The Road to 2010

Caroline Ouellette on winning gold in 2006 at the Olympics in Turin

. caro-audio-story

There’s no question that Canadians are obsessed with hockey.
But at next year’s Olympics games in Vancouver, the energy of the crowd might shoot the roof. Fans aren’t the only ones who are excited. As Olympic hockey player caroline Ouellette explains, The players are just as excited about playing in front of a home crowd.

Clip 1: Caroline

But in the meantime, players are worried about making the Olympic team. Caroline, who is a veteran of the team since 1999, thinks her chances are good but is sad when teammates and friends are let go.

Clip 2: Caroline

The final line up of the women’s hockey team will be announced in august. Until then, players are taking good care of themselves to make sure they are in top shape.

Clip 3: Caroline

Come next February, Canada’s athletes will showcase their skills for their country, and the entire worldFor Concordia News, I’m Paloma Friedman

First of all, the audio track on the Deportation story would not load, so I can’t comment on the sound part of that slideshow. I’m not sure if that was due to browser troubles or a technical error on the part of the Washington Post, but it made me realize that outlets using multimedia should make an effort to use webtools that are compatible with all browsers, if they intend to reach the largest audience.

With the sound down, the photos of deportees alone were not arresting enough to carry the story, and the captions did not convey much more than a description of the image. It seems that the strength of photojournalism is its ability to trigger an emotional response in the viewer, and these photos did not do that in me. It could be due to the subject matter (in my opinion, not compelling) or the quality (not exceptional in this case, I found).

The photographs in the New York Times story seemed to be taken by someone much more skilled, and perhaps some post-production in Photoshop (sharpening, the lomo effect) enhanced them somewhat. Ultimately, I was drawn to the theme of refugees more than criminals. I think it was related to the pity I felt for innocent civilians trapped by war, not so much for illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Plus, pictures at a refugee camp–the endless waiting to return, constantly fearing for one’s life–have an inherent tension, even more so than a flight full of criminals (if there were an accident, or a mob broke out, that might make for a compelling story).

Both journalists posted their photos in black-and-white. While that felt stylistically minimalist in the NYT story, it felt reductive and washed-out in the Washington Post’s piece.

I think with soundslides bad photography can be saved by good audio, but good photography should be the focus.

This course didn’t present to me anything that I hadn’t learned in my radio and broadcast classes, nor could it replace the experience of capturing and manipulating sound in a real-life setting. Also, it seems counterintuitive for the course to be text-based. I would have liked the course to jog the part of my brain it was trying to stimulate.

I liked that it emphasized proper planning and paying attention to sound-suitable stories. In my experience,
I’ve figured out that not all stories work for audio, and planning ahead can save sound clips and introduce you to the most interesting people, with the most radio-ready voices.

Recently I bought an H2 Zoom recorder to record interviews for print stories. But I’ve been told, and since discovered, that the audio quality is superior enough for radio broadcast, and I hope to put it to use in the coming weeks.

With less than a year left until the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the excitement builds, but the pressure is on.

Canadians are anxiously awaiting the chance to once again show off their athletic prowess and icy skill to the world on home soil and snow and ice. They’ll have a distinct home advantage, training at facilities at which they’ll be competing and have crowds of cheering fans.

Canada has long dominated the winter sports scene, churning out high-performing athletes in every category from figure- and speed-skating to cross-country and hockey. But some are fearing an embarrassing repeat of the last time Canada hosted the Games, when in 1988 in Calgary, Canadians ranked thirteenth in the medal standings, earning no gold, two silver and three bronze. And it wasn’t the first time Canadians fell flat at home. Canada was shut out of gold at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, placing twenty-seventh in the rankings.

Could it be a case of performance anxiety? Canada took home seven medals in Turin, when its athletes weren’t under the stifling gaze of fellow Canadians. Canada has thrown its weight behind its athletes, investing millions to support athletic programs. The Own the Podium program, which funds winter sport athletes to the tune of $120 million, has set for its athletes the lofty goal of finishing first in Vancouver. In the latest federal budget, the government committed $500 million over the next two years to fund the construction and improvement of training facilities.

These investments come with strings attached, and the athletes are under immense pressure to yield results. But the pressure is not excessive, argued Ken Read, one of the executives behind Own the Podium. In an article in the Globe and Mail, Read wrote, “unreasonable pressure is asking an athlete to perform without the proper support.”

In hockey, Canada’s national obsession, the stakes are higher. The Canadian men’s team will have to make up for its disappointing performance in Turin, when their dreams of holding onto the Gold upended by their Nordic rivals, the Russians and the Swedes.

One bright spot in women’s hockey, which the Canadian team has dominated since the sport was inaugurated into the Olympics at the 1998 Games in Nagano. The team took home gold medals in Turin and Salt Lake City, and silver in Nagano.

However the recent dry spell in international women’s hockey could signal that gold is not a given. The women’s under-18 and under-22 teams uncharacteristically lost in their finals at tournaments this month, while the senior team placed second at the Four Nations Cup in November.

The losses could be useful, however, signaling earlier on that the team needs to work harder to capture the gold a year from now.

“I don’t think we’re slipping,” said Jayna Hefford, a forward from Kingston, Ont. “I think we’re being challenged and for us, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to face a challenge like that and realize we need to get better.”