Audio Slideshow Analysis
On Nov. 23, 2010, NPR posted an audio slideshow called Sibling Snapshots. This slideshow consists of several family photos, music and audio from interviews that NPR received and selected after 1,800 people sent in their photos for NPR’s sibling week series.
The slideshow begins with a black screen with only the NPR logo. With this is audio from interviews. These clips are of people saying how many siblings they have.
I think this is a great way to set the tone and let people know what the slideshow is about before any pictures are shown. Even without a photo on the screen, the audience gets an idea of what is going on in the story.
The way the slideshow is organized is by contributor. For this slideshow, NPR featured eight contributors and their families.
Each contributor gave family photographs and an interview. In the interview, they talked about their family dynamic and relationship with their siblings.
Even though the photos themselves don’t show much action or emotion since they are planned family portraits, they still help give the audience an idea of who the contributors are and what their family is like.
For this specific story and topic, photos like this work. Usually, photos that show strong emotion, detail or action are better for storytelling, but these simple family photos are suitable for this story.
The audio aspect of the story is what adds to the emotion and detail of the story. The interview clips selected by NPR help show the emotions and feelings of the contributors, which, in turn, allows the audience to feel and emote as well.
The last interview, in which the contributor talks about her stepfather’s abuse towards her and her siblings is especially powerful. The tone, clips and words all help to show just how the contributor felt. This, to me, was the strongest part of the audio slideshow.
The only critiques I really have for this slideshow is related to the audio. The quality of the audio from the interviews isn’t the best, however, you could still understand what was being said so this isn’t really a huge issue.
Overall, I think NPR’s story Sibling Snapshots works well as an audio slideshow. Though it is not necessarily hard news, the story has impact, as it is something nearly everyone can relate to. The story also has the news values of oddity/novelty, as some of the stories included aren’t exactly “typical”. It also has the humanistic/emotional appeal, which is an important news value to have.
