PODCAST PROJECT
Introduction: Iron Man Podcast and Marvel Heroes
This is a podcast focused on gender roles and gender stereotypes in Marvel movies. My job in this project particularly looks into Iron Man and discussed how toxic masculinity, glamorous and enchanting as they seem, can inadvertently impact people's mindset.
Men are big wheels and lone gunmen. They may say, “It’s not all about me,” as Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) does at the beginning of the film, but, really, it is.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Before the production of our podcast, we, first of all, formed a group chat where we discussed what kind of topic is the best for our podcast. After a long discussion and video chat, we decided to go for gender construction in Marvel heroes.
We did a considerable amount of research. We read a few important articles and finally had a clue of what we what to do in our theme: "Due to the focus on women's superheroes films, it is important to portray gender in superheroes. It is important to consider the identity scheme when looking at gender portrayals."
Besides, we also looked at a few podcast examples from which we hoped to gain some inspiration and a good pattern to learn. Examples include: The Daily NYT, Today Explain, No Such Thing As A Fish.
PRODUCTION
The production part is very interesting because each one of us has played a significant role in this project. We not only just wrote our own script but also proofread other teammates' scripts and helped polish.
We mostly recorded our own voices and then set to a final person to edit it. It is noteworthy that we decided to use Adobe Audition to improve our sound quality.
This task encourages me to improve my listening skills and I need to communicate with and speaker so that we can get a good overview. This position also teaches me to be accountable because everyone has their work, and only with everyone responsible for their work will we finish the podcast. Members included: Haoran Jiang. Yi Jiang. Shiwei Hu. Leo Zhu.
LOOKING FORWARD
What I have learned so far...
I was difficult to get into status at the start of our recording. I must catch again and again because occasionally, in the middle of chatting, I could not talk fluently because I have language barriers.
I practiced my scripts over and over again and tried my best to made them sound natural. For a non-native English speaker, it has been huge progress for me so far.
It is also very difficult to engage anyone in discussions while capturing clearly. Many speakers will simply create record confusion, and the recording quality is declining. If we're going to finish talking with the other guest, we get everybody to lift their hands to resolve this, so that everybody can chat when the atmosphere is not chaotic.