Got Courage? Signal November 2011

November 2011

Emily Joins YouthCast!
The GPRX Bullying Stories Project
Tools We Like
This Just In

Courage.

“Before I told this story, it was just something that happened; but when I told it I felt it all.” – MothSHOPgraduate

Telling your story to an audience requires a kind of courage that youth producers know better than most. This month, we’re highlighting two projects that are built on courage, along with tools, contests and audio from the youngest members of the youth radio world.

Happy reading & listening,
Jones, GPRX Project Director

The MothSHOP

MothSHOP student
Bernard Jenkins

One of the most exciting things on the radio these days is also one of the seemingly simplest: The Mothfeatures a single voice talking before an audience: true stories told live.

But have you ever actually tried telling a personal story live on stage? Not so simple! Enter the MothSHOP Community Education Program, which offers storytelling workshops to underserved teens and adults throughout New York City.

MothSHOP instructors use a broad range of narrative techniques to help students shape their life experiences into stories. Instructor Maggie Cino offers one example:

“A great way to work on a story is to focus on a specific scene – a moment in your life where everything changed. Work on making that scene as vivid as possible and giving us just enough information about you and your life so we understand why this moment is so important to you.”

See videos of MothShop participants telling their stories, and learn how The Moth has turned a simple idea into a movement on the GPRX blog.

Stations will be programming around these events and subjects. Let us know what you have that fits!

Nov – Native American Heritage Month
Thanksgiving
Winter Holidays
The New Year
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Listen to YouthCast: “Short List #5″ from Third Grade Audio. What do sharks, brothers and the heating vent have in common?

Emily Joins YouthCast!

We are very excited to re-introduce Emily Corwin as the new host of YouthCast. Why re-introduce? Emily is the Assistant Programmer of Public Radio Remix, PRX’s 24/7 channel of radio awesomeness, and until a few months ago she worked the PRX help desk. A bonafide PRXpert!

Emily’s also an up and coming maker of radio in her own right. We’re delighted she’s captaining YouthCast, and we’re bidding a fond farewell to the amazing Molly Adams, who ably hosted the ‘Cast for two years. Keep your eyes on these two – they’re headed places.

GPRX Bullying Stories Project

Thanks to a grant from Motorola Mobility Foundation, GPRX recently launched Bullying Stories, A Community Storytelling Project. To kick off the project, we asked youth radio groups to send us pitches for stories on the topic of bullying – and they answered!

At the moment, a panel of youth and adult producers is busily reading through some excellent story proposals. Selected producers will receive an audio storytelling kit, training webinars, and possible inclusion in an hour-long special on bullying which will be shared nationally by PRX. See the GPRX video(starring many of you!) we created for the grant. Updates to follow!

Tools We Like

Some very cool tools have come across the GPRX desk lately:

Image: 2create

Super great mic demo from Hunter College. Can’t tell your omnidirectional from your supercardioid? In this very cool demonstration, click on various mic types as a video plays to hear the difference in real time.

Syllabus Exchange from Poynter’s News University is a gold mine of searchable teaching resources, with courses on everything from avoiding bias to multimedia reporting.

Rob Rosenthal

“Imagining the Story,” from radio teacher extraordinaire Rob Rosenthal and Transom, explains planning your story before you head into the field (a “narrative to-do list”).

This Just In

Down to the wire! There’s still time to get your proposals in for AIR’s exciting Localore Initiative. Deadline November 10th.

Need audio inspiration? Look no further than the winners of this year’s Third Coast Festival competition, soon to be part of PRX’s annual Best of the Best TCF Broadcast.
PRX is polling…you! What’s the best recorder and editing software? What social networks do you use to promote your work? Take our fast (we promise) survey right here.

Generation PRX