Sliders Anonymous

After reading both of these articles, I think that I may be more confused about the ethical issues associated with sliding sound than I was before I even started this class in January. The article “Sliding Sound, Altered Images” clearly states that adding audio that did not exist is digital manipulation, but is it digital manipulation to add nat sound behind your voice overs? I did this to make my radio story more appealing to listeners, but I didn’t purposely try to trick people into believing that I did my VOs on the street. I will have to ask about this issue in class.

Before reading the article “Staged, Stages, Staging,” I never really considered the fact that just having a camera present may influences events. This assertion makes me wonder if everything we see on the evening news is “staged,” not necessarily by the reporter, but by the subject him/herself. One strategy mentioned in this article to make the subject feel more comfortable is to use wireless mics. I tried this technique when interviewing subjects for my last story and it seemed to work rather well. I felt that I got a real sense of the person I was interviewing and that they were not staging themselves to appeal more attractive, victimized, etc. Even though the audio turned out pretty crappy (I don’t really know why) I plan to use wireless mics in the future as much as possible as a less intrusive way to connect with my interview subjects.