The empirical study presented by Dr. Bruce Ryan and team explores audience engagement with a digitized archive of Lorna Lloyd's war diary, both as an audio podcast and as a text-based Blipfoto journal. Findings indicate that the podcast format is more entertaining and provides a greater emotional response, while also allowing for convenient consumption, though some authenticity and depth may be lost compared to the text version. The study also identifies the podcast's flexibility and coherence as significant advantages over traditional text and image formats.

1. Platform to Platform
Initial findings from the empirical study
Dr Bruce Ryan b.ryan@napier.ac.uk @Bruce_Research
Professor Hazel Hall h.hall@napier.ac.uk @hazelh
Dr Iain McGregor i.mcgregor@napier.ac.uk
Presented at Creative Informatics Showcase, 3rd October 2022

2. From this…

3. https://rss.com/podcasts/lornalloyd/
…to this…

4. Katherine
Stephen
Announcer
Richard
Godden
Newsreader
Bethany
Ray
Lorna Lloyd
David
Monteath
Theo Lloyd
…starring…

5. …by way of this.

6. Helped by

7. 3rd year student team
supervised by Iain McGregor:
Andras Peter, James
McLachlan, Alex Gencs,
Michael Suttie*, David Graham
Sound Design (4); Software
Engineering (1*)
With grateful thanks to

8. Content Blipfoto Podcast
Lorna’s commentary on living through the war x x
Local news on the war x
Regional news on the war x
National news on the war: print news x
Poetry by Lorna x limited
Samples of other writing by Lorna x
Samples of Lorna’s artwork x
Outputs by other family members x limited
Family photographs x
Emerging story of family history x
Audience comments x
Music enjoyed by Lorna x
Only the war diary entry content is identical
in both formats of the digitised archive

9. Key questions addressed in the empirical study
 How do people engage with an archive digitised as a
non-fiction podcast series ‘performance’?
 How is this comparable with engagement with the
same core archive previously presented as online text
and images?

10. Data collection in 2022
1. March: discussions within project team; 3 scoping
interviews
2. April-May: 9 ‘before’ interviews
3. June: 9 ‘after’ interviews

11. Enthusiastic reception of the podcast series
 ‘It’s been a tremendous translation into audio’ (Frankie)
 ‘The students have done a great job’ (Pat)
 Techniques familiar to audience from professional audio,
e.g. phasing out French material into English (Frankie)

12. The podcast audio version of the archive is more
entertaining than text and images on Blipfoto
 Due to combination of voices and sources (Rowan)
 Actors convey humour, intrigue, and drama
 Podcast series more of a ‘story’: obviously curated,
edited, and made cohesive (Chris)

13. The podcast series is a more flexible format for
consumption of the archive than is Blipfoto
 Options for immersion
o You can walk/cook/garden while listening (Pat)
o You can listen to it all in one go (Sandy)
 Accessibility (Frankie)
 [Although not so good for cross-referencing diary entries
(Alex)]

14. There is a greater sense of vitality when listening to
podcast episodes as opposed to reading Blipfoto
entries
 Listening to different voices, rather than your own (Sam)
 BBC news broadcasts and scripts ‘made it so present’
(Frankie)

15. Engaging with the podcast series is a better learning
experience than following the Blipfoto journal entries
 News items lend breadth (Rowan) and immediacy
(Chris) to observing the war unfold in a ‘real timeline’
(Rowan), and prompt further research (Frankie)
 Articulation between Lorna’s mention of a news
broadcast and the item itself (Pat)
 Convenience: ‘it was all there’ (Sam)

16. The podcast series prompts a more emotional
response to the archived content than does the
Blipfoto journal
 Uninterrupted format (Chris)
 Casting of Lorna (Pat)
 Even when familiar with (tragic) content (Rowan)

17. Much of the emotional impact of podcast series comes
from contemporary parallels
 ‘The parallels in Blipfoto were with COVID, and now it’s
further parallels with the war. It’s been a demanding
experience emotionally’ (Frankie)
 Parallels with invasion of Ukraine, where Russia and
Putin stand in for Germany and Hitler (Pat, Nicky,
Frankie, Sam)

18. The content of the Blipfoto journal feels more authentic
than that of the podcast series (just)
 Podcast series authenticity markers: sound design (Kim);
voices (Rowan); news content (Sandy); Bethany’s
accent (Nicky), versatility of acting (Frankie, Kim),
connection to Lorna, age (Rowan, Alex, Sandy, Chris)
 Blipfoto journal authenticity markers: images of source
material; references; ‘editorial’ commentary

19. The Blipfoto journal gives a more rounded picture than
the podcast series
 Of Lorna’s background and family: ‘If I was listening to
the podcasts without having read the blip [I would be]
wondering “Who’s Theo? You keep talking about Theo”!’
(Alex)
 Community aspect of consumption through reading
blipper comments (Frankie)

20. Aspect Blipfoto
journal
Podcast
series
Which offers the best flexibility for consumption? x
Which is more entertaining? x
Which conveys a greater sense of vitality? x
Which provides a better learning experience? x
Which prompts a greater emotional response? x
Which provides a greater sense of authenticity? x
Which presents the most cohesive story? x
Which gives the fullest picture? x

21. For further information and resources
• Listen to the podcast series:
https://rss.com/podcasts/lornalloyd/
• Read the LornaL Blipfoto journal at
http://blipfoto.com/lornal
• Read the LornaLPodcast Blipfoto journal at
http://blipfoto.com/lornalpodcast
• See the Malvern Museum web pages at
https://malvernmuseum.co.uk/lorna-lloyds-diary-of-
the-war/
• Pick up a copy of the poetry booklet and postcard
• Contact the project team: b.ryan@napier.ac.uk;
h.hall@napier.ac.uk; i.mcgregor@napier.ac.uk