Weblog
03/04/06 09:28 PM: Alcohol Series
So, for the past month or so I have been hard at work on a radio series for KBIA, the NPR affiliate at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The series focuses on underage drinking. In part one, I do a report on STRIPES, a student-run organization here at MU that will pick up intoxicated MU students and drive them home safely. STRIPES does this every Thursday though Saturday. For the first part of the segment, I focus on what is done at the STRIPES headquarters before a “pick up” and after “drop off.” Then I transition in the segment with me actually riding in one of the STRIPES cars as two STRIPES volunteers pick up intoxicated individuals.
For part 2 of the series, I focus on the laws of underage drinking in Missouri. I start off my talking about Bill 402, which strikens the consequences for underage drinking in Missouri. I also focus on the process that a student caught drinking at MU, which is a dry campus, goes through and the possible short term and long term consequences they may face. I conclude this segment with a program at MU that teaches students how to drink responsibly.
For the third and final segment in the series, I look into ways advertisers encourage underage drinking and discuss how ads are designed so as to attract people to buy their product (focusing my attention on alcohol ads).
Last night, I went to a house party off campus to collect some ambient sound for the second segment on the laws of underage drinking. It was very interesting walking around a party with over a hundred people wasted beyong belief. I was actually afraid someone would try to start a fight with me for some reason, but everything went off without a hitch. I recorded 30 mins of drunk madness, and spent today editing that half hour into a minute. It’ll make the begining part of the story much more effective. Today I also interviewed 2 MU students on their thoughts regarding the use of ads in promoting alcohol. It was a pretty cool interview. For most of the interview, I showed them print and television ads, and had them express their thoughts on how the ads were designed and how effective they really were. That interview was also 30 mins, but I will probably only use a couple of minutes at most. I am totally excited about this series. I should be airing within a 3 day period during the week of March 15th. I am hoping to get everything completed by the end of this upcoming week. Once they are completed, I will post them on this site for all to listen to, and hopefully enjoy more than sliced bread.
In other news, I am begining my planning for this summer. I will be taking a summer school course in mathamatics, and will hopefully be interning at Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ). I was kind of worried this past week because I was not sure if the class over the summer would conflict with the internship, but I just found out that both are doable. So yeah, nothing more to report at this time. Reporting across the country and around the world, this is 360.
