rileyumich-blog

[rileyumich-blog]

Portfolio Introduction

My final project, exhibited here, is an informational podcast concerning recent developments in the ongoing Flint water crisis and some of the most persistent obstacles to resolving it.

This project grew out of several experiments that informed the way I approached the storytelling necessary for the topic. I used my origin piece, which was a news article I wrote for the Michigan Daily about a key moment in the Flint water crisis, to create a few very different projects. I first wrote a short story describing some of the events in the article that I wrote about; it took place in the Flint mayor’s office. Much of my article focused on the problems she faced, and I interviewed a few of her staff members, so I felt I had a good base of knowledge to write the story.

But it proved more difficult than I thought. I was lost for a story arc or detailed character dynamics because I mostly just captured a specific moment in the mayor’s office in my research. In the next cycle, I tried an epic poem in the style of The Odyssey, which I recently re-read. This experiment suffered because I tried to imitate the language and syntax of The Odyssey, and this tone did not fit the story at all. It may have even trivialized some of the things I was writing about. This was definitely not my goal, so I opted to switch to a less literary and more informative genre: a podcast.

I wrote a script for my third experiment. I reorganized and edited my article to use in a different format. I felt that this ended up working quite well, and it fit the tone of the piece much better. I also learned a few ways that podcasts can be used to tell a story and grasp emotion in a way that news writing simply cannot. My intention is first to inform, and also to emphasize the human experience of this crisis and use that to underscore the problems that still persist in Flint. I hope that my final product reflects this intent.