Movement 3: Listening for Medium
Movement 3: Listening for Medium
This is about paying attention to how meaning travels. How does sound shape what you feel and understand? What can a voice, a pause, or a burst of music do that text cannot? Begin listening not just for content, but for craft.
Core Question:
How does the medium shape the message?
Pedagogical Purpose:
This movement introduces learners to the specific rhetorical and narrative capacities of audio storytelling, To shift students from a purely conceptual or textual mindset into an embodied, multimodal awareness.
Student Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
- Articulate key differences between audio and written forms,
- Identify rhetorical strategies unique to audio media,
- Envision how their research findings and narrative ideas could be expressed effectively in an audio format,
- Identify specific affordances of the podcast medium they wish to explore for their project.
Interaction Design: Reflection Prompts
(Choose 2–3 prompts to reflect on.)
- How does a podcast communicate differently from a paper?
- What structural or audio strategies stood out in podcasts you have heard?
- How might the structure of your podcast (e.g., single narrator, multiple voices, segments) best serve your story?
- Compared to a written essay, what feels possible in a podcast?
- What might this medium limit or resist?
- Thinking back to a key 'surprise' or 'moment of friction,' how could specific audio techniques (like a shift in tone, a revealing sound effect, or a strategic pause) amplify the impact for a listener?
- If your research involves data, how can you represent that data compellingly through sound or narration?
- As you move toward audio storytelling, what techniques from podcasts you admire might help convey the nuances of your findings?
Reflection Journal Companion
Follow the standard Reflection Journal structure:
- What I Am Noticing,
- What Feels Hard or Unsettled,
- What I Want to Carry Forward.
(See Movement 1 for a full detailed example.)
Black Box Micro-Engagement
At the end of this Movement, you will complete a Black Box Micro-Engagement:
- Action Step: A production-related activity focused on exploring the affordances, textures, or pacing possibilities of sound-based storytelling. (Specific task TBD.)
- Personal Reflection: Reflect on the tools used, surprises, frustrations, and solutions.
- Relational Reflection: Reflect on any outside help you sought (e.g., tutorial, video, peer, etc.).
- Source Acknowledgment: Briefly cite any external models, templates, or inspirations.
- Organization Reflection: Describe how you saved, named, and organized your experimental audio work for future use.
(See Movement 1 for detailed reflection structure.)
AI Role
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Current AI Role:
Prompts students to reflect on audio affordances — how sound, texture, pacing, and tonal shifts can function rhetorically. -
Explore Further AI Role (Audio Motif Suggester):
Suggests 2–3 small sound-design sketches and 5-second TTS (Text-to-Speech) demos,
helping students rapidly prototype different textures, moods, and pacing possibilities for their project.
🤔💭 More Reflection Prompts
- How does silence shape meaning in audio storytelling?
- Where might a sonic motif (recurring sound or musical phrase) help structure your project emotionally?
- How does voice, tone, rhythm, and vulnerability create relational space with an audience?
- What risks or challenges does audio storytelling introduce for you personally?
- How did it feel to listen instead of read?
- Were there any “signposts” to help guide the listener?
- How were interviews or other voices introduced and contextualized?
- Was the speaker doing more than just delivering information?
- What are some things that work better in audio than in text?
- What do you want to emulate from the podcast you heard?
- What’s one audio move that felt powerful and achievable for your project?
- What possibilities does sound open up that you hadn’t considered before?