Earnest, Informational
This report covers interesting and important information, but it feels almost incidental that the piece is made for radio. Admittedly the subject is wonkish, a tough one to make lively through scenes or storytelling: the construction of a planned, environmentally-friendly city at the edge of a mega-city, Shanghai. The fact that the city doesn't yet exist makes the reporter's challenge doubly hard. But hey, I'm something of a wonk on things like urban planning. I've even been to Shanghai. I figure I'd be at least as likely as the average public radio listener to lean in and listen. This one lost me early.
The piece consists overwhelmingly of reporter narration, a compilation of facts and statistics, interrupted extremely rarely and briefly by tape of people in offices. We hear about plans for the new planned city for fully eight minutes before we go there. We finally get some ambient sound and descriptions from the reporter's travels, but it's way too little, too late.
John Biewen
, Center for Documentary Studies
Durham, NC
July 22, 2007
MegaCities Series 4: Shanghai, China
