While listening to National Public Radio‘s All Things Considered, I came upon a story about how the current tsunami is impacting Japan’s Fishing Families.

I think this story is a great topic to address, due to current conditions, however, I would have done a few things different.

To begin, I am not a loyal NPR listener. I do understand the style of the radio programs, however. In short, this story was extremely dull in the way it was told.

I would have made the voicing more compassionate, more sympathetic toward the Japanese fishing industry. As an extremely large industry for the country, this is a bigger story than how this reporter is making it out to be.

Voice fluctuation is also something I didn’t hear much of during the story, too. Had he have voiced it differently, listeners may have gotten more out of the story. It was very different from

Also, I did not hear much from other family members if anything. If this is a story about Japanese fishing families, I expect to hear from more than just one person and numerous families. This allows listeners to better relate to the piece.

Although the reporter did a few things I disliked, he did have a few positives in his story. First, the natural sound was very good. I think that is something that makes NPR extremely unique and he could put me right into the boat or right next to the fisherman during the day’s limited catch. Secondly, the translator used in the story helped those who don’t speak Japanese overcome a HUGE communication barrier. Thirdly, the story was VERY newsworthy and had great significance to listeners of NPR.

These were the things that kept me listening to the Japanese Family Fishing piece.

Altogether, I thought the piece was very informative-it’s hard news. I realize it’s not always supposed to be fun, but the reporter needs to lighten up and enjoy his broadcasting-people can tell whenever someone isn’t having fun through the radio. He also needs to show more emotion-I didn’t feel much through my headphones. The whole newsworthiness of the story was appropriate and natural sound was fantastic. I hope sometime to be able to use natural sound as good as he did.

That said, if he does these things, I will become a more loyal listener to NPR.

To listen to the whole story, click here.