How to improve climate change coverage. Ideas from three reporters around the world
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Climate Reporting - The Future of Journalism
Climate reporting can't be a this adon to our usual report. As journalists, our mission should be a to help everyone take it seriously. It was very energizing to see my colleagues from around the world working tirelessly to meet this challenge. This is the reality that i want to see everywhere when when i use these binoculars.
00:00
Transcript
Play full episode
Transcript
Episode notes
Speaker 3
I think we may have talked about the USB micro or mini one, which is like seventy nine dollars, which doesn't have the gain. So there's
Speaker 2
some I think I think we talked about the other one that this is kind of like the second generation
Speaker 3
of the interface, which is USB C. So I don't believe we have talked about this one before.
Speaker 4
OK, so what this is, it's
Speaker 1
a little compact USB interface for XLR microphones.
Speaker 4
OK, and when I say compact,
Speaker 1
I mean compact. It's like teeny.
Speaker 7
I mean, considering
Speaker 1
what another USB interface looks like, this looks like it's just a little.
Speaker 4
I don't even how would you describe it? It's so small. You just stick
Speaker 7
it on the end of your XLR microphone and then it's got
Speaker 1
little knobs on the back. It's it's kind of like a little extension to your microphone itself. It's it's small.
Speaker 7
And what do you have to say about it? Because I think that you are kind of excited by this.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, first off,
Speaker 2
it is small and that's nice. It makes it for portable, but it also is powerful. I mean, a 60 dB gain.
Speaker 8
It works with
Speaker 3
the SM 58, which many of us
Speaker 2
already have. And notorious drive hungry SM seven B.
Speaker 3
Used by many podcasters as well. The interface is not cheap, one 29.
Speaker 2
It's more expensive than the SM 58, which is 99.
Speaker 8
It is a little less
Speaker 3
money than a cloud lifter, which the college is normally goes to one 49,
Speaker 2
but the cloud lifter is meant for XLR to XLR connections. And if you have a really good preamp, that
Speaker 3
should still give you better performance than this in
Speaker 2
theory. But
Speaker 3
the advantage of this
Speaker 2
is that it is small and USB C and you can connect your SM 58 to your laptop when on the road
Speaker 3
and get good audio that way
Speaker 2
without having to also bring along a USB preamp with you and a cloud lifter. So this to me makes it really nice for an addition to your mobile. Normally, I'm carrying around with me Q2U. I could take this and my SM 58, which has like almost no noise, hand noise and is really a durable mic and get a little bit better
Speaker 3
performance if I need to have a road mic, especially in a loud environment. The SM 58
Speaker 2
is great for that loud environment.
Speaker 3
So here's some more technical specs, descriptions on this for those that are
Speaker 2
geeky and want to know that stuff. Obviously XLR, USB connectivity with auto level mode right out of the box. It works with dynamic and condenser mics up
Speaker 3
to 60 dB gain, 48 volt phantom power means you can level up any XLR
Speaker 2
mic, headphone monitoring, zero latency, which
Speaker 3
is really
Speaker 2
nice, standard 3.5 millimeter headphone
Speaker 3
jack, Mac and Windows compatible. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Connect your desktop with USB C to USB C cable, which they include. It is small. We mentioned that it's a perfect edition setup
Speaker 3
for mobile and then full control. You can access your mic output via the Shore plus motive desktop app and configure the DSP features such as gain, limiter, compressor, EQ and more. And you can save your presets for quick access translation. You can optimize it for the mic that you're using.
Speaker 2
That's key because you're going to want to have different settings for this SM 58 than you do for the seven, the seven, the SM 7B.
Speaker 1
There are a lot of times when people have and this is not going to work for saving all the money, right? Because again, it's $129 to get this little tiny little device. It's so small and part of that it would be amazing for you to like, let's say, when you're starting a podcast, let's say somebody, you're a new podcaster, you're starting right out of the gate, somebody is willing to give you a microphone or let's say you win a microphone at an event because there's a lot of times, you know, in conferences, there's giveaways, there's all kinds of giveaways.
Speaker 4
But let's say you get like a, you know, an SM 7B and
Speaker 1
you're like, oh, great. Now, I have like this beautiful
Speaker 7
microphone and I have no way to connect it to my computer. Right? With this little thing, you can.
Speaker 1
And then it's like it's literally $129. You know, you won this microphone or somebody gave you an XL on our microphone.
Speaker 4
Now with $129, you can put it in straight into your computer. That is so amazing and you can carry it with you. So now you can travel with XLR microphones, just like Rob said, and you don't have to
Speaker 1
travel with, you know, an ATR 2100X or like a Samsung Q2U. You can get this in there. So I think this is
Speaker 9
so amazing.
Speaker 1
And I'm sorry to keep on harping on the fact that it's so small. But the portability of something like this, especially for podcasters that don't have the privilege of being able to be in one position, like they don't have a
Speaker 5
proper studio.
Speaker 1
It's so good. You don't have to take out a giant interface that usually you have to be putting out all the time. Here's the big question.
Speaker 3
How will this
Speaker 2
work with the new iPhone if it has USB-C? Yeah, that would be really good. I mean, that's what I really want to find out.
Speaker 8
So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4
could you even test it
Speaker 2
with an iPad Pro? Yeah, I have the USB iPad Pro. So again, another thing I can test it with. So
Speaker 3
I haven't hit
Speaker 2
by yet, but I'm going to after we're done recording. So I'm going to have it here probably tomorrow or Saturday because it's in stock. Yeah. And I have to do that and I'll have to do some testing and see how does, you know, how does my mics sound when I connect this to various mics onto my iPad
Speaker 3
Pro? Yeah.
Speaker 2
And but again,
Speaker 3
if it can work with the iPhone 15 and you can take a short SM 58 mic and this and your
Speaker 2
iPhone and you go to a trade show and you
Speaker 3
want to interview people on the trade show floor, oh my. I mean, it just you completely reduced your
Speaker 2
setup
Speaker 3
down to really
Speaker 2
small compact package. And if you walk around CES, for example, and I have to go to the whole trade show and you want to do multiple interviews at trade boots, this could be a huge advantage for those people that are doing any type of trade show floor interviews.
Speaker 5
Oh, totally. Absolutely.
Speaker 1
So good game changers. By
Speaker 3
the way, we're not seeing it works with the iPhone 15. Have no idea. We're speculating it might.
Speaker 2
The potential is exciting. And again, I'm going to order it and I'm going to try it with my USB C iPad Pro and see how it works with it and hopefully if it works with it, then it should work with the iPhone 15. It might not work and we'll let you know that too. But exciting if it does. Yay. So good.
Speaker 3
Love it.
Speaker 2
We love making, you know, you're carrying a phone with you. This is just another way to get out there with a mobile setup whenever you need to record, you know, the best mic is the mic with you. And it's better to have less carry than more. Absolutely.
Speaker 4
OK, and then we have a new podcast. Yeah.
Speaker 3
So this is strike force five
Speaker 2
with Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Myers and Oliver.
Speaker 3
So the five
Speaker 2
key late night hosts raising
Speaker 3
money for their staffs.
In this episode of our podcast, we speak to members of our Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) on their experience participating in the network. In this episode of our podcast, we speak to members of our Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) on their experience participating in the network, what they have learned, how it has improved their understanding of the climate and how to improve its coverage, and the importance of solidarity and community among journalists covering climate change.
The speakers:
Elisângela Mendonça is an award-winning journalist at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism specialising in climate breakdown and human rights. She is a fellow at the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network. She is member of the OCJN.
Krixia Subingsubing is a journalist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer covering politics, social justice, human rights and the environment. She is member of the OCJN.
Ethan van Diemen is a South African data and investigative journalist based for the Daily Maverick. He writes about the intersection of climate change, energy and development in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a member of the OCJN.
Our host Diego Arguedas Ortiz Network Manager at the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. His work has been published by BBC Future, MIT Technology Review, Le Monde Diplomatique, Univision and Anthropocene. He has covered several UN climate change conferences, the Panama Papers, and founded and edited Ojo al Clima, Central America's first climate news outlet.
Read a transcript of the podcast here: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/our-podcast-how-improve-climate-change-coverage-ideas-three-reporters-around-world
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
