Local Reporter Records Her View for the Next Generation

Amherst- At Hampshire College, a classroom was filled with eager students of journalism during the optional January Term. Some were there for curiosity, others to improve their writing, and still others wanted training in the reporting arts. The class is called “Newswork”, and it is has a very broad subject area; by the end of the January Term, the students will have studied perceptions of journalists as depicted through popular culture and scholarly accounts as well as ethics and principals. The students will also do a field-study where they will shadow journalists at work in a newsroom and in the field.
On January 7, the class was visited by Tina Antolini, a reporter and broadcaster from WCFR, the NPR-affiliate station at UMass Amherst. Antolini has had her current job for two years. Her job entails going into the field, doing her research, and recording her story. She records more than an hour of sound for a story, and in it's final edited form it might be just 1.5 minutes but could be as much as five. In her introduction to the class, she stated that unlike newspapers, the audience can not reread the radio, and unlike television there are no images, just sound. She said that this could be a problem, but that it also allows for intimate story-telling. One of the important tips that she gave the class was that a radio journalist should sound like they are on the scene. For any given story, she would have recorded ambient sound that goes well as a background to the piece, but she would narrate parts of the story from the newsroom. In editing, the ambient sound would be overlaid with her narration. Interestingly, Antolini does much of her own editing. She learned to use audio mixing software in college, and now uses it for a living. Apparently, Antolini does not have a regular 'beat' like many reporters. Instead she will be assigned to a case based on experience or availability. When asked if she had to do a lot of quick learning, she responded with an emphatic yes. She finds however, that it is better not to make oneself an expert in the subject they are covering, such that they will ask the same questions that the public might want answered.