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EPISODE 1

Planning

The initial plan for my podcasts was to always have me and somebody else talking. I found that when I had listened to podcasts with more than one person it felt a lot more interesting and engaging than solo podcasts. With the new rules of the government lockdown, I could only meet one of my friends at a time outside. With it being winter, recording a podcast outside isn't really an option. This means that for episode 1, I will have to record by myself. 

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As this change was completely influenced by coronavirus. I decided to make the first episode about COVID-19. I would still follow the same format for planning a podcast normally by writing down questions or specific things within the conversation topic. Here is the list:

  • How am I finding lockdown?

  • Things you hate about lockdown?

  • New hobbies?

  • Is this just a new way of life now/ how long left?

  • Do you think this will have an effect on younger generations?

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Planning a blog post for this topic was hard as I didn't want to discuss the same things as on my podcast. I have now decided to release a podcast and then a blog post the following week. This means having a theme spread over two weeks, which is a more realistic workload. If my podcast and blog post cross over in specific topics of conversation, it won't be as repetitive to listeners compared to if they were released on the same day.

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After recording my podcast and listening to it back, it had a very, understandably, negative outlook towards 2020 and covid-19. I also did a lot of rambling and steered away from coronavirus so with the blog I wanted to stick to the theme. For my blog post I decided to talk about the ways how covid-19 has impacted my life in a positive way. The things that wouldn't have happened without the national lockdown, coronavirus or just 2020 in general. 

  • A nice break, didn't stop for 2 years

  • Learnt to love spending time by myself

  • Reminded me of the optimism in me 

  • Started running as a hobby

  • Impact on college work- improved my tech skills

  • Appreciated spending time with my friends and family. 

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Podcast evaluation

I used anchor to record the podcast. I enjoy using this as its easy to use and I can just do it on my phone. The editing on the app is easily accessible and works well for cutting out bits I don't want in. I found when recording this podcast the volume of my voice increases throughout the podcast as I moved my phone closer to me. Next time I'm going to make sure I have my phone on a fixed position on the table, this will make sure there is no change of volume. I learnt from the pilot that it is easier to edit when its all one audio rather than stopping the audio when interrupted. During recording this audio my mum shouted up to my room, instead of stopping the recording I just let it continue and then edited it out later on. This was a lot easier than having to edit multiple audios. 

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The conversational content wasn't to the quality I would like my future podcasts to be at however, I knew this one wasn't going to be as good as I was by myself. I found it helpful as I had my preplanned questions in front of me so when I ran out of things to say I could jog my memory. I'm going to make sure I do this for all my future podcasts as it helped the podcast run smoothly. I'm also going to add just general conversation topics to the preplan as well as questions. This way I can bring up stuff I want to talk about and let the guest interpret it in their own way rather than start with a question.

Blog post- Silver linings

Coronavrius is still changing the world nearly a year later from when we first heard about it. With over 700 million tweets, it’s not surprising that it's all anyone can seem to talk about these days. National lockdowns, hundreds of thousands of deaths, extreme unemployment and we’re reaching the anniversary of our lockdown in the UK. Whilst it is extremely easy to focus on the very sad negatives. I do find myself thinking about how my life has changed for the better. Yes I can sit around and think about all the parties and festivals I could have gone to, the holidays I had booked and just spending time with my grandparents without worrying. However, I have learnt a lot over the past year, stuff that maybe I wouldn’t have learnt for another 5 years or maybe never. 

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I hadn’t stopped in two years. Since I got my weekend job in March 2018 I couldn’t tell you the last time I just spent a day in bed or just by myself. School, Monday to Friday and then working the weekend. A jam packed summer meeting my friends everyday, then college. Not only going to college Monday to Friday but obscene amounts of homework, clubbing on the weekends and working as well. I was like a robot in the same routine every week without stopping. Drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol every weekend and managing to do a 10 hour shift on 5 hours sleep. But I didn’t even see the issue with this because it was what I had been doing for the past 2 years so it was just who I was. It wasn’t until lockdown came about and I realised how important it is to just spend time by yourself and do things you enjoy. I’m a big reality TV fan, it's my biggest guilty pleasure. I hadn’t watched it in years and even though it's a bit shit and not educational at all, It was something I enjoyed doing and was a way to relax. 

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Lockdown also reminded me how much fun I have when i'm by myself. For years my idea of fun was just seeing my friends everyday and getting wankered, and let me tell you that is very much still fun, however I learnt that just listening to music in my room and having a dance is also one of my favorite things to do. I am now my favourite company and enjoy doing stuff by myself. Without coronavirus I would never have got into running. I used to be able to run for a minute at tops but now I can run 5K in under 30 minutes. It’s something I never thought I'd be able to do but something that I enjoy doing. 

 

We must remember the severity of coronavirus and that it is still very much here however try and use this time to learn not only about yourself but the world we live in. It’s been one of the worst years of my life but I’ve also learnt a lot.

Blog post evaluation

I really enjoyed writing this blog post as i feel like it was the summary of how I've been feeling for the past year. I find that everything is so negative these days and I enjoyed actually speaking about the positives for once. 

I think it needed more structure and I could have planned the paragraphs better however I still think it's a good read.

Next time I'll make sure to do a paragraph plan rather than just bullet points.

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