Slug & Lede

“Talk about a great assignment.”

The opening line of the NPR audio slideshow, Road Trip, sounds just as cheesy in audio as it reads on paper.

A roughly three minute documentary about an Easy Rider-style road trip has the potential and the creativity to breath fresh air into the often stale coverage of the presidential campaigns, but fails slightly in its execution. While the most journalists were traveling to follow campaign rallies, a few NPR correspondents decided to embark on an “old fashioned road trip” across the U.S. in order to find out people’s opinions on the concept leadership. Great idea. The problems lie in the presentation.

From the first sentence and the sound of an office door opening, followed seconds later by the sound of revving engines, viewers might almost get confused as to whether they are listening to a public radio feature story or a children’s audiobook. Obviously, with such a politically driven theme, the broadcast was not for children. At the same time, the narrator’s slow and painfully hesitant commentary made the documentary seem awkward and scripted in certain moments.

After an oversimplified beginning, I think the goal of the journalists was quite interesting: to find the pulse of the central U.S. and write about the diversity of perspectives within the broad area we call our country. The narrator details a handful of locations: Chicago, St. Louis, Arkansas, Colorado, Phoenix and allows the viewer to taste the culture of each through use of music and scenery noise. A more in-depth look would have made the stops more meaningful, but at the same time the short clips of each place kept the story moving and maintained the feel of a fast-paced road trip.

The redeeming value of the mini-documentary was found in the photos. Throughout the clip, the music/sounds reinforced the scrolling images, and the images were very compelling and professionally shot.

Unfortunately the clip ended how it began: a cliché wrap-up commentary as images of a road at night ran into darkness.