• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Documentary and Journalism ‘What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?’ It’s a familiar question. Now here are some answers. By Stephen Smith was interviewing a man in Tennes- mentary possesses a depth of research In a stunning piece of historical docu- see this year, a well-educated pro- or proximity to its subject that distin- mentary, producers Christina Egloff Ifessional in his 60’s and a devoted guishes it from a long feature or enter- and Jay Allison of the “Lost and Found listener to public radio. I introduced prise story. Length is not the defining Sound” project used audiotapes made myself by explaining that I’m based at quality; a documentary can last hours by a soldier named Mike, who died in Minnesota Public Radio and make docu- or five minutes. Documentaries con- Vietnam, to tell his story: “I have the mentaries for National Public Radio vey a rich sense of character and de- recorder here, and I’m going to try to (NPR). He cocked his head and eyed tail—or a substantial body of original keep it elevated off the ground and me funny. “What the hell is a radio investigative material—that simply away from everything here. I’m going documentary?” he said. I get that ques- aren’t heard in the majority of public to try to keep it up in the air because tion all the time. radio news reports. everything I touch here eats through Unlike television and film viewers, At the heart of the documentary my skin or bites me, or rots, some- most radio listeners don’t identify an style are moments recorded on tape in thing. This is, this is something else. investigative story or intimate human which the story unfolds in front of the The grass will cut you. The mud will rot portrait they just heard on public radio listener. These scenes function like a your skin. This is something else.” as a documentary. To them it’s just a photo essay or a film documentary, Time spent in the field is often what program, a piece, a story, a write-up, or where events play out in real time. For distinguishes a radio documentary from even an “article.” example, there is a scene in an Ameri- a feature or enterprise report. The piece Yet an increasing flow of documen- can RadioWorks documentary on child feels lush, more active. At American taries is pouring out of American radio poverty, “The Forgotten 14 Million,” in RadioWorks, we encourage producers speakers. They come almost exclusively which the mother of a family in Ken- to revisit their subjects time and again, from public radio stations but also, tucky, Janet, lectures her son Jim about to document the story over months, if occasionally, from commercial news the perils of getting married too young. not years. These kind of character- stations. Some are an hour long, others driven stories are a powerful way of 10 to 20 minutes. The best can often be Jim: “You’re allowed to get married exploring larger social themes. Some heard within NPR news magazines such when you’re 21.” producers pride themselves on never as “All Things Considered” and “Week- Janet: “Yeah, you’re allowed to get quoting experts in their documenta- end Edition”—producer Joe Richman’s married when you’re 21, but where ries because conventional news reports chronicle of the lives of prison inmates you gonna take her to?” tend to rely heavily on academics and through their audio diaries—or David Jim: “I don’t know.” government officials as on-mike Isay’s portrait of a New York City flop- Janet: “Without the money and with- sources. At American RadioWorks, we house, or the work of the Kitchen Sis- out a home, you gotta have the money try to weave the larger social context ters in their “Lost and Found Sound” and you gotta have a home to take her into a compelling, character-rich story. series. There are also documentaries to!” When we get it right, the flow of an heard on our rival network, Public Ra- Jim: “Yeah, but I’m gonna get me a engaging narrative helps carry the dio International (PRI), in programs home first.” weight of figures and facts. The trick is like “Marketplace,” “The World,” and Janet: “There ain’t no way you can choosing the right subject. ARW covers “This American Life.” get married at the age of 18 and think a mix of domestic and international American RadioWorks (ARW) makes that you can go through college, get a subjects, from global public health to documentaries that air within the ma- job, and support a family, and get war crimes, from the American prison jor NPR news magazines, but we’ve your own home and everything else. industry to the history of segregation. also made a priority of producing hour- You can’t do that. That’s what Mommy Narrative documentaries are far long special reports distributed directly and Daddy’s been a-trying to tell more common in public radio than to public radio stations nationwide. youn’s. You get your education and investigative projects, in part because These specials air in virtually all the everything, then you can get you a investigative reporting devours time major American cities. woman. Other than that, if you don’t and money. Most radio news organiza- Neither length nor audience define go through all of that, then you ain’t tions simply can’t afford it. But in Feb- radio documentaries. Ideally, a docu- gonna have nothin. And you know it.” ruary, American RadioWorks broke the 6 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet story of how Serbian security forces employment opportunities. Only a people a week tuning in to the presti- serving the regime of Slobodan handful of radio producers in the gious PBS TV documentary program Milosevic burned hundreds of bodies United States actually make a living “Frontline.” of slaughtered Kosovo Albanians in an from documentary work, and they don’t I like to think that the future is industrial furnace to cover up poten- earn much money. Most producers also promising for audio (not just radio) tial war crimes evidence. This story was work as journalists for local stations, or documentaries. The Internet has al- the result of nearly two years’ work hold down editorial posts at NPR or ready created new venues for audio researching war crimes in Kosovo. PRI, or toil at an unrelated day job. work, though the audience is uncer- Do listeners want these documenta- American RadioWorks, the largest docu- tain and work suffers from the squishy ries? If you ask many program direc- mentary production unit in public ra- sound of Web audio. There might be tors—the gatekeepers to local airtime dio, has nine people on staff. other ways to distribute audio docu- on more than 600 stations nation- Still, the near future seems promis- mentaries in the multi-media future. wide—the response is mixed. Some ing for documentary radio. An excel- Some day, we might get our radio sig- insist that long-form work is at the lent radio program can be made for a nals from satellites instead of towers heart of public radio’s mission and fraction of what a quality independent and be able to chose the “all documen- distinguish it from all the brainless film costs: As a rough estimate, radio tary” channel while driving to work. chatter elsewhere on the dial. Others documentaries can cost anywhere from We might even be able to chose pro- say documentaries are a ratings killer. $20-80,000 or more per hour, com- grams on demand, á la cable television. They point out that the average com- pared to a documentary film, in which This could mean a bigger market for mercial radio listener tunes in for only the budget might start at $100,000 and audio docs. 15 minutes or so and that longer sto- soar past one million dollars. Founda- In the meantime, keep an ear open ries won’t help lure these listeners to tion and government funding for radio for the radio documentaries already our side. On the other hand, time spent documentaries, while not simple to beaming through the atmosphere. ■ listening to public radio is more like an obtain, does exist. And when a piece hour per occasion, and documentaries airs on an NPR newsmagazine it reaches Stephen Smith is managing editor recently aired within NPR’s “All Things a large, influential audience. For ex- and a correspondent with American Considered” have been among the most ample, more than 10 million people RadioWorks, the documentary popular pieces that program has aired. listen to “All Things Considered.” That’s project of Minnesota Public Radio Although documentaries are alive in a far bigger crowd than watch most film and NPR news. public radio, it’s hard to argue that the documentaries and a healthy figure genre is healthy, at least in terms of when compared to the four million ssmith@mpr Radio Diarists Document Their Lives These ‘reporters’ capture moments journalists never could. By Joe Richman hat made Josh Cutler a great [See Josh’s description of his work for The fact that Josh could not always radio diarist was that I never “Teenage Diaries” on page 8.] He control what came out of his mouth is Wknew what he was going to brought the tape recorder to school a kind of metaphor for this type of say. Sometimes he didn’t, either. Josh (reluctantly at first), kept an audio jour- documentary journalism.

Load more

  16

Copy Link