Online Journalism

When you view a news story online, you typically expect to see either pictures or video accompanying the story. But you don’t typically find audio accompanying those stories.

“Somehow audio has been considered the ‘invisible’ medium,” said Karin Hogh, a podcast expert. “However, if done right, audio can be as powerful in journalism as written articles or even TV and video.”

NPR's Sound Reporting

I think the reason for this is that people are more willing to take time to watch a video or look at photos than listen to audio, because when you listen to audio you have the ability to do something else, and then your focus isn’t 100 percent on the audio.

Here’s why audio journalism is important, according to Hogh:

• Presence: Being on the scene can bring readers to the story.
• Emotions: Tone, expressions, etc can enhance the story.
• Atmosphere: Natural sound helps pull the listener closer to the scene.

Most audio journalism has these basic ingredients:

• Interviews and voice-overs
• Natural or environmental sound
• Imported sound clips, including music

Here’s NPR’s Guide to Audio Journalism and Production.

Here’s how audio can be used:

• Recording interviews
• Doing voice-overs

“Audio journalism is important because it is the dominant form of information distribution on The Next Big Thing in Journalism: mobile journalism,” said Jim Stovall, author of JPROF.