Soundportraits.org – The Power of Audio
While the radio documentary website Soundportraits.org has a relatively simple layout and has a few broken links, the working links to other articles and other media reinforce the main stories very well and present the story in an interesting way; taking advantage of the capabilities of the internet. The site incorporates a good variety of pictures and sound and supplements the documentaries themselves in an appropriate and engaging way.
This picture or this postcard supplementing the documentary about prison life, “My Last Mile” are good examples of how something easy to add and link to online would previously be unseen in the traditional radio broadcast fashion. It is one thing to hear somebody describe these kinds of personal objects; but seeing them, even in the online environment, evokes a different response from the audience.
I listened to Ghetto Life 101, an award winning and intriguing story about two young teenagers in the ghetto of Chicago. There is a lot of good ambient sound throughout the documentary as the boys record their way through their daily lives and tell stories about the tragedies and triumphs of their life in the projects.
The documentary itself is powerful and an extremely well put together story, but the links to the related stories or the update about how the boys have been doing since the documentary add information that we now take for granted, but 20 years ago would be near impossible to compile without a considerable amount of work and research.
Very good point about how links add value to journalistic stories in the online era!