My family listens to podcast/radio in car when we drive out, but the radio programs we listen to are mainly commercial ads, quiz games, etc. When I was in high school I listen to some Chinese podcast programs, they played songs, had some talking; I even listened to a NYU podcast program before coming to NYUSH, which I downloaded from App Store, they played music and talked a little bit too. This podcast is the first audio program for me that has rich contents, and I feel it achieves some goals that a visual program would never do.
The first goal would be that a podcast can free your eyes. I listened to Serial, Season One: Episode 1, The Alibi when I was taking the shuttle. The sounds compose the story perfectly, sometimes I feel like what I’m listening to comes from a recorder that the narrator took to the scene where the story really happens—but alas, of course that is not true. The podcast captures all the sounds that are necessary to rebuild a real scene; and by freeing my eyes, I can check my surrounding environment with my attention on different kinds of sounds: I hear a car honking in the podcast, then I check what the car just outside the window really sounds like…I feel less focused when I listen to a story than watching a story, but I embrace more through sounds. I hear and think, using my imagination for the fictional world, while also for the real world.
The other goal would be to bring the story into real life. With the podcast, it does not free my eyes, it also frees my body. I walk around listening the podcast, the background music takes me to the countryside of United States. In videos, it would be someone else walking into that world; but here, with the music going in my brain, I feel I can walk in this small town and take a journey with the narrator. The background music plays an important in raising listeners’ imagination: sometimes the background music seems relaxing, it gives us a sense of surrounding. And sometimes it stops at certain point when the narrator starts talking. This is how the music keeps the storytelling at a good pace, letting the audience follow the narrator leads the audience to discover the story with her. For example, after the narrator talked about the event she was investigating, the murdered girl’s boyfriend, “(has) been in prison ever since…” afterwards, a peaceful country music starts. It wasn’t too sad, but it felt like taking me along a narrow road in the countryside, where a young has missing and the mystery has not been solved. It takes the story into real life.