Final Thoughts: Graeme Scallion, W14

Here we are at the end! As I write this I feel a twinge of sadness - it's rare for a single project in an undergrad program to last this long, so a bit of emotional investment is inevitable. I'll miss reading everyone's blog entries - you guys set the standard for me, and reading your words every week served as incredible motivation.

As an incurable perfectionist, I have to confess that I'm not completely satisfied with my final product. My major insecurity is my narration - I did my best to slow down and enunciate, but I'm afraid my marble-mouth got the better of me a few times in the final recording. As this was my first podcasting experience, I decided to keep it simple in terms of technology, but as I began to put all the pieces together I was flooded with new ideas that I did not, unfortunately, have time to explore. The knowledge of what could have been will haunt me forever. I don't mean to be so self-deprecating. All in all, I'm proud of what I've produced - I'm thrilled with my music choices and I think I did an excellent job weaving everything together in a (relatively) seamless package.


If I had the chance, I would definitely go back and re-do parts of my narration so that my voice is more consistent throughout. It didn't help that I recorded most of my podcast with a cold, but listening back to the final podcast, I have a better understanding of what speed and quality of voice is most effective. I would also spend more time experimenting with Audacity's audio effects.

If you're a WRIT 2300 student reading this in the distant future, my advice for you is to always be ahead of schedule. I was more-or-less right on schedule for this entire journey, but here at the end I realize how much more I could have done, and my work would have been all the more impressive had I allotted extra time to get down to the nitty-gritties.

Good luck to anyone who is still working, and I can't wait to peruse your podcasts as they come flooding in.

What Happened in Hopkinsville?: The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter

The Suttons were a typical Kentucky family, until an encounter with visitors from another world thrust the family into the public spotlight. Their story has been told over and over for the past sixty years by skeptics and believers alike, and the strange creatures they described have ensnared the imaginations of ufologists for generations. In this podcast, modelled after Stuff You Missed in History Class, I explore the alleged events of the encounter, the media aftermath, and theories about what really happened in Hopkinsville.

A full transcript of this episode is available HERE!

Software: Graeme Scallion, W14

As Professor Bell recommended, I’ll be recording and editing my podcast using Audacity. Everyone I’ve asked has agreed that Audacity is incredibly user-friendly and accessible to those without prior experience with audio production – and on top of that, it’s free!

Audacity’s website has a link to a detailed user-updated wiki page, complete with manuals, tutorials, and explanations about how to work the various features found under the EFFECTS tab. I think this resource will become very important to me once I begin the recording process, but since I’m completely new to the program, I turned to a series of Youtube videos posted by a user named Justin Walberg. These three short videos serve as a brief introduction to the basics of Audacity, such as how to record, amplify sections of a track, minimize white noise, alter the pitch and tempo of the audio file, and delete sections of the track. However, these videos do not explain how to mix audio tracks, which I believe will be crucial knowledge for incorporating background music, or even for pasting multiple tracks together so that I don’t have to record my entire speech in one sitting. Luckily, the Audacity wiki has a complete and comprehensive page on mixing audio tracks.

I downloaded Audacity a few weeks ago, and even before I consulted any tutorials I was pleased to find how easy the program is to operate. I was importing and editing existing audio files within minutes of initially opening the page, and though there were (and are) several features that I don’t yet understand, I’m confident that this is the program to get me through this project. I tested out the recording feature using the microphone built into my laptop, and luckily my microphone is of such high quality that it picks up almost no white noise. Because of this, my recordings sound relatively professional without any tampering whatsoever, and the use of the added features only enhances the quality of the audio. That being said, I’m not sure I like the way my voice sounds on the recording, but if I become especially self-conscious I could easily alter the pitch or tempo of my speech using the EFFECTS tab and create a new voice for myself. Overall, I’m very pleased with the program, and I’m eager to keep moving the project forward.

Structure: Graeme Scallion, W14

My podcast, tentatively titled "What Happened in Hopkinsville?" follows a structure I call "The Divergent Storyline." The podcast begins with a linear telling of the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident, the event around which my podcast focusses. Once the initial story has been told, the podcast splits into three outcomes, or effects, of the event: Media reception, impact on pop-culture, and skeptical attention. These effects are told in an order out of necessity, but they could easily be rearranged and presented in any order. Once all three effects are explored, the podcast resumes it's linear structure in time to tie everything together in a brief conclusion.

This structure is slightly different than that of most Stuff You Missed in History Class episodes. Usually, each episode entails a linear telling of a story from start to finish, and though long-term effects are occasionally explored, this usually happens briefly at the end of the podcast, rather than taking up half the episode as my effects do.

As for "Icon for Access," I counted 20 citations.

Search Strategies: Graeme Scallion, W14

Although I did my best to apply the research strategies reviewed in class, I wasn’t able to find much using these traditional methods and had to search in more creative ways to uncover appropriate sources. This is largely because the strategies we were shown are largely used for scholarly research, and my topic is not particularly scholarly. Still, I understand the implicit value of these methods, and I intend to use them for research projects in the future.

That being said, my experience in searching through library catalogues and Google scholar has been an eye-opening experience. The library catalogues are a good place to go once you’ve narrowed your topic enough to be searching for the nitty-gritty specifics. You can select a database based on the subject your question falls under, and in that sense, you can weed through the largely irrelevant information from the get-go. Google scholar, however, seems to me to be best for the early stages of a project when you’re casting a wide net to see what scholars are saying, in general, about your topic. Google has access to the whole web, rather than articles published in specific databases, and can therefore provide a global perspective much more easily. Because of the differences between these methods of research, I can’t say I prefer one over the other. In fact, they’re best used in combination – Google scholar is a good place to start the researching process, and then once you’ve got your bearings and understand the direction you’re taking with your research, the library databases can carry you through the rest of your research process. That being said, given that I tend to focus my topic relatively quickly, I predict that I’ll be depending primarily on the library catalogues for future projects.

Digging Deeper: Graeme Scallion, W14

Unfortunately, my research process is off to a rocky start. In choosing an obscure event from the get-go – a very specific alien encounter in a very specific time frame - I ensured that my topic would be refined and specific enough to create an in-depth podcast. A downside to my specificity, however, is that the conversation around my topic is not very widespread, and my various database searches have yielded almost nothing I can use. I went as far as to book an appointment with a York University librarian, and even she was unable to find anything through traditional search engines. As this class is all about research, I was determined to apply the research methods discussed in lecture to my research process, but it’s looking like I will have to think outside the box and search for information in different ways if I’m going to have something substantial to talk about.

The most pressing issue I’ve encountered is that very little scholarly attention has been paid to the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter. I didn’t expect that a lot of experts would focus on this event in particular, so I’ve been searching for scholarship around mankind’s fixation on extraterrestrial life in general, perhaps in the fields of anthropology or world history. My research thus far has produced nothing particularly useful, but I’d like to find a few scholarly articles on the topic. It is becoming more and more clear to me that my podcast will depend primarily on popular sources. While little has been published about alien encounters in scholarly circles, there is a wealth of information to be found in popular publications. I’ve already uncovered a number of articles published in the Kentucky New Era, Kelly/Hopkinsville’s local paper, around the time of the Green Men incident, as well as articles published in the same paper in subsequent years reflecting on the event. I’ve also found a short documentary about the Hopkinsville Goblins and a number of Ufology websites that discuss alien sightings throughout history. I hope to find more articles published in newspapers outside of Kentucky, as well as specific periodicals dedicated to ufology and alien encounters.  

Topic Refinement: Graeme Scallion, W14

I was fortunate in choosing a relatively narrow topic from the onset of this project, so I regret to say that the pitch assignment did nothing to refine the parameters of my investigation. However, I don’t mean to discount the assignment’s utility. Though I knew what I wanted to research, articulating and explaining my idea to other people helped me to understand the direction I’m taking the project, which brings me a step closer to my final product. It’s been said that you can’t say you understand something until you can explain it to another person in a single sentence, so I think that most projects could benefit from a pitching exercise, though not necessarily to this degree of formality and specificity.

My refined investigation will explore the media sensation around the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, a reported alien/UFO sighting in the summer of 1955, and how this event influenced UFO culture in North America. My full transcript is attached below:

One thing I certainly missed in history class was anything about the alien encounters of the ‘40s and ‘50s. In these two decades there were literally hundreds of reported alien sightings in the United States alone. The most famous of these events was the Roswell UFO crash, but you may not have heard of the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, also known as the Hopkinsville Goblin Case.

The reported events at the Sutton family farmhouse, a small home outside of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on the evening of August 21, 1955, are easy to understand but difficult to believe. The Taylor family had come to stay with the Sutton family that evening, and at around 7pm, the Taylor family patriarch went out to fetch water. On the way there, he allegedly saw a streak of light shoot through the sky and land in a nearby field, and later he was approached by 10-15 small, human-like creatures. Those who saw the creatures that night describe them as goblin-like, with huge eyes and long, clawed arms. The Sutton and Taylor families report being terrorized by these creatures throughout the night. The figures scampered on the rooftop, peeked in the farmhouse windows, and one is said to have grabbed a Sutton family member by the hair.

The events of that evening are interesting enough on their own to base a podcast around, by my intrigue lays with something I read on Wikipedia when I was first researching this story. The article claims that “the encounter has shaped much of the narrative of the UFO tradition, including flashing lights appearing in rural areas and sightings of little green men.” (“Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter”) Inspired by this statement, in addition to exploring the events of the encounter, I intend to explore the story’s reception in the media across America. I hope that someone who hears my podcast will better understand exactly how this story became so widespread that it singlehandedly crafted a narrative that we all recognize today, whether or not we have heard of this particular event.

Pitching: Graeme Scallion, W14

Like many of my blog-mates, I began this week's research by typing "How to pitch a podcast" into Google. I was surprised to find that, while there are many blogs on the topic, it was slightly more challenging to uncover what I would consider reliable, inside information from industry professionals. I came away from the venture with advice from the following sources:

1.       CBC Radio’s Pitch Guide. As the leading broadcasting company in Canada, CBC is the national authority on the radio industry, and their official website shares in that authority. The guide to pitching on this website emphasizes, above all else, that the pitcher must communicate their topic’s relevance to the show they’re pitching to, a fact I was already cognizant of. What I didn’t consider until I found this source, however, was the importance of tone in a podcast, and for the pitcher to articulate the mood the show will carry.

2.       This American Life. Though technically a radio show and not a podcast, This American Life is a real-life example of the sort of show we aspire to emulate in this class, so where better to look for a guide on pitching? The website has a page devoted to successful pitches like the ones Professor Bell showed us last class. Though varied in topic, all these pitches are short, to the point, and aware of the questions the pitcher intends to raise.

3.       San Francisco Book Review. As a prominent a fairly new publication, The San Francisco Book Review claims to receive over 300 submissions of books to review every month, and the pitches they read are likely very similar to the sort we are working on. The website’s guide to pitching a podcast instructs the reader to list five things the podcast will reveal to the listener, which ties into the previously listed point about acknowledging questions the podcast will raise.

Before accessing these sources, I assumed it would be enough to stand in front of the class and briefly summarize what my podcast will be about, but I now realize that I must take much more into consideration. My pitch needs to emphasize what my listener will be taking away from my podcast, in terms of information, mood, and state-of-mind. I will also need to have a basic understanding of what my completed podcast will look like, what technology I’ll be using, and any outside elements I will include, which is difficult to say this stage in the game.

Below are proper citations for the sources I accessed for this blog post:

Barko, Stephanie. "How to Pitch a Podcast." San Francisco Book Review. 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.

"Radio Pitch Guide." Pitch to CBC Radio. CBC Radio Canada. Aug. 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.

"Sample Pitches." This American Life. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2014

Topic Selection: Graeme Scallion, W14

Since my last post, I have only grown more enthusiastic about Stuff You Missed in History Class, and I’ve finalized my decision to emulate this podcast. I use the world “emulate” loosely, however. I admire the concept of the podcast – exploring hidden historical tidbits – but the style of the podcast is not in my taste. Each episode operates conversationally between the two hosts, and the dialogue is largely unscripted, save for the instances when the hosts have to cite a figure or resource. I certainly want my podcast to be informal and relaxed, but I also want to bring some showmanship into the mix and take advantage of the technology available to me. I can’t say what that will mean at this point, but I’m excited to move the project forward.

That being said, I’ll be creating a podcast exploring the Hopkinsville Goblin Case, a reported alien sighting just outside Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1955. Stuff You Missed in History Class has not, to my knowledge, touched on the history of alien hysteria, but they have forayed into the supernatural with podcasts with titles like The Sisters Fox: They Talked to Dead People and "New England Vampire Panic". The Hopkinsville Goblin Case is a singular and well-documented event, which will allow me to go into detail and ask questions such as:

• How was this event received by the media?

• How did this event impact cultural understanding of aliens and UFOs?
• How do skeptics explain the event?

I chose this topic without the help of SPARK, so I cannot vouch for its usefulness first-hand. I did, however, explore the website and found that, had I been a few steps behind in discovering a topic, the section on narrowing a topic would have been useful to me. If I had merely wanted to explore the supernatural, for example, I could have used  this section to narrow my focus down to alien encounters, and from there the natural thing to do would be to choose a specific story to explore. My one criticism of the site is that it operates under the assumption that a general topic has been provided, so the guidelines may be irrelevant to someone in the early stages of an open-ended assignment like this one.

Introductions: Graeme Scallion, W14

My name is Graeme, and I’m a second year English and Professional Writing student in the Institutional Communications stream. My plan is to bring the skills I learn here at York to the world of non-profit wildlife conservation, performing communications, business writing, and reports for the World Wildlife Fund or a similar organization. As you can likely infer, I’m interested in environmentalism and animal protection, but as I lack the mind to study the sciences I hope to contribute to these causes using my (likely over-inflated) skills as a wordsmith. Any research I perform in the business world will hopefully be to do with this discipline, but that is not to say I will necessarily take my WRIT 2300 project in that direction.

Seguing into my relationship with research, it occurred to me after Professor Bell’s lecture on January 7^th that I perform research every day in very small ways. As an internet junkie, I spend a disgusting amount of time watching Youtube videos, Googling trivial subjects, and looking up celebrities on IMDB.com.  Whether or not the information I glean through these processes is worth the time devoted to them is debatable, but the fact remains that I act in the pursuit of knowledge. In academic settings I’ve obviously made use of the typical resources such as texts in the library and internet databases like Jstor. I don’t, however, consider myself a gifted researcher, though the use of programs like RefWorks or Zotero could be beneficial to this project, and projects in the future. My hope is that, upon completion of this course, I will have developed a more organized way of going about research, potentially with the help of these programs, and that my processes will become systematic rather than random and erratic.

Short of a few small projects in junior high drama classes, I have no personal experience with radio work, and certainly not with podcasts. I have to confess that I had never listened to a podcast before this week, and while I’m excited about undertaking this project, I feel dangerously unfamiliar with the form. As I progress over the coming weeks, I will have to allow time to familiarize myself with the technology, which may be just as important to my development as the research itself. This, however, does not discourage me, and I’m anxious to sink my teeth into this challenge. As I mentioned, I’ve had very little time to listen to podcasts, but from the list on the Moodle site, I am most interested in “Stuff You Missed in History Class.” The term “History” refers to anything that has happened, whether it was yesterday or two thousand years ago, and it will be interesting to zero in on a very specific event and uncover a previously undisclosed story around it. I don’t have any specific ideas as I write this post, and I have relatively little time to explore before some decisions will have to be made, but I’m optimistic about the opportunity the project represents for me.