I listened to the podcast “Tucson Shooter, Loughner, To Spend Life In Prison” which is mostly informative, however
consists of various opinions as well since it is such a sensitive topic. It
starts with an introduction that includes facts about Jared Loughner and his
trial; it does not include a thesis. It then gives background information on
who Loughner is and the crime he committed. The podcast goes on to describe how
many people he killed and injured, including Gabrielle Giffords (congresswoman),
and further gives information about his mental disorder and his medications.
The article then turns from being
very factual to more opinionated because it begins to quote family members of
the people who lost their loved ones on that day. It also contains clips of
people who knew Loughner at a news conference. It then transfers from talking
about Loughner, to talking about gun safety. Gabrielle Gifford’s husband, Mark
Kelly states, "We
have a political class that is afraid to do something as simple as have a
meaningful debate about our gun laws and how they're being enforced." The
article goes on to describe previous gun laws and how much damage the current
gun laws have caused our society today all over America.
At the conclusion of the article,
they go on to sum up everything that had been stated in the first sentence of
the intro but in detail. Rather than just saying Loughner will be locked up for
the rest of his life, they say, “ Jared Loughner was sentenced to seven life
terms - six for murder and one for the attempted assassination of a member of
Congress - plus 140 years for the other attempted murders.”
Distinct from an academic essay,
an audio essay needs to get to the point quickly. Since it is being heard by
the audience it cannot take a long time to explain. It should be brief and not
very broad to keep the audience interested. The essay I read had a lot of
opinions and quotations from people who were affected by this tragic event
which made it much more interesting. It makes the listener feel more engaged
and more sympathetic than they might feel while just reading an essay. I think
this audio essay was more similar to the annotated map because it branched out
to other areas in detail, specifically the gun safety topic that was mentioned.
For my Project 3 audio essay I am thinking about discussing the ASU Orientation
or perhaps the community assistants found at the dormitories.
I think that ASU orientation would be a good topic. This is great idea and you will do a good job. I would try and interview people that like and disliked the event as well as people that organized the event. Your audio essay could discuss Orientation as a whole and determine whether or not its a good thing for a students to go, what can be improved about the event and the value for new students at ASU. The same sort of formula could also be used for the community assistants. In that case you wold be just discussing the importance that they have on the students and there overall worth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea and you will do a good job! The topic on your ASU orientation would be great because there is so much to talk about. You could review the orientation when you went to it or you could talk about how to change it. There is a lot of material for you to work on with the topic of the arizona state university orientation. I agree with you how an audio essay has to be on point and get to the point right away. NPR does a great job on that with their short but precise podcasts when they talk about the current news
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