People magazine weekly buzz

boiler16 — Wed, 09/24/2008 - 12:56

1. http://www.mediafly.com/MediaPlayer/Episode/Lynne_Spears_Speaks_Out

2. The audience for this podcast is anyone interested in celebrity gossip that does not have time to watch the news on television or do not buy gossip magazines. The purpose is to inform the audience of the lastest Hollywood and celebrity news. People can listen to this on their computer in a condensed format so they know what the weekly news is without taking time to watch an entire TV show or buy a magazine. The audio format is available on the web so people can listen on their own time. The site uses the main story as the title of the podcast, and also tells the main stories first and then moving on to "not so big" gossip at the end.

3. Do you think telling the main stories is the best choice of arrangement, or should you wait to share that information at the end of the podcast?

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sound effects

lefty150 — Wed, 09/24/2008 - 16:01

I like how this podcast uses sound effects. It uses the sound effect in between each of the different topics the speaker is covering. I think this helps the audience with the transitions from one subject matter to the next. What do you think?

I think the arrangement could go either way. By telling the main topic points first, it allows the audience, who is in a hurry, to get the “big” news. I think if people really want to listen and know what gossip is happening they will listen to the entire podcast.

people magazine podcast

boiler16 — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 22:53

I think that the use of sound effects is a great way to transition from story to story. This is something that I did not think of but it is something to think about when I create my own. Thanks!

I agree that the use of sound

islington — Wed, 09/24/2008 - 17:20

I agree that the use of sound effects, while common in most podcasts, is helpful here to separate the tiny bits of information in each story. If someone is uninterested in a specific news item, they can ignore it until they hear that small sound and it gets them back into the podcast.

I think placing a preview of stories to come at the beginning of the podcast is very important. It allows people to be drawn in with the key points of the story, and gets them interested in the podcast. If they were to simply read off the information, it wouldn't work quite right, at least in such a small format. This also allows listeners to decide if they care to listen to the entire podcast at the very beginning, or which news items are most important to them.

How do you feel about the length? In only a few minutes they seem to get off the main information needed, but there are probably more news items throughout the week they could touch upon. Possibly additional sections to the podcast other than a few news stories?

people magazine podcast

boiler16 — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 22:56

I think that the title of this podcast is the "Weekly Buzz" that people are expecting just a brief summary of each story. So, I think that the length is effective for the intended audience. Also in this case, if people are interested in a particular story and want to look further into it, they will just look at the People Magazine website and get the full story.

I agree

s5m32l3 — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 18:55

I definitely have to agree again with the sound effects, it keeps the podcast upbeat and not boring. The music in the background all corresponds with what the speaker is talking about. For example when talking about Britney Spears and Lance Bass, it plays their songs in the background, and when talking about Lance Armstrong cycling again in 2009 it plays " I like to ride my bicycle." I also like the sound effect that is used between each story. It lets you know that it is going to start talking about someone else.

Another thing that I liked, is that the speaker briefly talked about each person, he didn't go into full depth about the story, but gave enough information to get the main points out of it.

I think that telling the main story first is a good idea, because it gets the listener interested. If you started out with the boring stuff, most likely the audience isn't going to listen to the entire podcast, and they will never hear the good stuff.

Although I like the sound effects, do you think they are a little distracting at times?

people magazine podcast

boiler16 — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 23:00

You have a great point about the sound effects. I have mixed feelings about sound effects. I normally think they are distracting, but I think that using them to break up each story is a great way to use them. Actually playing songs when people are talking can be distracting. To be completely honest, while I listened to this podcast I tuned out the sound effects so I guess it doesn't bother me all the time. If the sound effects are there and people are even noticing that they exist, maybe they are being used in the wrong way....any comments?

The podcast is a very nice

NEWMAN — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 23:19

The podcast is a very nice round up of what is going on in Hollywood. I can see how someone who is interested in celebrity gossip would find this to be a great alternative to a news show or a magazine. The part I did enjoy the best was the use of sound. The transitions and background music made it seem as though it was just like a television show and kept the podcast upbeat.

I believe that the arrangement should have the main news at the end. If an audience member is only listening for the main news this forces them to have to listen to the entire show and could possibly allow for a few shameless plugs to make some money for the podcast.

Nice podcast...

RhythmRunneR — Thu, 09/25/2008 - 23:57

This was a nicely done podcast. While I'm not a big fan of celebrity gossip, there are plenty of people who are and would find this helpful. What made it effective was it's brevity; to read all this in a magazine might take longer, and a television broadcasts of the same type usually go more in depth. The quick stories presented allow this podcast to stand out among other sources of the same information. I also agree that sound was used well because every time that swoosh noise came I knew the topic was changing.

I know I usually loathe when news programs wait to show the important highlights near the end of the show, so I can't support placing headlines at the end of the podcast. Usually there is some text describing what the listener will be hearing near the link to the podcast, so in that way the headline topics are already revealed. Given this podcast is called "Weekly Buzz" and is geared towards brevity, it should attack the most important stories first so people can get in, listen to what they want to hear, and get on with their day. This would also help differentiate the podcast from other gossip news sources as it'd be one of the few to arrange it that way.