Radio Documentary and
Podcasting
Initial Task
Grab the Ghetto Life 101 Handout and Transcript packet
from the front table.
On the first page, please reflect:
What does the phrase, “ghetto life,” mean to you?
What do you imagine this radio documentary is all
about?
Monday’s Game Plan
Learning Objectives/Goals
Today’s Tasks
 Develop an understanding of
the term, “radio
documentary.”
 New Unit! Radio Documentary and
Podcasting
 Practice active listening,
analysis, reflection, and
discussion in context of the
selected media text.
 Respond to text critically;
applying your personal
experiences to your
understanding of the
documentary.
 What is radio documentary? Intro
to Ghetto Life 101.
 Pre-listening reflection and
discussion activity
 Begin active listening and
responding to Ghetto Life 101.
What is radio documentary?
 A radio documentary or feature is a program devoted to
covering a particular topic in depth, usually with a mixture of
commentary and sound pictures.
 What do you think a sound picture is?
 Some radio features, especially those including specially composed
music or other pieces of audio art, resemble radio drama in many
way, though often non-fictional in subject matter.
 What is non-fictional?
 Other radio documentaries consist of more straightforward,
journalistic-type reporting – but at much greater length than found
in an ordinary news report.
(definitions adapted from wikipedia)
What’s Ghetto Life 101?
 Two 13 year-old boys from Chicago- LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newmancreated the radio documentary. Ghetto Life 101 tells about their
lives and their neighborhood.
 The idea for GHETTO LIFE 101 came from David Isay, a New York
writer. He was asked to make a documentary for a public radio
station in Chicago as part of a series on issues of race and
ethnicity in the city. Instead of interviewing scholars and other
experts on urban life, Isay decided to ask young people who lived
in urban neighborhoods to tell their own stories.
 After receiving dozens of responses from interested young people,
Isay hired Jones and Newman as reporters, because “they were
smart. They were funny. They were the ones.”
What’s Ghetto Life 101?
LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman decided to speak
frankly about themselves, their families, and their
community.
They chose to share not only the good things about
their lives but also their sorrows, fears, and
disappointments.
To broaden their audience’s perspective, they
interviewed relatives, teachers, classmates, and
others in their neighborhood- the area around the Ida
B. Wells, a housing project on the South Side of
Chicago. Lloyd Newman and his family have an
apartment there. LeAlan Jones lives in a house
nearby.
Ida B. Wells Housing Project,
2003
Photo by John Brooks
Ida B. Wells Housing Project,
2003
Photo by John Brooks
Ida B. Wells Housing Project,
2003
Photo by John Brooks.
Pre-listening questions
and discussion
 A major theme in Ghetto Life 101 is community and
neighborhood. LeAlan Jones suggests that outsiders know
very little about his community. Do you think he is right? Do
people who live outside the “ghetto” know about what life is
like within that community?
 How much do you and your friends know about
neighborhoods other than your own? How do you get
information about the people who live in other
neighborhoods? What part does the media play in shaping
your impressions of people you’ve never met? How else did
you acquire those impressions? How do people in other
neighborhoods learn about you and your friends?
Ghetto Life 101: Critical Listening
 We are going to listen to the entire radio documentary
at least twice over the next couple of days.
 As you are listening, consider what message the boys
want to communicate in their radio documentary.
 Use the Ghetto Life 101 Critical Listening handout to
guide your note-taking and reflections.
 You are also encouraged to follow along on the
transcript and highlight dialogue and incidents that
stand out to you.
What’s ahead:
Tomorrow:
 Finish initial listening and questions.
 Begin 2nd listening session. Remember to follow along
on transcript. Highlight and/or mark moments,
interviews, and incidents that stand out to you.