#pmpsjf23 Final Podcast, Transcript, and Reflections Instructions

Steps for Completing Your Final Podcast

Please complete each of these steps in order to successfully complete and submit your final 8 – 10 minute podcast, transcript, and reflections. Your podcast and transcript will be posted to the Protest Anthems web site. Your reflections will be shared with Bill privately.

Grading Percentages

  • Podcast and Final Post (90%)
    • Narration (40%)
    • Source Use (25%)
    • Editing (15%)
    • Blog Post (20%)
  • Reflections (10%)

Due dates

  • Final Podcast and Post Due Online: No later than Friday, December 15 at 11:00pm
  • Final Podcast Reflections due via email to Bill: No later than Friday, December 15 at 11:00pm
  • Final Course Reflection and Engagement and Presence Reflection Due on Engagement and Presence Document no later than Saturday, December 16 at 5:00pm

Step 1: Final Podcast Content and Editing

  1. Share a 20-30 second written introduction to your podcast with Bill.
    Please compose a 25-30 second written introduction to your podcast which Bill will record and you can add to your final podcast. Paste your intro text it into the GoogleDoc Bill will share with you. If you can’t find that document, please email him. Complete this no later than Wednesday, December 7.
  2. If needed, convert your podcast clips from stereo to mono.
    If you are working on your podcasts with some tracks in stereo and some in mono, I recommend converting the stereo tracks to mono as you complete your final work, and record any new changes you need to make in mono. You can learn to how convert those tracks by watching:
  3. Edit the volume through Compression and Amplification
    This work can be done on individual clips, on a full podcast draft, or both. To create an optimal edit and mix of your clips, you’d ideally work on the volume on both individual clips and on the full mix once you have exported the whole thing as a .wav file. Compression is the process of reducing the size of the spikes on your track make your spikes more level. Amplification is the process of raising the volume. Here’s a nice tutorial for doing this work:
  4. Reduce Noise and other Unwanted Sounds
    Once you have edited the volume, you may need to reduce noise or unwanted sounds, like breaths, ums, throat clears, lip smacks, and other things. Follow these tutorials, first on silencing unwanted sounds like lip smacks, and second on reducing background noise:
  5. Add the audio that Bill records, make any edits that you need to make to fully incorporate that introduction, and see if you need to make any last-minute adjustments to the volume and noise.
  6. Export the final edited audio as a .WAV file, which is a lossless file format that SoundCloud will upload.

Step 2. Upload the Podcast to SoundCloud

  1. Upload the file to Soundcloud. In the Soundcloud description, include the below information. (See this podcast on “Same Love” as a model.) If the podcast is taken down from Soundcloud, see Challenging SoundCloud Copyright Takedown below.
  2. In your SoundCloud description, complete the following:
    1. Start with a one-two sentence description of the audio, and describing its purpose
    2. State that the project was completed by you for Popular Music, Protest, and Social Justice at St. Joseph’s University, taught by Dr. Bill Wolff. If you don’t want to include your full name, use your first name and last initial. Include a statement that discusses how the work is created for a class and as a result falls under Fair Use Guidelines and within the exemptions to DMCA Section 1201 rules announced by the Library of Congress on July 26, 2010. Include a statement with URLs that point the viewer to information about the course (https://williamwolff.orgcourses/pmpsj-fall-2023/). Also mention the software you used to complete the assignment.
    3. Include a complete list of credits and sources.
    4. Include a statement that instructs readers that they can find the transcript by going to your podcast post and include a link
    5. Please use paragraphs and complete sentences

Step 2a. Challenging SoundCloud Copyright Takedown (If Needed)

If your podcast is taken down due to copyright violations, you need to challenge it based on Fair Use Grounds for two reasons: 1) the work was completed as part of part of a class and 2) it is being used as a form of critique.

You will be notified if a track has been removed. If so, you can learn how to file a dispute by clicking on that link. If that happens, let me know so we can work through what to do with your responses. Do not wait to contact me and start the dispute process. (I am currently trying to get a track removed so I can see the new dispute form, which is hidden unless you have a violation.)

If your work is flagged by SoundCloud, please file a dispute and when promoted for a reason, please add the following statement:

The flagged content in this audio file falls within widely accepted and legally upheld Fair Use Guidelines and within the exemptions to DMCA Section 1201 rules announced by the Library of Congress on July 26, 2010. As stated on the SoundCloud web page, “Valid and Invalid Reasons to File a Dispute,” “Fair use in the US, and similar concepts elsewhere, allow limited use of copyrighted works in limited circumstances, for example, education and private study, and news reporting.” This audio file was created in response to an assignment as part of a course (https://williamwolff.orgcourses/pmpsj-fall-2023/) at Saint Joseph’s University. The content is used, in part, to report, and, in part, to critique. These reasons are consistent with your stated allowances. Credits to the work are provided in the audio file and have been added in the description. I do not claim ownership or suggest ownership of the content and no reasonable listener would think that I claim ownership. The original content will not suffer financial harm in any way whatsoever if the content appears online in this audio file.

Step 3: Transcript and Protest Anthems Post Composition

Your transcripts will appear along with an embedded (or linked-to) version of your podcast on the Protest Anthems web site. To do so,

  • Create a new post and give it a meaningful title based on your podcast
  • EMBED the SoundCloud audio in a post so it appears at the top of the post. If your SoundCloud upload has been removed for copyright violation, while waiting for your dispute, upload it directly to WordPress, Dropbox, or Drive and, if one of the latter two, link to it. You may need to create an .mp3 version and upload that.
  • Assign the post the “Podcasts” category (which will ensure it appears on the Podcast page) and provide some meaningful tags
  • Compose the transcript, as described below.

The Transcript
The should be an interactive, multimodal experience for readers, just as they are on the sample podcasts we have been listening to, such as:

If you look at those transcripts, they include images, videos, and other media in places where they would appear in any kind of digital narrative. And I mean narrative seriously; if you look at what is written and what is heard, they are not exactly the same. They tell the same story, but they are optimized for their respective media.

So, that is what I’d like you to do, as well. Your transcript should be a narrative that tells the story you tell in your podcast, which means:

  • embedding all media you reference or play in the podcast, including videos, interviews, and so on
  • linking to ALL sources you reference in the video, including books, journal articles, social media posts, and other web sites
  • including photographs and other images that enhance the viewers understanding of the content.

Step 4. Reflections

There are two separate reflections, due no later than Friday, December 15 at 11:00pm:

  1. I’d like you to focus on the the experience of working in/with/across audio. What was it like composing for an audio essay and thinking about incorporating audio clips? If this was your first time working with audio, discuss the challenges you faced and your successes. If you have had experience with audio, discuss how you built on those experiences. What, if anything, would you change about your podcast, if you had the knowledge and the time. (350 – 400 words)
  2. Looking back to our readings from the start of the semester, Schneider and Rosenthal and Flacks consider how to most effectively approach having a nuanced understanding of a piece of music, by considering the relationships among lyrics, the delivery, the songs, the performance, the artist, the listener, among others. We talked about this in class as taking a diverse to understanding music. And, as the podcast assignment stated, “We will be taking a disparate and intersectional  approach to our analysis.” So, I’d like you to reflect on your podcast discussion by considering how you took an disparate and intersectional approach to your chosen song and how that approach enhanced your understanding of the song and how you presented it both through what you said and the sources you used. Through your discussion, I’d like you to address the “sociological imagination” (Rosenthal and Flacks, p. 20) found within your song and how your podcast brings that to light. (500 – 550 words)

Include the reflections in one GoogleDoc, single spaced, with your name on the top, with each reflection clearly indicated by a header. Share with Bill’s SJU email.

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