For my final project I did a story on the Myanmar refugees who arrived in Syracuse during the beginning of the school year. Over 400 refugees resettled in Syracuse in a matter of months and this sudden influx left assistance programs scrambling to shelter and feed them.
For my story I wanted to focus in on one particular family and to make it a personal piece about hope and courage amidst times of great peril. I attended the Syracuse Myanmar Baptist Church last Sunday and if I said I wasn't nervous I'd be lying. "Would anyone there be able to speak coherent English? Would they feel that my presence during their sacred time of worship was offensive? Would my questions intimidate them? Or was I the one being intimidated?" All these questions raced through my mind before I got to the church, and to my great relief the church, especially the pastor, embraced me and did everything in his power to make sure my story came out great.
The hardest thing that I found about doing such a long radio piece was choosing 5 or 6 good soundbites out of the dozens I had recorded. All my sound came out pretty great, and although the English was a little rough in some soundbites, it added to the authenticity of my piece. If refugees from Burma who arrived in this country a couple of months ago were speaking fluent English, it'd be quite odd and most importantly the listeners probably wouldn't buy it. I wanted to add more dialogue from the refugees but many of their sentences didn't make sense or sound enough like English. I also got sound from workers at various refugee programs in NY, but many of them said the same thing. The new information they did share didn't really fit into the story about Rebeca and her family so I opted to leave those out. I also wanted to interview John Dau, one of the Sudanese lost boys who came over to Syracuse in 2001. The day I went to his house to interview him (his house is right by the Myanmar Church) he'd just left for Africa. I don't think I would have been able to fit him into the story so I'm just glad it didn't end up hurting the piece.
What I tried to do for the story was to start with the head of the church (the pastor and his wife). From there, I went into Rebecca's story and stuck Ioana Balint comment about refugees being critical to a community right in the middle. At the end, I tied things together by highlighting her children who are the future for the refugees. The story went a little longer then I would have liked, but I think I used enough sounds and music to keep people awake and listening. I'm sure that everyone in the class could have done several dozen different stories with the amount of sound they had, but the real challenge is doing the right one...and doing it well. I think the class did a great job and the great work exhibited in these pieces is a testament to the great teaching done by Professor John Nicholson. Thank you for a great semester and I wish everyone the best of luck! N-C-C News, Mura Gichane. (had to do it one last time)
For my story I wanted to focus in on one particular family and to make it a personal piece about hope and courage amidst times of great peril. I attended the Syracuse Myanmar Baptist Church last Sunday and if I said I wasn't nervous I'd be lying. "Would anyone there be able to speak coherent English? Would they feel that my presence during their sacred time of worship was offensive? Would my questions intimidate them? Or was I the one being intimidated?" All these questions raced through my mind before I got to the church, and to my great relief the church, especially the pastor, embraced me and did everything in his power to make sure my story came out great.
The hardest thing that I found about doing such a long radio piece was choosing 5 or 6 good soundbites out of the dozens I had recorded. All my sound came out pretty great, and although the English was a little rough in some soundbites, it added to the authenticity of my piece. If refugees from Burma who arrived in this country a couple of months ago were speaking fluent English, it'd be quite odd and most importantly the listeners probably wouldn't buy it. I wanted to add more dialogue from the refugees but many of their sentences didn't make sense or sound enough like English. I also got sound from workers at various refugee programs in NY, but many of them said the same thing. The new information they did share didn't really fit into the story about Rebeca and her family so I opted to leave those out. I also wanted to interview John Dau, one of the Sudanese lost boys who came over to Syracuse in 2001. The day I went to his house to interview him (his house is right by the Myanmar Church) he'd just left for Africa. I don't think I would have been able to fit him into the story so I'm just glad it didn't end up hurting the piece.
What I tried to do for the story was to start with the head of the church (the pastor and his wife). From there, I went into Rebecca's story and stuck Ioana Balint comment about refugees being critical to a community right in the middle. At the end, I tied things together by highlighting her children who are the future for the refugees. The story went a little longer then I would have liked, but I think I used enough sounds and music to keep people awake and listening. I'm sure that everyone in the class could have done several dozen different stories with the amount of sound they had, but the real challenge is doing the right one...and doing it well. I think the class did a great job and the great work exhibited in these pieces is a testament to the great teaching done by Professor John Nicholson. Thank you for a great semester and I wish everyone the best of luck! N-C-C News, Mura Gichane. (had to do it one last time)
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