Journal 4

In This American Life’s radio broadcast titled "#1 Party School,” the radio show does a report on how alcohol plays a role in the life Penn State students, faculty, police officers, and residents. The reporters make the object of their report obvious to the audience and easy to understand. They discuss the issue of drinking at Penn State thoroughly and use terms that make sense. They decided to discuss this issue because Penn State had just been ranked as the number one party school in the nation for the year by Princeton Review, which they saw as a reason the do the report. Throughout their discussion, they give many facts and specific details about how drinking and being in possession of alcohol affects the many different groups that are involved with the issue at Penn State. For a large part of the radio show, they use interviews with many different people around the campus to show how students drinking alcohol effects them. The quotes and statements that they get from these people give great detail and firsthand experience about how they are affected by the issue. There are also many specific pieces of data that are used, such as how about three out of four Penn State students drink, which really helps to put in perspective how many people are really effected by this issue.

One thing that I really liked about the radio broadcast was how many interviews they conducted from a large range of people with different views on the issue. These included residents of State College, students (even students who were drunk at the time,) a pizza delivery man, local business and bar owners, a police officer, and even Graham Spanier. All of these people show different perspectives on the issue, whether they are tired of all of the drunk people messing with their yard like the State College residents, or are happy to have the students there, like the bar owner, even if they are a little rowdy. Then, there are the perspectives of those who are trying to change the issue, such as Graham Spanier, who acknowledge that there is an issue but say that it is almost impossible to find a solution. Because they interviewed so many different people, I think just about every perspective was represented through some kind of quote or statistic. By the end of the broadcast, the reporters wanted the audience to see how students drinking alcohol effected Penn State, but most of all, what can be done about the issue, either by the administration of the school and the police, or by the students themselves.

I think that the podcast was mostly well done and I enjoyed listening to it and I really liked all of the interview recordings, especially the ones that were done “on the street,” such as the one interviewing drunk people on the street and the ride with the police officer. One thing that I didn’t like was how some of the interviewers were trying to force their negative opinions while conducting the interviews and presenting the broadcast. Throughout the radio show, they talked about how much drinking was going on at Penn State and how rowdy drunk people could be on the weekends, but that is probably all they focus on. I know that’s the point of this radio broadcast, but they barely ever show any positive examples of what Penn State is doing. Also, for example, when interviewing the one student on her 21st birthday, the one reporter almost tried to make fun of the girl for spending her birthday drinking when asking her questions. One thing that I would have liked is for the people giving the interviews to try and keep the actual interview as balanced as possible without trying to force their beliefs while conducting the interview.