This Philadelphia Life

Benchmark Reflection

•What did you find most challenging about this project?
I really enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of this project and
didn't have many difficulties except for lack of access to reliable
highspeed internet that would allow me to make the blog post and
submit my benchmark. Besides that, everything else went smoothly.

•How did you go about finding this story?
The idea for this story developed before I was given the benchmark
description, at a poetry event where a mentor of mine expressed his
outrage at the  Philadelphia Newspaper having a frontpage newstory
about a trash-talking puppet, yet countless youth who are doing
positive things get little acknowledgement. I wanted to highlight
stories of youth who were defying the stereotypes and fill a void of
positive stories about youth.

•Why do you think this story does not receive more attention?
As the subject in my interview said, stories like these just don't
sell. It isn't 100% the media's fault because I do think we as a
people have been conditioned to only get excited over the most extreme
stories instead of ordinary people doing good things. I also think,
many people want to tell this story but they're afraid that if they do
maybe no one will listen because there isn't a high demand for these
kind of stories.

•Do you think this story will get more attention over the next few
months?  Why?  Why not?

Honestly, I don't think that this story will get much attention
because it's just the way the world works. Our attencion spans are so
short when it comes to stories in the media that I doub't something as
positive as this will last long.

•What did you learn?

Through interviewing people I learned that most people do care about
their neighborhoods, the declining state of communities, want to do
something about it and have been for a while. Yet these ordinary
common heroes usually get under reported in the midst of violence,
school closings and celebrity scandals.

                                                  Bibliography

1) Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mr.Daisey goes to the Apple Factory.'April 16 2012 .Accessed
5/25/2012
- I used this podcast of the radio show This American Life as research
on how to structure my own podcast and an example of what good story
telling looks like. I found this resource to be very helpful and I
tried to incorporate some of the storytelling methods in my own
podcast and transitions.

2)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.What happened at Dos Eres' May 25 2012 Accessed 5/25/2012
- I used this podcast as further research on effective storytelling in
radio. I especially found this resource to be helpful and relevant
because I had previously learned about the conflict in Guatemala in my
Spanish class, so I was able to understand the information with my
background knowledge.

3)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mortal Vs.Venial' April 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012

I used this podcast of another edition of This American Life, the NPR
regular show, as an example of how to effectively do transitions.
Throughout my podcast there are many times in which I had to
transition from one story or statement to another with the use of
music and I did that with this podcast as one of my guides.

4)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'What I did for Love' February 10 2010 Accessed May 25 2012
-I used this podcast as yet another example of how to tell a story
with interviews. This podcast was a very good example of what I was
looking for because it featured many different perspectives, stories
and had good transitions yet they were all tied together with the same
theme. I also used this as a guide for how to keep the listener
actively entertained.

5)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Reap What you Sow'January 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012

I decided to use this podcast to help me understand how to present new
ideas through storytelling in a way that others would be able to
easily grasp and understand them. I particularly enjoyed listening to
this podcast because I felt that the topic of immigration laws in
Alabama was very interesting and insightful yet the information wasn't
laid on too thick because the story helped balance it out. This was
also very helpful in deciding which portions of the interviews were
necessary for the story and what had to be edited.
This Philadelphia Life(1)

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