Minidisc Recording: http://www.minidisc.org/index.html.
• Hearing Voices: radio documentaries, sound portraits and audio art created by independent public radio producers: Hearing Voices site.
• Soundprint Documentary Archive: Soundprint documentaries.
• Inventing the Poster Child: This show explores how the disability charity business was built and how people with disabilities are working to change it. It is part of a four-part series on the history of society's attitudes toward the disabled and the emergence of a disability civil rights movement. The homepage for the project contains audio excerpts as well as primary source documents used in the productions: The Disability History Project.
• Charles Hardy III, "Recording Oral Histories: Field Recording Equipment and Its Use." (Draft, 1998) [available on [On electronic reserve.]
• Richard Kilborn and John Izod, An Introduction to Television Documentary: Confronting Reality, ch. 3 ("Shaping the Real: Modes of Documentary"). While this is not about radio or radio documentaries, many of the documentary modes discussed have parallels to aural documentary production. [On electronic reserve.] [WE WILL REVISIT THIS]
• Huber, David Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, chapter 2 ("Sound and Hearing" (pp. 33-66). [On electronic reserve.]
• Huber, David Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, chapter 4 ("Microphones") pp. 115-185. [On electronic reserve.]
• Audio-Technica, "A Brief Guide to Microphones." On line at: http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/site/9904525cd25e0d8d/index.html. [On electronic reserve.]
• Tape synchs: http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=172
  

Project/Assignment: Identify at least three specific archival/heritage audio you might want to use in a documentary on any one of the following hypothetical subjects. Feel free to narrow the topic as you please). Search through the various databases at your disposal -- on-line (see the below section for some suggestions), in our library, or at the New York State library downtown. Discuss your source, recording media, copyright/access restrictions, quality of the audio (if you have access to the recordings or if such information is available from the archive)--and speculate on how you would use the segments. Prepare ONE short sound element and submit it along with your discussion of the three selections.

1) The Death Penalty in 19th and 20th Century America
2) The Presidency of Warren Harding
3) World War I
4) The Spanish American War
5) The Music of __________ (find any musician/performer from the 1880s throught the late 1940s)
6) World War II
7) The Origins of the Cold War
8) The Atomic Bomb
9) Juvenile Delinquency in the Early 20th Century
10) The Great Depression and the New Deal
11) Romantic Love in 20th Century America: A History
12) The Blues and Early Civil Rights History
13) American Prisoners of War
14) The Rise and Fall of American Labor
15) A Radio History of the FBI
16) American Socialism
17) The Conservative Sixties: A Revisionist Look at a Not-So-Turbulent Decade
18) American Immigration History
19) A History of American Environmentalism
20) Women's Rights: A Radio History
21) Race and Racism in Early 20th Century America


Archival Resources:

• NPR's Sound Library Directory. A guide to audio archives around the country.
• Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. "The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library is one of the richest resources of recorded sound in the world. The aural landscape that helps define a community, a country, or a cultural era can be studied through the Archives extraordinary holdings, which cover virtually every aspect of recorded sound--from Mozart to Maria Callas to Motown, from symphonic works to presidential speeches, from radio dramas to television specials." The Archives contains approximately 500,000 recordings and more than 10,000 printed items. See: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/rha/rha.html
• Library of Congress Sound Collections ~ SONIC Search Engine. The Library of Congress Recorded Sound Collection contains over 2.5 million audio recordings in a variety of physical formats. The collection includes radio broadcasts, spoken word recordings, as well as vocal and instrumental music. Through SONIC you can access a sizable portion--though not all--of the library's holdings.
• Association for Recorded Sound Collections. "Founded in 1966, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, study, publication, and information exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound." It "provides a forum for the development and dissemination of discographic information in all fields and periods of recording and in all sound media. In addition, ARSC works to encourage the preservation of historical recordings, to promote the exchange and dissemination of research and information about them, and to foster an increased awareness of the importance of recorded sound as part of any cultural heritage."
• History and Politics Out Loud. A searchable archive of historical audio resources.
• The National Gallary of the Spoken Word. When completed, this site will offer researchers a fully searchable online database of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century. The project is just beginning.
• British Library National Sound Archive [http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/cat.html]. This link will take you to the catalogue of the British Library National Sound Archive, which includes entries for almost 2 1/2 million sound recordings. The Catalog "is one of the largest catalogues of its kind anywhere in the world, covering both published and unpublished recordings in all genres from pop, jazz, classical and world music, to oral history, drama and literature, dialect, language and wildlife sounds."
• Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music [http://http://www.indiana.edu/~libarchm/]. This "is the largest university-based ethnographic sound archives in the United States. Its holdings cover a wide range of cultural and geographical areas, and include commercial and field recordings of vocal and instrumental music, folktales, interviews, and oral history, as well as videotapes, photographs, and manuscripts. As a research and teaching facility, the Archives serves a wide community of scholars, students, musicians and teachers---on campus and throughout the world."
• Radio Archive of the University of Memphis. A catalog of thousands of radio programs broadcast since the 1920s. The collection is housed in the Microforms Department of the McWherter Library at the University of Memphis. Copies of audio tapes can be obtained at very low cost. An incredible resource for documentarians.
• The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library. An excellent source of both on-line and original audio. From the Web site: "The Vincent Voice Library contains over 1100 collections of spoken word audio recordings. Each collection is described by an online finding aid that contains information about the collection in general, and provides a description of and access information for each recording. In total, there are close to 10,000 individual recordings described. All the recordings are available for listening in the Vincent Voice Library. . . . We are currently in the process of digitizing all the recordings. As material becomes digitized and copyright restrictions permitting, recordings will become available on the Web through the links found in the finding aids."
• Conservation OnLine document library - Preservation of Audio Materials. The Photographic and Recording Media Committee of the Preservation and Reformatting Section of ALA has collected a number of links to online resources, including this one on preservation of audio resources.
• James R. Smart, compiler, Radio Broadcasts in the Library of Congress, 1924-1941: A Catalog of Recordings (Washington DD: Library of Congress, 1982).
• Michael R. Pitts, Radio Soundtracks: A Reference Guide (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1976).
• Gilles St. Laurent, "The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials,"of the Music Division of the National Library of Canada focuses on the preservation of audio recordings.
• Samuel Brylawski, "Preservation of Digitally Recorded Sounds," ( Recorded Sound Section, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress). From Council on Library Information Resources: http://www.clir.org/index.html.
• Vanderbilt Television News Archive. <http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/>.
  Precisely what its name suggests: a comprehensive (since 1989) archive of ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN news broadcasts.
• http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/tutorial/dpm/index.html. Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-Term Problems. An excellent introduction to some of the central issues in digital media preservation.
• WAMC/Northeast Public Radio Records, Special Collections, U-Albany Library: http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/apap138.htm
• Norman Studer Papers, Special Collections, U-Albany Library: http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/apap116.htm
• Pacifica Radio Archives and Library. Search their archives of more than 50,000 recordings.: Pacifica Radio Archives Guide

Class 5 (Monday, March 2): Writing for Sound, Writing With Sound: The Art of Aural Storytelling in Features and Short-Form Documentaries

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Krulwich, Robert, "Conceiving Features: One Reporter's Style," and Scott Simon, "Writing for the Ear," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), 81-89 and 103-115. [On electronic reserve].
• Charles Hardy III, “Oral History and Audio Art." (uncorrected proofs of forthcoming article) [On electronic reserve.]
• Pamela Dean and Charles Hardy III., “Oral History in Sound and Moving Image Documentaries,” Oral History Handbook, editors Thomas Charlton, et. al., (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006): 510-62. [On electronic reserve.]
• Charles Hardy III, “Authoring in Sound: Aural History, Radio, and the Digital Revolution,” in The Oral History Reader, 2nd edition, editors Rob Perks and Alistair Thomson, (London: Routledge, 2006). [On electronic reserve.]
• Charles Hardy Instructional Audio File Collection (these files are linked to Hardy's "Authoring in Sound" essay above):



1. River of Clouds (28 kbps)	2. Mara O'Carty (28 kbps)	3. World War II on the Homefront (28 kbps)	4. Never a Man Spake Like This (28 kbps)	5. Mei Mei (28 kbps)	6. The Idea of North (28 kbps)
1. River of Clouds (56 kbps)	2. Mara O'Carty (56 kbps)	3. World War II on the Homefront (56 kbps)	4. Never a Man Spake Like This (56 kbps)	5. Mei Mei (56 kbps)	6. The Idea of North (56 kbps)

 
• Chapter 5 ("Writing") in Robert McLeish, Radio Production: A Manual for Broadcasters (Focal Press, 1999). [On electronic reserve.]
• Samples of short feature scripts: WAMC's Women in Science series Web site: http://www.womeninscience.org/then.htm.
• The Future Then and Now: The Evolution of Science Fiction. This is an outline submitted to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation by Robert J. Sawyer outlining a three-part, three hour-long radio documentary tracing the development of Science Fiction. The series aired in 1986: Robert J. Sawyer's outline for "The Future Then and Now".
• Bernard, Sheila Curran, "Outlines, Treatments, and Scripts," from Documentary Storytelling (2007). [On electronic reserve.]

Recommended:

• Third Coast International Audio Festival ~ 2002 Presentations: "Once Upon a Time . . . The End" and "The Elements"
[http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/annual_conference_2002_sessions.asp#id1l]. Listen to the programs on beginnings and endings ("Once Upon a Time . . . The End") and on "Music" (in the section titled "The Elements").
• Dan Roberts, A Moment in Time series. Go to http://www.amomentintime.com/clips.asp#. Listen to some of Roberts' scripts.
• Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition, pp. 123-144. [On electronic reserve.] Although some of this focuses on older technologies and techniques, the fundamental approach to planning and putting together audio work is still valid.
• Listen to Charles Hardy, "Prodigal Son" (1985) [below] and read his essay via this link: Hardy Essay on Prodigal Son. Be prepared to discuss both in class.
  PRODIGAL SON: 28.8 | 56 | ISDN [all in RealMedia]. This 8-minute lyrical audio piece was first featured in Hardy's 1985 series, "Mordecai Mordant's Celebrated Audio Ephemera," a collection of audio art sound montages broadcast on public radio in 1985. Composed of excerpts from oral history interviews, archival recordings, and James Weldon Johnson's recording of his poem, "The Prodigal Son, " it explores how black migrants from the American South made sense of their ncounters with the "bright lights" of northern industrial metropolises in the early decades of the twentieth century. In this highly creative and imaginative work, Hardy was interested in unraveling the origins of a series of folk tales and personal narratives that elderly African Americans used to encode their own youthful experiences with the pleasures and dangers of the red light districts of industrial Philadelphia.
• Third Coast International Audio Festival ~ 2002 Presentations ~ Elements: Voice [MP3 file] -- and also on the Third Coast Web site: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/annual_conference_2002_sessions.asp#id1
• "Short Docs" - Examples of short-form documentaries from the Third Coast International Audio Festial: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/shortdocs.asp
• Conrad's Garage. Produced by Joe Richman/Radio Diaries. A sound-rich story about the early history of radio transmission.

Project/Assignment: Find any academic history article that you believe would be amenable to translation into an audio documentary. Bring in a short typed treatment for how you would go about adapting the article into audio form. You might look at The Journal of American History, The American Historical Review, or more specialized journals such as the Journal of Social History, Journal of Women's History, Labor History, and so on. Identify audio elements you would need to produce your piece.

Class 6 (Monday, March 9): The Art of Conducting and Producing Interviews

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Tips for Interviewers. From Willa K. Baum, Oral History for the Local Historical Society. Tips for Interviewers.
• Chapter 3 ("Conducting Interviews") in Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History (New York, 1995). [On electronic reserve.]
• Terry Gross on the art of interviewing (recorded speech, Union College, 11/13/2002). Available only on the course electronic reserve site and not to the general public. Sorry -- Terry's restriction!
• Jay Allison, "Recording/Interviewing." From the Transom.org Web site.
• Selections from Pete Seeger: A Life, a highly produced interview by Alan Chartock. Audio. MP3 | RealMedia
• Selections from Jan Weiner interview by Alan Chartock. Audio. MP3 | RealMedia.
• Third Coast International Audio Festival ~ 2002 Presentations ~ Elements: Interviews [MP3 file]
• Counter Cultures by Shoshana Stein. Produced for the Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives project. RealMedia | MP3
• Digging Up Thelonious Monk's Southern Roots, By John Biewen. Broadcast on NPR (October 10, 2007).

Class 7 (Monday, March 16): Introduction to Digital Audio Editing

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:

• Vermont Folklife Center, "Digital Editing of Field Audio" [http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/archive/res_digitalediting.htm]
• Audacity program manuals and documentation: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation.
• Audition vers. 1.5 tutorials: http://www.vtc.com/products/Adobe-Audition-1.5-tutorials.htm# [There are many other on-line -- and YouTube -- tutorial available, including for later versions of Audition.]
• Transom.org ~ short introduction to digital editing: <http://www.transom.org/tools/editing_mixing/200101.editing.bgolding.html>
• Audacity Tutorial: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html (see also the guide at Transom.org: http://www.transom.org/tools/editing_mixing/200404.audacity.html)
• Principles of Digital Audio. Prof. Jeffrey Hass, Center for Electronic and Computer Music, Indiana University. Check out the other chapters in this "on-line" book.

Project/Assignment:


(1) By now you should have a pretty good idea of what you intend to produce as your final documentary project. Write a short description of your project. Identify the audio/sound elements that you will need to collect to complete it. If you intend to utilize archival audio resources, identify their location (by archive).
(2) Record a short interview, ideally one that will be useful to you for your final documentary project. This might be an interview with a scholar who is very familiar with the topic of the documentary (and can provide perspective and information), or with a principal witness/character. Submit the recording on tape, CD, DAT, or minidisk.

Class 8 (Monday, March 23): Creating Sonic Scenes With Narration, Interviews, Music, Sound Effects, Ambient Sounds, and Actualities

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, "Documentaries" section. [On electronic reserve].
• Karen Kearns, "Delivery: Using Your Voice," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), 81-89. [On electronic reserve.]
• Deborah Amos, "Producing Features, in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 117-126. documentary modes discussed have parallels to aural documentary production. [On electronic reserve.]
• "Ring 'Em and Fling 'Em," produced by Gerald Zahavi and Deborah Maxwell. Every May, bird banders from around the Adirondacks converge on the Crown Point State Historic site for three weeks of intense banding activity, led by Master bird banders Mike Peterson and Gordon Howard. Listen to this recent radio documentary (aired on WRPI-Troy) on banding at Crown Point: "Ring 'Em and Fling 'Em": RealMedia. | MP3. Time: 26:43
• "Voices from the Dustbowl." Produced by Barrett Golding. RealmMedia 28kbps | 56 Kbps. Golding's documentary has been aired on Lost and Found Sound on National Public Radio (NPR) and also on Soundprint. It is narrated by Charles Todd, who was hired by the Library of Congress to record interviews with farm workers who had travelled to California in the 1930s. "They were Okies and Arkies, originally from Oklahoma and Arkansas who had come west in search of better living. Depression poverty and a massive drought anddust storm had made life impossible for them back home. These are the very people John Steinback wrote about in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. In fact, Steinback was doing interviews for his novel at the same time and in the same places as Todd was recording his interviews. Todd's interviews took place 60 years ago, in the summer of 1940, at several Migratory Government Camps, established in California by the Farm Securities Administration, a New Deal program. The camps were created to accomodate the enormous swell of migrants that came to California, nearly 300,000 people in a few short years. Todd carried a 50-pound Presto recorder from camp to camp, and made hundreds of recordings on acetate discs. The recordings include songs, poems, camp council meetings, square dances, storytelling, and people talking about why they left, about conditions along the way, and about life in the government camps."
• "CCC Camps," by Mark Wolfe.[Student project completed for Producing Historical Documentaries class]. RealMedia 28.8 | RM 56. Mark Wolfe offers a brief glimpse of Depression-era CCC camp life.
• "Challenger," by Rick Clarkson. [Student project completed for Producing Historical Documentaries class]. RealMedia 28.8 | RM 56. Rick Clarkson examines memory and tragedy in this short documentary on what people remember about the day the shuttle Challenger exploded in January of 1986. files).
• "What the Clios Don't Tell You: A History of Advertising in America."
  PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 35:07
  PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:08.
  The Clio Awards are given annually to the best work in the advertising industry. Here in an hour-long documentary -- part of an occasional series, The Past Present -- Curtis Fox explores the long history of advertising in American culture.

Projects/Assignments:

You will find a folder with several dozen audio files in our Blackboard site under "March 23" class (all *.wav files). The audio segments in they folder all pertain to Ellis Island and immigration; they include oral interviews with immigrants, historians, Ellis Island tour guides, as well as ambient sounds, narration, music and songs, actors representing former Ellis Island employees, and other audio selections that might be useful in putting together a documentaty on Ellis Island and immigration. Your assignment is to compose a short-from documentary (4-7 minutes) utilizing these sonic elements in a coherent, compact, and evocative way. We will discuss your compositions in class. Be prepared to talk about why you chose to construct the documentary in the way you did--which sound elements you were drawn to, what essential points you were trying to communicate, what sort of compromises between aesthetics and authenticity you were forced to make, and so on. Prepare your mix as a *.wav or *.aif file, but submit it as a high quality (at least 128 kbps) MP3 file.


Class 9 (Monday, March 30): Advanced Composition and Sound Editing Techniques

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Glenn Gould, Solitude Trilogy. Listen to any one of the following aural documentaries by Glenn Gould (1932-1982), the Canadian composer and pianist.
  
  The Idea of North (1967) [On electronic reserve]
  The Latecomers (1969) [On electronic reserve.]
  The Quiet in the Land, (1977) [On electronic reserve.]
  

Recommended:

• National Library of Canada, The Glenn Gould Archive. From the introduction to the Web site: "This site was developed by the National Library of Canada which is the official repository of the archives of the late concert pianist, Glenn Gould. A supremely gifted artist and Canada's most renowned classical musician of the 20th century, Gould was a recording artist, radio and television broadcaster and producer, writer and an outspoken apologist for the electronic media. Visitors to this site will find a virtual exhibition drawn from his archival papers, a look at the National Library's audio archival tapes available using RealAudio, two searchable databases of the National Library's Glenn Gould Papers, research aids such as two chronologies, a Gould bibliography, lists of films, videos and radio broadcasts made by and about Gould, selections of writings by Gould and writings about Gould, works of art and of poetry inspired by him, and links to other related internet sites."



Projects/Assignments: Listen to one of the following documentaries and write a 3 page review of it. In your review consider historical content, story structure, and sound/production quality issues. Be specific in your discussion, highlighting examples from the production to make your major points (use exact index play times to direct the reader to these examples).

Charles Hardy, "You Work at Stetson's?" Produced in 1982. [Part of Hardy's "I Remember When" series]. Real Media | MP3.
By 1886, John B. Stetson owned the world’s biggest Hat factory in Philadelphia and employed nearly 4,000 workers. The factory was putting out about 2 million hats a year by 1906. Stetson was a pioneer in mechanizing the art of hat manufacturing. He was also part of a movement of liberal business reform in the early 20th century, now referred to as "welfare capitalism." He offered a variety of benefits to his employees, including free health care -- and gave shares in his company to valued workers. As a philanthropist, he founded Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and built a Philadelphia hospital. This documentary, based on oral interviews with former Stetson employees, looks as the industrial world that Stetson created. It was produced by Charles Hardy as part of his "I Remember When" documentary series on Philadephia history.

America's Cold War and the Hollywood blacklist: "BLACKLISTED." A dramatic documentary about Hollywood screen writer Gordon Kahn's struggle to survive the Hollywood blacklist of the late 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's (utilizing actors, sound effects, dramatic recreations, and so on—based on letters, diaries, FBI files, and other primary source documents). All six parts of the series are now available from the following site: WGBH <http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3625029>. Please listen to part 1, "Hollywood on Trial."

"WHER-1000 Beautiful Watts: The First All-Girl Radio Station in The World. "
Part 1:Real Media. | MP3. Time: 25:10.
Part 2:Real Media. | MP3. Time: 33:11. WHER went on-air on October 29, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and stayed there for 17 more years. "Legendary record producer Sam Phillips had always wanted a radio station. When the FCC finally gave him a frequency, 1430 on the AM dial, Sam came up with a one-of-a-kind idea—an all girl format—women announcers, sales staff, management, record librarians, copy writers. At the time, stations had at most one girl announcer. Each woman who interviewed for a job at WHER thought she would be that girl. It wasn't until the day before the station went on the air that the girls themselves found out the station would be all female." Produced in 1999 by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and mixed by Jim McKee.

Dan Collison, "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party." Producer: Dan Collison.
28.8 | 56. "In 1964, most people assumed that the Democratic National Convention would serve as little more than a coronation of Lyndon Johnson as the Democratic nominee for President. However, controversy erupted when the mostly black Mississippi Freedom Democratic party challenged the all white regular Mississippi Democratic delegation on the convention floor." This piece chronicles their efforts.

"Remembering Stonewall." Producer: David Isay (1989).
28.8 | 56 | ISDN. Produced in 1989 by David Isay to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. It was the first documentary--in any medium--about Stonewall. An excerpt from the Sound Portraits WWW site notes: "On Friday, June 27, 1969, eight officers from the public morals section of the first division New York City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars. At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular Friday night at the Stonewall Inn was different. It sparked a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged riot, and modern gay activism was born."

"Campaign '68." This documentary was produced in 2008 by American Public Media's American RadioWorks. "The 1968 presidential election was a watershed in American politics. After dominating the political landscape for more than a generation, the Democratic Party crumbled. Richard M. Nixon was elected president and a new era of Republican conservatism was born. In the wake of another historic election, we look back 40 years to the dramatic story of Campaign '68."

"The WASPs: Women Pilots of WWII." Producer Joe Richman/Radio Diaries (Dec. 2002).
Real Media | MP3. "In the early 1940s, the US Airforce faced a dilemma. Thousands of new airplanes were coming off assembly lines and needed to be delivered to military bases nationwide, yet most of America's pilots were overseas fighting the war. To solve the problem, the government launched an experimental program to train women pilots. They were known as the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots." This is their story.

"Emma Goldman: The Courage to Struggle" (1991).
Real Media | MP3. This documentary, produced by Trish Valva in 1991 for Pacifica Radio, offers a fascinating look at a 20th century anarchist and feminist who struggled her whole life for free speech, the right to birth control, and women’s equality. It includes interviews with Dr. Candace Falk, editor of the Emma Goldman Papers, Mollie Ackerman, Goldman’s personal secretary, and Ora Robbins, whose family provided a home while Robbins was a teenager.

Curtis Fox's "Sacco and Vanzetti."" RealMedia: 28.8 | 56. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, is the second in his new history documentary series titled The Past Present. Here is his summary of the program: "Almost everyone has heard of [Nicola] Sacco and [Bartolomeo] Vanzetti, two Italian-born anarchists who were executed in 1927 for a crime they probably didn't commit--a payroll robbery and double murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. What most people don't know, however, is that Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti were part of a group of revolutionaries that conducted a bombing campaign against government officials, including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Historian Nunzio Pernicone discusses the anarchist background of Sacco and Vanzetti. Then Pernicone, joined by historian Richard Polenberg, examine the world-famous case that tore this country apart in the 1920s. The program includes historical audio of men involved in the case, Italian anarchist songs, Woody Guthrie ballads, and actors Joe Grifasi and Spiro Malas reading from Sacco and Vanzetti's Moving prison letters."

Crossing East (2006), episode 3 ("Raising Cane"). [On electronic reserve]. Crossing East is an 8-part series of one-hour documentaries on the history of Asian American immigration, from the 1600s to the present. This episode focuses on the earliest encounters between Asians and North Americans and Europeans. For more information on Crossing East, go to:<www.crossingeast.org>.

"King's Last March" (2008), by Kate Ellis and Stephen Smith. Produced by American Public Media's American RadioWorks. "Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Four decades later, King remains one of the most vivid symbols of hope for racial unity in America. But that’s not the way he was viewed in the last year of his life." [http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/]

Class 10 (Monday, April 6): Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in Sound Broadcasting

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Ethics Guide to Public Radio Broadcasting (CPB): http://www.cpb.org/stations/radioethicsguide/. Includes Independence and Integrity: A Guidebook for Public Radio Journalism (1995) and Independence and Integrity II (2004).
• William E. Kennard and Jacqueline R. Kinney, "A Legal Guide for the Radio Journalist," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 259-272. [On electronic reserve.]
• Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America (Sage Publications, 1996), pp. 43-132. [On electronic reserve.]
• KPFA On The Air. Film/Video documentary. Producer/Director: Veronica Selver; Co-Producer/Writer: Sharon Wood; narrated by Alice Walker. Distributed by California Newsreel. 56 minutes, 2000. Additional description at http://www.newsreel.org/films/kpfa.htm. [Available on password-accessible class viewing stations].

Recommended:


• Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (University of Illinois Press, 1999).
• Matthew Lasar, Pacifica Radio : The Rise of an Alternative Network (Temple University Press, 1999).
• Jeff Land, Active Radio: Pacifica's Brash Experiment (Commerce and Mass Culture (University of Minnestota Press, 1999)].
• Lewis Hill's "The Theory of Listener-Sponsored Radio."
• Cyberspace Law & Regulation. Cyberspace Copyright Issues.
• An excellent guide to general copyright and fair use issues: http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/index.htm. See, in particular the section on "fair use": http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/highered.htm
• Telecommunications Act of 1996 (From the FCC Web site): 1996 Telecommunications Act
• FCC -- PART 73--RADIO BROADCAST SERVICES: Selected Documents from the FCC.
• FCC v. Pacifica Foundation et al. No. 77-528 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES (1978): FCC v. Pacifica (1978)

(Monday, April 13): NO CLASS

Class 11 (Monday, April 20): Long-Form Documentaries, Documentary Series, and Aural EssaysRequired Readings/Listening/Viewing:


• Alessandro Portelli and Charles Hardy III, "I Can Almost See the Lights of Home," in The Journal for MultiMedia History 2 (1999). Available on-line at: JMMH. Go to "Past Issues" and select volume 2.
• Read scripts for segments 13 of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," available through the following link: http://web.archive.org/web/20070722134836/www.unbrokencircle.org/scripts13.htm [Audio will be played in class].
• Third Coast International Audio Festival ~ 2002 Presentations: "Once Upon a Time . . . The End" and "The Elements" . [http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/annual_conference_2002_sessions.asp]. Listen to the program on "Airtime" in the section titled "The Elements."
• Steve Rowland, "Leonard Bernstein: An American Life. Part 2: Twelve Gates to the City (Meeting the Mentors)" [Radio documentary]. [On electronic reserve]. "LEONARD BERNSTEIN: AN AMERICAN LIFE," is a groundbreaking eleven-hour documentary series illuminating the life and work of Leonard Bernstein. The series is narrated by actress Susan Sarandon and was produced by Steve Rowland and Larry Abrams. It is based on the voluminous Bernstein archive of correspondence, including 17,000 letters written to and from Bernstein and hundreds of rare archival audiotapes, as well as interviews with a hundred of Bernstein's colleagues, friends and family.
• "Remembering Kent State, 1970" by Mark Urycki (2002)..
  "When thirteen students were shot by Ohio National Guard Troops during a war demonstration on the Kent State University Campus on the first week of May 1970, four young lives were ended and a nation was stunned. More than 30 years later, the world at war is a different place. However, those thirteen seconds in May, 1970 still remain scorched into an Ohio hillside. Through archival tape and interviews, Remembering Kent State tracks the events that led up to the shootings. (59:10) Aired on WKSU-FM on May 5, 2002." To listen, go to Talking History, at: http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2003jan-june.html (scroll down to the May 8, 2003 broadcast).

Optional Project/Assignment (extra credit): Review previous discussion of short form documentaries. Prepare a script and produce a very short mini-documentary, or "feature," (at least 4 minutes) on any historical topic -- but to make this assignment a bit less time consuming, you might want to use audio segments you have prepared for your own final documentary project.. Bring in your production and session files on a data CD or a flashdrive for discussion in class.


Recommended:

• The Jewish Giant [28.14 Minutes]. A wonderful recent example of the documentary work produced by the Sound Portraits group.
• David Isay's Sound Portraits WWW Home Site: Sound Portraits. Examples of excellent documentary production work.
• American RadioWorks's Walking Out of History: The True Story of Shackleton's Endurance Expedition.
• Selection from America's Women: A Legacy of Change. Sleight-Brennan Communications. Produced in 1995 as a four-part radio series on women's history commemorating the 75th anniversary of the achievement of women's right to vote. On electronic reserve; to be added.
• Dan Collison's "Freedom Summer." [RealMedia: 28.8 | 56.] A look back at one of the most famous summers of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
• Dan Collison's "Port Chicago 50." [RealMedia: 28.8 | 56.] Dan Collison produced The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History in 1994. It aired on dozens of public radio stations around the country. It's the story of the worst homefront disaster of World War II and its aftermath -- an act of resistance by fifty African American munitions loaders. In late March of 1999, a docu-drama based on the Port Chicago incident -- titled The Mutiny -- was aired by NBC. 

Class 12 (Monday, April 27): "Publishing" Aural History ~ On Air, On Line, On CD

Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:

• Funding and Support: http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=178
• Radio Organizations/Associations: http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=269
• Pitching Stories/Submission Guidelines: http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=266
• David Battino, "The Art of Podcasting" in Electronic Musician: http://emusician.com/tutorials/emusic_art_podcasting/
• Podcasting Resources: http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=272#rss
• RealMedia Production Guide
• Introduction to RSS and Podcasting: http://rssgov.com/rssworkshop.html
• Streaming Media. Streaming media tutorial from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison.

Class 13 (Monday, May 4): Class Presentations

May 11: FINAL SCRIPT AND DOCUMENTARY RECORDING DUE (Script should be in electronic format. No paper submissions!).


~ End ~


Readings and Practicum in Aural History and Audio Documentary/Feature Production -- Course Syllabus
Copyright © 1998-2009 by Prof. Gerald Zahavi



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Updated 4-18-2009