For this month’s What’s In Your Bag we reached out to Gregory Warner, host of the new NPR podcast Rough Translation. His work has taken him across Pakistan and Afghanistan, and now he is based in New York City after a long stint as NPR’s East Africa correspondent. He carries all of the essential gear Continue Reading >
If you’ve ever wondered if your listeners were hanging on every word of your story or podcast, we now have some hints. Data from NPR One provides a rare glimpse into how people listen. This is the sort of data podcasters have been begging for from Apple (and they’re finally getting it). But at NPR, Continue Reading >
You return from a long day reporting in the field — only to realize you didn’t record ambience. You’re in the middle of a reporting trip and you’ve forgotten extra batteries for your recorder. You’re not happy with the scene sounds you’re capturing. For audio producers, these frustrating problems are all too common. We want to Continue Reading >
If you pant like a Labrador will your voice have more energy? Can you hum away “vocal fry?” And what does Bugs Bunny have to do with good radio? I coach reporters at NPR on vocal delivery — and these are some of the tricks we use. To really build a strong vocal presence for Continue Reading >
Since we jumped into Facebook Live, NPR has created more than 1,375 videos. We’ve broadcast from 23 states and 19 countries. And we’ve learned a few things along the way that we think you might find helpful. What is Facebook Live? Anyone can broadcast live videos on Facebook — from iPhone selfies to HD, multi-camera Continue Reading >
You, reporter/blogger, have been working on a story all day, and it’s deadline time. You hope your story’s free of typos and grammatical mistakes. But at this point, you’ve read it so many times, you fear you’ve missed something. No one is available to read behind you and it’s nearly time to hit “publish.” What Continue Reading >
As more and more people create podcasts, there’s a lot of competition for listeners’ ears. But there’s a reason so many public radio producers are finding success in the podcasting space — we know how to tell a good story! Platforms like NPR One also help provide clues and recommendations for how you can hook your Continue Reading >
Ear training, the practice of learning how to recognize certain sounds, is a must for audio producers. We need to be able to spot problems and identify them to before they impact quality or snowball into larger technical problems. This post will help you identify problematic audio, prevent the most common problems and recognize when it’s time Continue Reading >