Crystal Ligori's Lesson on Podcasts

https://bit.ly/2UOTfCi

By Sarah Happel

On March 5 and March 7, Crystal Ligori took time out of her day to visit our mass communications class in room 122. She taught us about the various parts and types of podcasts, as well as how to record and edit podcasts of our own. Our class was split into two groups, and each group recorded and finalized a podcast while Ligori guided us through the process.

According to an article on OPB, Ligori, a freelance voiceover artist, produces the podcasts “All Things Considered,” which she also narrates, and “Literary Arts: The Archive Project.” She has received the Society for Professional Journalists award and the Hearst Journalism award, both while she was attending the University of Montana working towards Broadcast Journalism degree. Ligori was also a part of KUFO, KZZU, and KBGA before making her way to OPB.

Before her talk, I knew next to nothing about podcasting. However, her talk sparked an interest. I learned that a podcast isn’t only news, but can be a story as well. I found it shocking that sometimes, sound effects had to be created from real experiences. For example, in order to make shivering noises in one of Ligori's podcasts, people had to actually place themselves in low temperatures in order to create an authentic audio recording. Additionally, I didn’t realize how complicated editing audio was - we didn’t just edit the clips together, but we also had to adjust the volume of the talking during the interviews to make it even, as well as edit out pauses and download the music. This experience was informative, interesting, and most of all, fun.