Blog 4: Responding to Podcasts and Brainstorming

PART ONE

In "Becoming Batman" by Ivisibilia,  the journalist focuses on one subject, profiling a progressive blind man, Daniel Kish. The podcast plays with the question of expectations, and if expectations limit situations. "Maybe, just maybe, the organization's low expectation for what blind people could do, was in some way limiting the blind people who those organizations sought to help." This quote sums it up for me, the fact that Daniel was given high expectations and no limitations as a child, he learned ways to overcome his blindness and immobility. The journalist does a wonderful job with mixing her sources by talking to medical professionals, however, leaving Daniel as the main subject. The idea that intrigued me was just the general point Invisibilia made. The journalist even mentions at one point feeling guilty because of her inherent low expectations. The predisposed expectations we have for ourselves and others, limit the possibilities we see.  I would use these texts as examples for my projects because the master of organization, and quality interview questions. Both podcasts, Summer Camp and Becoming Batman, get to the point and are organized easy to follow. I would say that, in Summer Camp, The journalists organize it chronologically, and in Becoming Batman, it is a little in chronological order, but mostly by theme.

In Notes on Camp, an Ethnography, two journalists, one male and one female, interview the counselors, and camp goers in their habitat. The actual camp. the reasons why this is an ethnography is because the journalists stayed for multiple days, and interviewed all sorts of campers, old ones, young ones, girls, boys, counselors. This gives legitimacy to it, because the many signs of camp are shown. The point, I think, of this podcast would be to show, in a subtle way, that at camp, children feel like they really belong. In one of the interviews Davey Himmel describes his experience as a camp-goer, and counselor, "I think I enjoy things better now because of camp. When you live so close to people like this-- and it's sort of like college-- but everybody at camp is just real close knit. It's like a bond that just happens. And that's why a day at camp is two weeks in real life. It's like a time warp here." The idea of camp struck me in a way I wasn't expecting. To be honest, I never got to go to any outdoors camps when I was younger. My parents didn't trust an organization with their child for that long of a period. So, this podcast made me bitter because I remember all of the hours begging my parents to go, and getting shot down. My friends in school went to Camp Kitaki for four years and said that it was the best part of their summer. Something about camps, and being away, makes people fall in love with the community.

PART TWO

This is a difficult question to answer, just because I have been really looking forward to interviewing a group of people ever since I read this assignment. The project would be interesting if I chose a group of unheard and unseen people. People that maybe don’t get to have their story shown. For example, people in a retirement home, or People City Mission. The different stories and perspectives I would hear would be astounding. If I had to choose a certain person for a profile, it would be someone dynamic, and that has a lesson to learn. At my high school for one of my projects, I interviewed a blind Pius mom, who walked me around the neighborhood, made me put on a blindfold and gave me a stick. It was crazy to actually know what it “felt like” to be blind. Her whole mission was to not be tied down to her condition, and to share that with nearly blind people who she helps learn how to interact when blind. It is hilarious, she would always know exactly where I was in the room when I would be in their house. I had no idea how. Some other people I could interview could be a church, Parthenon, a Greek restaurant. Lots of different options.