Abstract

This research-creation project investigates how concepts of affect theory can offer insight into new models of journalistic storytelling that engage audiences through affect, particularly in audio journalism and podcasting. Affect is described here as an intensity of emotions that urges individuals to feel something and do something, driving them towards thought and movement (Seigworth & Gregg, 2010). This motivation is equally shared in journalism, which urges audiences to provoke thought and inspire change.

This study develops an “Affective Framework” – narratives driven by compelling characters, emotive and non-stylized voices, descriptive and vivid language, moments of tension, a full-bodied soundscape, personal anecdotes – and applies it to the podcasting format to explore how journalists can produce engaging human-interest stories for news audiences that stimulate deeper levels of sense-making, connection, empathy and feeling by analyzing the composition of three podcast episodes produced for this research. Each episode recounts the story of a woman who spent her pregnancy and the first few months of motherhood in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic but is structured differently to test the various aspects of the Affective Framework.

Podcasting transcends as the ideal immersive listening space for audiences to fully submerge themselves in a narrative due to the intimacy between the listener and the voices in the podcast. The “Affective Framework” offers direction on how to create empathetic value for listeners by embedding pockets of affect into the composition of the podcast (e.g., strategic use of sound, timing, and descriptive language). Structuring the podcast by emphasizing different elements of the framework at varied levels between episodes and comparing them will prompt an interesting discussion around how different applications of affective techniques may stimulate emotional responses from listeners and evaluate which elements might be more effective at eliciting the emotions and affects the producer is seeking.