Final Thoughts

I'm pretty proud of how my final podcast turned out. I'm nowhere near the best when it comes to editing things on software, but I think I managed to make it sound as best as I could. Given the obstacles I had in the midst of this assignment, I don't think I would change anything. But maybe I'd allow myself a tad more time to really understand the software. Perhaps if I gave myself an extra few days for that my podcast would've turned out a bit better. 

To students just starting this course, I offer this advice: START EARLY! It's so important in this class to start ahead of time because you need all the time you can get. This is a cumulative class, so you must take the time to really plan out your research days and the days you will need to write up a transcript and such. I'd also advise to have some fun with this. After a while, it didn't seem too much like work. It was kind of fun! As long as you stay on task, this may actually be a pretty fun course!

Thanks for a great semester. I learned some new things about podcasts and recording software, and of course about research (mostly databases which became very useful for other class already!). 

The Psychology of Humour in Advertisements

Hello everyone! Nicole Yanqui here. It has finally come to an end. Congratulations to all on finishing your podcasts! I am so glad to be done... recording was kind of stressful. This is my podcast for Terry O'Reily's Under the Influence. It's about how humour plays a role advertising on television. I discuss some key factors that are important for attempting humour in advertising, and conclude that one key factor is the most important. Watch to find out!

It’s time to start recording and getting everything ready for the final product. I have decided to use Audacity. It was the easiest to download and it was free. After trying out this and a couple others, I found that this recording system was the simplest. I don’t plan on going extravagant with mixing and tweaking, since recording is not really my thing, but I think Audacity will make me sound the best that I can. The following are some links that I found with great advice and tips for using this program:

 http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gej3LVNKO0E

In the first link (this opens the audacity website), I found information on literally everything I needed from recording to editing to sound effects. All the information is there. And if that wasn’t enough, they provide manuals with tutorials on how to use everything. Just fantastic!

The second link (this opens a YouTube video) is a 40 minute video with great tips to help save you time! Here I learned shortcuts and tips to help things move along quicker. Some of these include “select jump” (going to the point of interest in the podcast), “backwards editing” (which helps to keep the flow of your podcast), and “labels” (Ctrl+B—so you can remember important parts of your podcast).

Also (very important) if you want to be able to export your podcast recording as an MP3 file from Audacity, you need to download “LAME MP3 encoder". I also tried converting to a “WAV” file and that worked too.

Here are the links I found for converting the audio file to be able to upload it!

http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/

http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-wav

After learning about everything, I did try recording myself. I honestly hate my voice in general, but I thought it turned out pretty well. I only used my laptop’s built in mic, so I’ll try to see if I can find a better alternative. I hear people are getting better results using their phones? I’ll give it a go. It seems like I’m going to have a pretty good run with Audacity. I hope so. 

Okay here is the structure of my podcast "The Psychology of Humour in Advertisements". I started with a straight line that introduces the topic. It's a pretty straight forward introduction and then it dips into a small story/anecdote (and that's the beginning of the trough there) and then I end the story with an explanation and a sort of definition-type part (this is the exclamation point). The rest of the podcast continues this way with examples (being the continuation of the trough) and then explanations and definitions (being the exclamation points). It ends back on the straight line, although it isn't returning to the main story. I may revise that because it may be a good way to end it off. But the straight line represents the conclusion: straight forward and kind of a summary of everything that has been said. 

It's obvious that it strays a bit from the images provided here. However, I have done a pretty close emulation to the Under the Influence episode "The Psychology of Pricing". I thought it'd be fitting for it's a similar topic so I thought the structure would work to get the idea across to listeners. Terry O'Reily opens with a brief introduction followed by a short story and then definitions with simple examples that are understandable. Finally, he ends up with a bit of a summary. I think that even if I did a different structure, as long as the message was clear, it would be okay. 

I counted 24 citations in episode 102 "Icon for Access" of 99% Invisible. I guess we'll see how close I am!

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the blog.

I have used Boolean Logic. Boolean logic is a system that allows someone to research, in a database, specific relationships between keywords or concepts using the words AND, OR, and NOT. AND means that you are searching for a document that contains both the keywords you have entered. OR means that you are searching for a document that contains one or the other of the keywords. NOT means that you are searching for a document that contains certain keywords and not others (excluding other results).

I found success in using NOT to eradicate the results that were not relevant to my podcast topic The Psychology of Humour in Advertisements. Also, using AND was really useful is expanding the results when I needed more information after I found specific key terms that really proved useful. This strategy is extremely useful in narrowing down sources and excluding the irrelevant ones. I will definitely use the Boolean Logic again in any research project to enhance my research.

Besides the Boolean strategy, I did use Google Scholar and Library Databases. I found Google Scholar to be useful when searching for sources in general, but not being able to access all of them made it difficult; but I did find it useful to see what it available and find some key terms that helped me find other sources. The library databases were useful because I was able to access all of the articles I found using my tuition payments and I was able to get specific articles and case studies that really enhanced my research. 

Hi everyone,

The researching has begun! Well continued really after the research plan. To begin this process, I have written out everything that I really need to know about the subject. The whole "knowns and unknowns" is coming in handy. Since my brother is in advertising and marketing, i'm kind of using him to my advantage.

For scholarly sources, I've started to look into the Marketing, Advertising, and Psychology databases in the hopes to find some journals, and on google scholar for some book or article ideas.
So far I have found:
-The Effect of Humour on Advertising Comprehension by Calvin P. Duncan, James E. Nelson, and Nancy T. Frontczak 
-The Impact of Humour on Advertising: A Review by Mark G. Weinberg and Charles S. Gulas
-Consumer Psychology Findings by James Larsen

For popular sources, I'm searching for articles that have to do with marketing or advertising. I may also dip into the some past Under the Influence podcast episodes because many of these episodes are on advertising (ergo how my topic fits with the show). So far I haven't found anything except the other podcast episodes from Under the Influence because I've been focusing on scholarly sources to really capture the psychological side. Looking for some popular sources will be my next step!
I will be looking for some sources in magazine articles and perhaps other podcasts hoping they will touch upon psychology in advertising.

Good luck researching everyone. I'm nervous but let's hope this turns out well!

Hello all,

I found the pitch exercise very helpful. I realised that my topic was not feasible for this assignment. At first, I thought it just needed narrowing down; but it soon was apparent that my topic just wasn’t suitable. After choosing a new topic, however, I was much better at refining my topic because I had to go through the same pitch process.

I think the pitch exercise would be a very useful pre-writing exercise for any assignment because it really helps you narrow your topic and make sure you can actually go through with it. It’s very useful in the sense that you have to structure yourself and do some preliminary research which really helps you get on track and not procrastinate so much.

My “refined” idea is called “Psychology of Humour in Ads”. I am going to explore how humour in advertisements affects consumer behaviour. This will be an emulation of Under The Influence. I would post my pitch transcript; however, because I decided on a new topic after my presentation, I do not have a transcript for this idea. 

Here we go with the rest of this project!

This week is our Podcast Pitch and let me tell you, I am nervous. Thanks to this week’s blog prompt and assignment, I have done some research on pitching ideas and how to pitch. Here are some sources that gave some good advice:

1)      San Francisco Book Review How to Pitch a Podcast—this seems to be a newer publication and claims to receive over 300 books for review every month. That kind of seems reliable to me. I liked the advice given about listing five things the podcast will reveal to the audience because it makes you focus on why you are even making the podcast in the first place. For a pitch, I think it’s important to get your audience’s attention and if you’re giving small insights, I think that’s one way to intrigue someone.

2)      BBC The Killer Pitch—this is definitely reliable. It’s BBC. We all know who and what BBC is. I think they know what they’re talking about because they have to listen to countless pitches on a daily basis and are known globally. They’re selective and professional. The advice I took from BBC for pitching is to have a passion for what you’re talking about. You can’t make someone else interested in something that you aren’t interested in. You also have to be clear and concise. Your audience only cares about the main idea, so stick to it. Finally, know your audience. Make sure you have done your research and know who you’re talking to.

3)      CBC Radio Pitch—of course this is a reliable source. CBC is a professional and national broadcaster and is reviewed as a reliable source for many. I found the advice given in “The Idea” section was useful because it asks roughly the same questions we must answer for our own podcasts and presentations.

4)      SPARK Freelance Pitch Guide—another CBC source. I looked at this source because this is the podcast I am trying to emulate so I thought I’d look at what SPARK would want. Although it didn’t give me many answers, I did take something away from it. They want a topic that can be opposed, start discussion, or something that makes someone think in a new way. That helps me gear my research question towards a more specific audience.

I’ll need to take all these factors into account to make a good pitch for this week. I’ll need to make sure I’m passionate, know what I’m talking about, not be a boring monotone presenter, and really narrow my topic to the finest point I can.

I’m nervous but here we go.

Good luck everyone!

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Works Cited:

Barko, Stephanie. "How to Pitch a Podcast." San Francisco Book Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. <http://sanfranciscobookreview.com/2013/02/how-to-pitch-a-podcast/>.

"CBC Radio Pitch - Index." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/pitch/radiopitchguide.html>.

"Spark with Nora Young | CBC Radio." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/spark/freelance.html>.

"The Killer Pitch- Pitching Tips." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135673>.

Hello again fellow podcasting students!

This week has been stressful... Coming up with a research question and a topic to narrow down is a lot harder than I thought it’d be. Honestly, I thought I’d just pick a topic and keep going... but it was definitely much more difficult. Nonetheless I did manage to find something!

I have chosen to emulate the Spark podcasts. I really enjoy learning about technology—why these new gadgets are built the way they are, how they work, and why people want them. My inner techy nerd is ecstatic to do this. I found that Spark encompasses all of these things that I like learning about. I would like to try and emulate how they talk about the products with a greater knowledge. They really do their research and I hope I can get to their level. I also like how they bring people in for interviews because it shows someone else’s perspective; either one who actually has a higher knowledge of the product or one who is just a personal opinion. I also like how they speak slower. In terms of technology, I find it’s easier to explain the product and how it works when you’re speaking slower because the audience can actually grasp the concepts. That makes me feel better knowing I don’t have to speak super quickly either.

In terms of the topic, I chose to discuss the new Kobo tablets. As an avid reader who enjoys the feel of a book and the turning of pages, I like the idea of talking about e-readers and what they do to benefit avid readers. However, I will be focusing on why the Kobo tablet, specifically, is in such demand. Why do people need a Kobo tablet when there are other tablets out there if Kobo itself is an app? From there I think I can expand the explanations and dig further into the knowledge of Kobo. I think I’ll be able to discuss the differences between tablets and the efficiency of the Kobo app.

I didn’t really use SPARK to help me choose a topic because I already had a general idea of what I wanted to do and going through the podcasts help me fully decide what I was going to do. I did, however, look into SPARK to see how it could have helped me. If I was in the earlier stages of choosing a topic, I may have been able to use the “narrowing your topic” section to do exactly that. I found this site was useful if you were just beginning your assignment and really had no idea what you were going to do. I think the best advice it gave was to make sure you are interested in your topic. That is essential to your research because you won’t want to research something you don’t care about. The only thing I’d add to this advice would be to not be afraid of diving into the unknown. You’re doing this project to learn and if you are interested in your topic, you will be willing to learn even more.

Research time is upon us everyone! Good luck J

Hello everyone.

My name is Nicole Yanqui (that’s pronounced “Yankee”). I am a second year Professional Writing major with a minor in French Studies. I love languages, traveling, culture, history, and writing. I take academics way too seriously sometimes but that’s because I’m determined. One day I’d like to work in a publishing company, somewhere within the editing field, and bringing other’s stories out into the world (and perhaps some of my own). As reading, writing, poetry, spoken word, and music has been my escape, I hope to make it someone else’s too.

In terms of research, I guess all I really want to learn is how to be a better researcher (as vague as that sounds). To me, that means going past the search bar on Google and getting down to business; looking things up at libraries (which I’ve only ever really done a few times) and maybe even interviewing some people! I’d like to be as authentic and justified as possible.

I have personally never even heard of Refworks or Zotero until right now. I kind of wish I had in earlier years. They look to be very helpful and useful, especially to a course in research. The only research tools I have used are the common Google, Wikipedia, and Youtube. Mostly, I use them to search random things I hear about and want to know more about. I generally do more experiencing of that which I am curious of than the actual research part (although I guess going out and finding the thing I’m curious of is research too).

 I have made a radio ad for a media studies class in high school. It wasn’t much but it taught me some about timing, audience, and all that lovely stuff. I have never, however, made a podcast, but I have listened to a few. It was never really my thing but I did enjoy what I heard. I’m slightly intimidated to make a podcast but I am also kind of excited to try it out (except for the fact that I’m not a fan of my own voice).  I think trying something new out will be cool and I hope it goes well.
 
I’m looking into On the Media, Under the Influence, and Spark as potential podcasts because they talk about things that affect my everyday life. Something like On the Media seems easier to research, something like Spark would be cool because I am a bit of a techy myself, and something like Under the Influence would be good because I happen to know a little more than I should about advertising (thanks to my brother). If I end up finding something more interesting to me, I’ll choose that instead because it’s easier to write about (or in this case research) something you’re actually intrigued by.

Cheers to a new class and lots of podcasting!