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*Recording* Storytelling for Podcasts with Lacy Roberts

This four-part, 8 hour recorded workshop focuses on non-fiction narrative shows – the documentary-style, often serialized, story-driven podcasts like Serial, Missing Richard Simmons, and Wind of Change that are known for telling expansive, immersive stories. The best ones leave listeners feeling like they’ve been on a journey, and maybe even with a new perspective on the world. This workshop delved into the choices that go into structuring a narrative show that keeps listeners hitting the play button every episode. Instructor Lacy Roberts guided students through the elements of narrative. Participants looked closely at the narrative structures often seen in serialized storytelling. Lacy deconstructed great narrative shows to uncover just what makes them so good, and derive lessons participants could use in their podcasting endeavors. This class also demystified the process of creating a narrative show, discussed what kinds of stories make good narrative podcasts, and provided students with actionable next steps if they think they have a great show idea.

*RECORDING* Storytelling for Podcasts with Lacy Roberts

$200.00
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Youth Projects

Heart Butte student reporters document solar project

In Heart Butte, Montana, students reported on news unfolding right in their backyard using skills they learned at a News Literacy and Digital Storytelling Workshop. Construction crews were installing a new solar array that would supply energy for the school and for community members. Students made a radio feature that included the sound of construction equipment and wind whistling across the hills surrounding the school.

Listen here:

The news literacy and digital storytelling projects were made possible by support from a Hearst Literacy Grant and the Greater Montana Foundation.

Are you interested in hosting a Montana Media Lab News Literacy and Digital storytelling workshop at your school? Contact us here.
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Youth Projects

Young Polson filmmakers investigate the Flathead Monster

Middle school students in Polson spent the week of their News Literacy and Digital Storytelling Workshop gathering stories about the Flathead Lake monster for a video story. An elder shared the Kootenai story of a lake monster creating Flathead lake.  The students visited a judge who believed he saw a monster in the lake. A museum director shared her theory that the monster was actually an ancient fish. A biologist applied his knowledge to the idea of a lake monster.

Watch the video below.

The news literacy and digital storytelling projects were made possible by support from a Hearst Literacy Grant and the Greater Montana Foundation.

Are you interested in hosting a Montana Media Lab News Literacy and Digital storytelling workshop at your school? Contact us here.

Categories
Youth Projects

Hays-Lodgepole students report on Native language textbook

Students at Hays Lodgepole school spent a week this summer navigating fact and fiction on the internet and creating an audio story about a new Nakoda language textbook at a News Literacy and Digital Storytelling Workshop. 

Students interviewed the school principal, the illustrator of the book, and their peers. The Nakoda language was once forbidden in schools. Their story captures the joy the community felt when about the opportunity to incorporate the language into the public school curriculum.

Listen to their story below.

The news literacy and digital storytelling projects were made possible by support from a Hearst Literacy Grant and the Greater Montana Foundation.

Are you interested in hosting a Montana Media Lab News Literacy and Digital storytelling workshop at your school? Contact us here.

Categories
Youth Projects

Box Elder students produce videos about community happenings

Box Elder High School hosted the first Montana Media Lab News Literacy and Digital Storytelling workshop of the summer.

Box Elder students made two videos about their community. One focused on the new school garden—Bear Nation Garden. They got footage of the garden intern planting seedlings and pulling weeds. Their reporting took them to the local convenience store, the school cafeteria, and the Rocky Boy Health Center. Watch the video here:

Other students pursued a story about the role basketball plays in the Box Elder community. They interviewed basketball star and Box Elder graduate Brandon The Boy. Student reporters shot footage of kids playing basketball on the playground. 

A Box Elder student created a digital image for the opening page of the garden video. Another composed the music featured in the videos. 

Watch the video here:

The news literacy and digital storytelling projects were made possible by support from a Hearst Literacy Grant and the Greater Montana Foundation.

Are you interested in hosting a Montana Media Lab News Literacy and Digital storytelling workshop at your school? Contact us here.

Categories
Youth Projects

Summer 2021 news literacy and digital storytelling workshops

In June 2021 the Montana Media Lab hit the road for a series of news literacy and digital storytelling workshops at schools in rural Montana. Teens in Box Elder, Hays-Lodgepole, Polson, and Heart Butte participated. Students at each school told stories about their communities using audio and video skills they learned. Along the way they mastered strategies for identifying disinformation and misinformation on the internet. 

Student instructor Hunter Wiggins made a video about the experience. Watch here:

Students used smartphones and iPads to fact check outlandish claims in popular social media posts. They learned how to determine whether a website was trustworthy by laterally reading and checking out the source’s URL. 

Students were involved in every facet of producing digital stories. They came up with narrative arcs, decided on interview questions, operated the microphones and cameras, and edited final versions of the stories.

Students instructor Dante Filpula Ankney created this audio story about the summer program. Listen here:

By Dante Filpula Ankney

Do you know a Montana school we should visit for a workshop in the future? Contact us here.

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Collaborations Our Work

Montana Nonprofit Association 2020 Annual Conference

The Montana Media Lab presented two talks at the annual Montana Nonprofit Association virtual conference in September 2020.

Talking to the Media

Long-time journalists Courtney Lowery-Cowgill and Anne Bailey from the UM School of Journalism discussed practical tips for conveying stories effectively to the media. Participants learned best ways to contact journalists, what to do when a reporter calls for an interview and what information television, radio and newspaper journalists need to tell compelling stories. Through practice and feedback, participants gained confidence in being interviewed, both on and off camera.

Using Social Media for Good, and Strategically

Participants learned how to better plan, organize and execute a social media strategy that reflects their organization’s mission and culture and keeps their audience engaged and informed. Attendees refined their organization’s social media strategy to focus on authenticity and impact, learned to use social media for connection instead of just marketing, and explored new tools to help streamline their social media strategy.

Check out the session recording:

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Past Workshops 2020

Producing During a Pandemic

When COVID-19 hit, it brought a whole new set of challenges for the audio production industry.

In this workshop, Lacy Roberts, managing producer at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Media, provided tips on producing in the time of COVID. Attendees learned best practices for remote audio capture, and gained insight on ways to bring remote productions to life, even without field tape.

Here is a preview of Lacy’s remote workshop:

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Past Workshops 2020

Podcasting 101

Everyone wants to make a podcast these days. You have a great idea, but where do you begin?

Lacy Roberts, managing producer at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Media, talked participants through the foundational questions they need to answer before setting out — from figuring out whether a podcast idea has legs, to setting a budget, to choosing the right equipment.

Participants left this workshop with a better understanding of how to take their podcast ideas from conception to launch.

Here’s a small preview of Lacy’s remote presentation:

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Collaborations Our Work

National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Program

The Montana Media Lab has teamed up with The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program at the University of Montana to create video content that targets STEM-focused students, faculty and departments on campus.

The I-Corps program aims to accelerate the commercialization of research and innovative ideas in STEM fields by helping researchers and innovators identify target markets, conduct market research and evaluate market readiness.