My podcast project is on how women’s participation in tech and computer science has diminished and why this poses a problem.  While researching, I found a storyline within the history of women in tech (and it’s actually a very interesting and unexpected one) so I thought a podcast would be perfect.  I created my podcast with the intent of telling a story that would appeal to the listeners’ emotional side.  To get my audience to be emotionally invested is an effective way to raise awareness and stir a passion for the issue, so I spoke to my audience on why the issue of the lack of coding women matters.  My audience consists of young girls who are at an age when they are starting to ponder what subjects they’re interested in, what fields they might pursue, and what jobs they’d like to have in the future.  Basically, I’m directing my podcast towards women who can be persuaded to rethink their thoughts on the ubiquitous gender stereotype surrounding computer science.

I made my podcast with GarageBand and Audacity.  These are great audio editing tools, although I definitely prefer using Garageband.  I interviewed two of Dartmouth’s Computer Science professors to get an experienced perspective and an outside voice on the issue, and reported some of my own research findings with pathos-heavy rhetoric.  I presented less statistics and emphasize more stories and anecdotes (like Zhou’s personal experience as a woman in computer science) to make it easier to digest for the listener.  Because the scope of the podcast was less than 10 minutes, the podcast had to be concise and spoken at a reasonable pace, which put limitations on how much information could be included.  Additionally, inserting frequent pauses were necessary so that people could catch up to what is being said.  All in all, making this podcast had me consider rhetorical choices that were specific for audio and ones I would never had made within a different medium.

Looking back at my experience in creating this project, I realize how much more aware I am of the rhetorical choices and thoughts that go into curating a podcast.  I had to make sure that every second of my podcast had a purpose, and that even means that every second of silence was intentional.  I never listened to many podcasts myself, but I definitely see the beauty of podcasts through my experience in making one myself.

-Jane