Guardian Launches US Media Podcast

A new monthly podcast about the American media made its debut on guardian.co.uk last week.

Hosted by journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, Media Talk USA provides a view from across the Atlantic to complement the Guardian’s existing podcast on media happenings in the UK.

Jarvis, who is also a columnist on Guardian.co.uk, said the new podcast would “jump off the news to examine the state and fate of media with a variety of provocative guests”.

He noted that British listeners might find it a useful listen as they can “look at the wave of destruction overtaking US newspapers as the canary in the coal mine”.

The podcast features an interview with Arianna Huffington, who discusses the Huffington Post’s new investigative fund project.

Journalism professor Jay Rosen and Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Holmes also make appearances on the inaugural podcast.

Paper Plans Investigative Radio Show

A morning radio show devoted to investigative journalism is to be launched by the Washington Times this spring.

The syndicated three-hour programme will be carried by Talk Radio Network and will feature investigations by the newspaper’s journalists and interviews with the key reporters.

“I think the goal here is to take what we’ve done so successfully in print and translate it to radio,” said John Solomon, executive editor at the Washington Times.

He added: “The concept is that when you tune in in the morning, it’s not going to be yesterday’s news.”

A spokesman for Talk Radio Network asserted that the new show could do for radio what 60 Minutes did for television.

More on this story on the Washington Times website.

[HT – Journalism.co.uk]

[Picture - Web Radio, by Alessandro Bonvini on Flickr]

Podcasting For Beginners

If you want to begin the new year by producing your own podcasts, blogger Patrick Thornton has some tips on starting out.

Writing on the social network Wired Journalists, Thornton supplies some of the basics for anyone who’s new to the world of podcasting on areas including production and distribution.

He gives details on software such as audio editing tools like Audacity and the recording programme Audio Hijack Pro.

Thornton, who’s the author of the Journalism Iconoclast blog, also hands out some hardware tips for kit such as external microphones.

And keep an eye on Wired Journalists for the sequel to this post where Thornton will be offering tips on putting together an individual podcast.

Telegraph Begins Interactive Online Novel

Readers could have a say in the outcome of a new novel being serialised online by The Telegraph.

Each new chapter of Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith will be available exclusively every weekday on Telegraph.co.uk for the next 20 weeks.



The text version of the new serial novel can be accessed on the website, via email updates or through an RSS feed.

Plus an audio version of each chapter will be uploaded every day and available as a daily podcast via the website or through iTunes.

And readers are being encouraged to get involved by submitting their comments and questions online, where they could be read by the author himself.

McCall Smith, author of the successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of books, explains the interactive nature of the project.

“Readers will also be able to contact me with suggestions as to how the plot should unfold, as at any time in the publication of the novel I shall only be about 20 episodes ahead of the one that is published that day.

“This should make the novel interactive - to some extent at least. I obviously have my own ideas of what will happen, but I shall be open to persuasion.”

If this wasn’t enough to whet the appetites of McCall Smith fans, Telegraph.co.uk also has a writing competition where the winner gets to meet the writer himself, plus the site has online profiles of each character as they appear and a link to a Google Map showing the real-life setting for the imagined mansion.

Further details can be found on Guardian.co.uk and The Editors Weblog.

Local Paper Offers Podcast Walking Tours

The Sheffield Star has recently started a new series of podcasts to act as an audio guide to the city.

Each podcast provides commentary on short walks taking in the industrial past of the Yorkshire metropolis.

The free podcasts are part of a joint project between the Star and the Furnace Trail, which produces books, audio and maps on Sheffield’s industrial heritage.

According to the Star: “Our audio lets you hear all about how the workers revolted, which ancient furnaces still remain and what lies behind the modern-day apartments as well as finding out what it was like to work in the industry in the words of those who actually did.”

[Disclosure: The Star is a Johnston Press publication.]