5/26/08 Episode 14: The News From The WWW - Volunteer HERE!

Austin Grammer

Episode 13 is now available for download! Go to http://www.TheNewsFromTheWWW.org to listen!

Thanks again everyone for your volunteering efforts! I really appreciate your time and I think we can all be really proud of this program - it sounds really great!

Updates:

1. Website - http://www.thenewsfromthewww.org/voices.html Send me your bio and pic and I will add you to the website for the show.

2. I'm STILL working on getting the show "syndicated" to more RIS stations. The people that coordinate this service do it in their spare time and are evidently very busy with other things so I'm having trouble getting the login info to upload our show to the program sharing service. Hopefully this will get resolved soon!

New Volunteers are welcome and encouraged to join! PM me if you have any questions or just dive right in a post your fav news article!

Instructions:

Select a news article that you would like to read. Create a post in this thread with the title of the article and a link to the article to claim or get "dibs" on that story so no one else will take it, then record the story in Mono MP3 -6db with a sampling rate of 96 kbps 44100, and then edit your first post and add the recorded article as an attachment and add the runtime in your post so we can track the length of the program (we need one hour worth of material). Please submit your recorded article by Sunday at Noon 6/1/08.

You can pick your own article / news story. Please keep in mind that the target audience is mostly older people with vision issues who already get a lot of the mainstream news from the RIS service through other volunteers reading local and regional newspapers in addition to listening to TV. So I would avoid political and breaking news as those are already covered and change from day to day. Pick articles that will have a week or more of shelf life. Also avoid celebrity gossip, stories of a sexual nature, murder, abuse, etc. Articles that you would feel comfortable reading to someone you just met etc. Articles that are interesting, funny, clever, etc. I have a list at the bottom of this post of some recommended articles for you to get an idea of what I am talking about. Please choose / read articles that are longer than 3 min when read (not including intros). A lot of short articles can be difficult to concentrate on / listen to. Often, you may come across an interesting story or news topic on one website but it is the abbreviated article. If you search the subject of the article on Google News Search, you might be able to find a longer / more in depth article on the subject from another news source. If you can't, please pick another longer article, or, find two similar short articles and read them both and introduce them as such "here are two articles about a popular subject on the web...." "And now another article with a similar but different story". Just use your best judgment. If everyone contributed an article with a average length of 5 minutes, we would only need 12 VO actors contributing on a weekly basis to fill the hour time slot. I'm happy to pick up the slack but would rather hear from more people. You may need to lower the bit rate of your MP3 file in order to keep the file size low enough to upload to the savvy board (less than 5MB)

Here is the script I would like each person to read before reading their article in order to have consistency from one article to the next:

"[ARTICLE TITLE (for show intro montage), PAUSE]

Hi, this is [MY NAME] from [CITY, STATE] and [YOUR DOT COM WEBSITE (if applicable)] with an article about __________(short but intriguing summary about the article you chose).

PAUSE From [SOURCE], [TITLE OF ARTICLE].

[READ ARTICLE]

PAUSE, "For The News From The World Wide Web, I'm [YOUR NAME].

Example:

"City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy, (PAUSE) Hi, this is Homer Simpson from Springfield, Illinois and homersimpson.com with an article about how one small town is dealing with a skateboarding hooligans. PAUSE From the Springfield Gazette dot com, City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy" {STORY} "For the News From The World Wide Web, I'm Homer Simpson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some good places to look for news articles:

The Drudge Report
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Yahoo News Most Popular Stories
http://news.yahoo.com/i/964

Newhouse News Service
http://www.newhouse.com/

AP Wire Top Stories from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/aponline/index.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some articles I have come across in the last few of days that I would recommend if you are unsure what to read:

High gas prices force cops to walk the beat more
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080522/D90QS2B81.html

Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare
http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080524/ap_on_re_us/environmental_survivalists.html

Austin Grammer · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008, 14:43 (GMT) Post subject:

EXAMPLE POST:

I'll take this article:

Asylum's Renaming Insults Advocates
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LUNATIC_ASYLUM?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

EDIT:
MP3 attached
Runtime: 6:34

(I edited out the bulk of the story so you can quickly hear an example of the script)

Roger Baker · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008, 14:58 (GMT) Post subject:

Here is mine for this week.

What If Gas Cost $10 A Gallon?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/WhatIfGasCost10DollarsAGallon.aspx

Here it is. Let's hope it doesn't go there....

Run Time: 9:53

Thanks

Lee Gordon

Diane Havens · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008, 17:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Fascinating article about other "earths":
Many Stars Many Planets

Run time 4:17

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32547/title/Many_stars%2C_many_planets

John Zadikian · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008, 18:13 (GMT) Post subject: Idol time

I'm not a big fan of American Idol, but I thought this was a good story.

TRT - 4:09

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x401620891/GLOWing-mix-up-benefits-local-ministry

John Zadikian
GO RED WINGS!

Scott Paxton · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008, 21:13 (GMT) Post subject:

Here is one that my wife will enjoy...she is a quilter.

Civil War-Inspired Quilts Comfort Military Families

http://www.newhouse.com/civil-war-inspired-quilts-comfort-military-families.html

Time-2:04

Thanks,

John Weeks · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008, 03:56 (GMT) Post subject:

Here's the one I'll do this week:
Man Enjoys Rare Ability To Not Forget
http://www.newhouse.com/man-enjoys-rare-ability-to-not-forget-5.html
Runtime: 5:08

Clinton Nobles · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008, 05:55 (GMT) Post subject:

Okay forgive me everyone, but this week I am getting over a cold so mine isn't going to sound up to normal standards I would think. I did my best to compensate for it, but blah lol

Here is my article Very Happy

Name: Gamblers' shuttle gets terrorism funds
http://www.gazette.com/articles/security_36642___article.html/bus_ramblin.html
Time: 5:43

Hope you like it.

Cameron Thomas · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008, 17:37 (GMT) Post subject:

I've been too busy this week to post for this episode. Sorry for passing this week but I'll be back for the next one.

Cheers,
Cameron