The changing media landscape
Posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 11:00pm. #
When I started in radio, the only way to record audio was a large bulky reel-to-reel tape recorder, which I lugged from the studios to interviews in factories, pubs and hotels. The only way to edit audio was to deftly use a razor-blade, a chinagraph pencil and some splicing tape in large, purpose-built studios. The only way for listeners to hear to that audio was through a carefully-edited AM or FM broadcast; and the only way to listen was live. And for a listener who wished to take part, they could do so by writing a postcard, or calling from their home telephone.
In 2012, I can record audio, edit it and make it available directly from my mobile phone. On their computer or phone, listeners can listen whenever they like, wherever they are; and share audio every bit as technically good as our own.
Radio – and the media – has changed. Are we changing with it?
This is the subject of a talk I’m giving at Prix Europa’s The Radio Feature in the Digital Age on Thursday, in Leipzig, Germany.
Having recently done a couple of radio documentaries which delved into some other documentaries I made in the 80′s and 90′s, I reckon we now have the tools to make creative work about 3 times as fast as the days of two track, razor blade editing and the UHER tape machine. At the same time budgets in radio features are a fraction of what they used to be. A few companies, like ARTE are the exception, but they don’t have to worry about audience figures (yet). There are still some delightful radio soundscapes being made. The biggest challenge I see is that they are not being archived in very clever ways, so often the context is missing. Those making radio features need to look at the publishing world and developments like Flipboard and the new iBook Authoring Tool. If you can compose truly multimedia productions, then imagine what could happen if a great radio feature maker teamed up with someone from Fotopedia? TV stations have catalogues of programmes they sell at MIp-TV in Cannes. But radio is poor at putting together catalogues of its works, so a lot of brilliant stuff is lost after it disappears from the podcast window. Perhaps we need to acknowledge that some of the best sound-scaping these days is done in promotions department of UK radio stations. Brilliant storytelling – at least on the examples I hear in the Earshot Creative Review.