Tuning in to the story

Lakewood High School journalism teacher Thomas Honsa is exposing his students to an emerging platform in scholastic journalism to enhance their budding skills — podcasting.

Honsa, who has taught journalism at the East County high school since 1998, said listening to the school’s podcast is akin to  getting hooked on a television show, only you aren’t watching anything.

“Somebody called podcasting the Netflix of audio, and I thought that was brilliant,” Honsa said. “In a society that multitasks as much as Americans do, podcasts are one of those things that is probably one of the most convenient forms of information out there.”

Podcasts, he said, offer “something that’s informative, entertaining and productive while you are doing other things.”

Two years ago, Lakewood Ranch launched the Mustangs Ahead podcast program, the first high school in East County to offer a multiplatform journalism program.

Four students are involved  in the podcast production— senior editor Riley Murphy, junior Amelia Dasovich, senior Hannah Vicars and sophomore Isabella Young. Honsa said he hopes to attract more students to the podcast crew in the years to come.

Murphy said she enjoys doing podcasts because it enhances her journalism skills.

“At the beginning of my junior year, (Honsa) asked if anyone wanted to pick this up, and I thought it would be a good idea,” Murphy said. “I’m horrible at interviews because I’m really shy. Sometimes, I would even send friends to go and do interviews for me, and I figured doing the podcast would give me an opportunity to work on my interviewing skills. I’m really glad I had time to practice this skill.”

Podcasting involves a number of skills. After an interview is conducted and recorded in a quiet room, podcasters upload the audio on their computers and use the Audacity program to remove unnecessary bits of audio.

After the editing is complete and the podcast is ready to be pushed online, it is uploaded to the Mustangs Ahead Soundcloud account, which is free for anyone to tune in and listen.

While students involved in podcasting are taking journalism classes, Murphy is quick to point out the differences between writing a story and talking about a story like they do in podcasts.

“The difference to me is that it’s a little more difficult,” Murphy said. “I only say this because when you’re writing and you have a quote, you can paraphrase and finesse it. But with podcasting, all you have is the audio, so you hope whoever you’re interviewing is well-spoken.”

Dasovich, a junior, had a hand in creating the ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) podcast.

Dasovich said she likes to get personal with her stories, and ICYMI provides her the platform to do so. The program includes stories or ideas from students, teachers or sponsors about something that may have happened in the past.

“Students in here write a lot of stories, but I think podcasts are more personal,” Dasovich said. “You get to hear people’s voices, and I am definitely more comfortable talking than I am writing.”

So far, Dasovich has been able to find touching stories around campus.

Her favorite, though, was an interview with a member of the school’s instructional  staff.

“I recently did a story on a teacher that had cancer,” Dasovich said. “It felt so personal.”