Category Archives: podcasts

Tim Harford on telling data stories with audio: “You need to keep simplifying”

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Economist and podcaster Tim Harford, author of How To Make The World Add Up, spoke to MA Data Journalism students this month. In a guest post for OJB Niels de Hoog rounds up Tim’s tips on creating compelling number-driven stories for radio and podcasts 

Orson Welles famously said that there’s nothing an audience won’t understand, as long as you can get them to be interested.

Listening to Tim Harford’s podcasts it is clear that he has taken this message to heart.

“If you’ve got a hook, a personality, or a question people want answered, that will carry people through a certain degree of complexity that they wouldn’t tolerate if it was reported straight.”

Take More or Less, his podcast about statistics for BBC Radio 4. At first glance it doesn’t offer the easiest subject for an engaging audio story — yet somehow the programme is very entertaining to listen to. Continue reading →

Guest post: 5 things I learned from recording my first podcast

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Anna Noble, one of my MA Online Journalism students, wrote this about her first experiences of podcasting. I liked it so much I’ve asked to reproduce it here.

For my latest journalism experiment I have bravely entered the world of podcasting with zero broadcasting experience under my belt.

The result was literally days of record, delete, record, edit, delete and then: “That was perfect! But… you forgot to press the record button.”

I did manage to work through the frustration and actually start to enjoy discovering what you can do with a mic, a recorder and the free audio editing software Audacity.

I love the amount of creativity that audio allows you: you’ve got the tone, pitch, speed, sound effects, and the actual words you use, all at your disposal. It really allows you the freedom to present a story in a unique voice.

Anyway, here are 5 lessons I learned the hard way, so you don’t have to. Continue reading →

5 of the best: podcasts about data journalism

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Image of podcast on mobile

Image by Carla Pedret©

Podcasts are a great way to listen to stories on the move, be entertained, or keep up with developments in a particular field. However, have you ever thought about using them to learn data journalism?

In this list, I have pulled together some of the best podcasts about data. Some are specifically about data journalism, whereas others approach data from another perspective.
Continue reading →

Journalism tool: Clammr, the Vine for audio

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Clammr screenshot

Image: screenshot from Clammr

By Alex Iacovangelo

You probably already have your favourite audio recorder and editor but Clammr offers something new: a way to highlight the best bits of your podcast to help it stand out on social media.

Clammr allows you to select up to 24 seconds of a podcast or interview and post that clip on social media with a direct link to the original to attract listeners. Continue reading →