Audio journalism trainer Jerome Socolovsky is the author of the new edition of Sound Reporting, The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. We sat down with him for an interview detailing the behind the scenes process of writing and revising this book.
This book is written for three kinds of readers. The first is anyone interested in becoming a journalist. The second is practicing journalists who wish to learn or get better at audio storytelling. And the third is members of the public who want a glimpse behind the scenes at NPR.
As I wrote it, I was aware that the previous edition was assigned at many journalism schools. I didn't go to j- school myself; I learned the trade on the job. But I remember how helpful it was for me to read the previous edition of Sound Reporting while I was out doing the work myself. So I see the book as both for use inside and outside the classroom. One thing is for sure, I've learned so much while writing this book and interviewing around 80 of NPR's best journalists for it. If I had known at the beginning of my career all that I know now as a result of writing this book, I would have been a much better journalist!
With respect to lay readers, I hope this book helps them understand how we cover news at NPR. There's a media literacy crisis today with all sorts of people (not to mention a gazillion bots) presenting something they claim to be news. I wanted to shed light on the herculean lengths that journalists at NPR go to to be fair, balanced, accurate — and human. NPR is not perfect, but we try our darnedest to discover the truth — and to treat the people we interview and the audiences that rely on us with seriousness and utmost respect. So I hope the book moves the needle in restoring some trust in responsible journalists like those at NPR.
How much of the content did you have to update? What has changed the most? What remains the same?
Wow, so much has changed! Certainly since the last edition came out in 2008. Back then, podcasting was in its infancy. NPR was doing pods, as well as text and video, but nowhere nearly as much as now. We had a smaller staff and fewer shows. Just to give you a picture, with the help of our Research, Archives & Data Strategy team, I counted 10 unique radio programs in 2008 compared to more than 30 shows and podcasts in 2023, not including special coverage and app-based radio.
Another big change, it pains me to say, is that journalism is a more hazardous undertaking today. I added a whole new chapter on how to protect yourself, with tips from NPR journalists who've covered wars, civil unrest and other risky assignments. I talked to Eyder Peralta who was abducted in South Sudan, and I mention David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna, both killed in Afghanistan. In fact, the book is dedicated to the two of them.
Of course, many of the core principles are timeless. I deal with a number of concepts — conversational writing, structure, voice and delivery, and others — in more or less the same way as in the previous edition. But even when I wanted to make similar points, a lot of the people quoted in that edition no longer work at NPR. So I ended up rewriting the entire text based on a whole new set of interviews with current staff.
What part of working on this book did you enjoy the most?
By far, it was those interviews. It was truly fascinating and eye-opening to have long conversations about audio and journalism with people like Adrian Florido, Steve Inskeep, Asma Khalid, Don Gonyea, Mary Louise Kelly, just to name a few. I've worked with many of them before, but this was different. They took hours out of their busy days to talk to me about how they approach their work, and they revealed the stories behind the stories. We also talked a lot about ethics and fairness.
One thing all these conversations drove home for me was how passionate everyone is about the work they do. Journalism is a calling. With respect to audio journalism in particular, some people feel it has the power to create empathy and a role to play in our fractured society. As Rachel Martin, host of NPR's Wild Card podcast told me, "There's no better way to help another person understand someone's experience, than by hearing them, in their actual voice, explaining what's happened to them, in their own words, their own language, their own dialect, with emotion."
Were you in touch with the original author?
One of the first conversations I had about the book was with Jonathan Kern. He encouraged me to take on the new edition, and felt it was overdue. He was also one of the first people I talked to when I became a trainer at NPR because he had done it so well. Because it's one thing to be a good reporter or editor, it's another thing to know how to impart the knowledge to others. Jonathan has been gracious from the start. He shared some of his methods and tricks, and even his notes which I use to this day in planning my own training sessions.
Are some of the same NPR people you interviewed for your book also in the 2008 edition?
Yes, there are some NPR veterans in both editions, like Carol Anne Clark Kelly from Newscast and Barry Gordemer from Morning Edition. In fact, there's a nice vignette from the old book attributed to Barry that he mentioned when I interviewed him. It was when he was out producing with former host Bob Edwards. They were interviewing Glen Campbell and Barry noticed a photo on the wall of Campbell with another country singer, Johnny Cash, and pointed it out to Bob, who instantly wove it into the interview by referring to the picture of "two sons of sharecroppers." Barry didn't even know that Bob knew that! I included the vignette because it so perfectly illustrates how producers can make an interview sparkle.
What were some of the most important tips you wanted to share?
There's an abundance, spread throughout the book, so it's hard to choose. Some of the most important tips might be these: when pitching a story, find the tension that makes it compelling. When gathering tape, get as close as you can to the source of the sound, and use the microphone as a notebook to describe the scene and record your own thoughts. If you tell yourself what you're seeing and thinking when you're on the scene, your writing will be vivid and conversational. And you might even have a voice note that works as a standup. When interviewing, get people out of their office and on their feet. When voicing a story, be emphatic: you should be performing the script, not reading it. And finally, be careful. To quote our field security director Caroline Drees, "No story is worth a life."
How do you think NPR journalism differs from other news sources?
One thing is our public service mission. The purpose of our work is, as our web site says, to "create a more informed public." Unlike commercial broadcasters, we are not motivated by the bottom line. We can undertake projects that other news organizations might not because, as our Vice President for News Programming Eric Marrapodi pointed out to me, "We don't have a CEO that has to walk into a quarterly shareholders meeting."
After reading this, what do you expect the main takeaways to be?
This work is all about conversations. It starts with the conversation that a producer or reporter has with their editor, pitching a story to them and then maintaining a dialogue throughout the reporting and editing process. And it continues with the conversation that the reporter or host has with the audience when they write and voice their stories. In all these conversations, but especially the one with the audience, its crucial to talk the way you talk to people who trust and respect you — never lecture or admonish or make people feel excluded, but invite them to experience the story by giving them context and providing them with facts that surprise or intrigue them or reveal something they didn't know but appreciate hearing and adds complexity of their understanding of the world.
Of course, journalists are human. We have biases. It's okay to use a bias or preconceived notion as the starting point for your interest in a story. But reporting is an exercise in discovery. Of points of view that were unknown to you and, chances are, to many in your audience. Being a reporter is also about acknowledging the validity of differing points of view, especially those that challenge your own preconceptions. So that your goal is to get as close as humanly possible to the truth.
