#godquad

I chose to do my Periscope broadcast on my favorite part of the Notre Dame campus—God Quad.  God Quad is at the center of campus, and it gets its name from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, located on the western end.

The Periscope was an interesting and overall enjoyable experience for me.  I am new to Periscope, and so I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it.  I tried to stay fairly casual.  I thought that the people watching the broadcast wanted to see Notre Dame through my eyes and learn as much as they can, and I tried to accommodate that.

Probably the most interesting and surprising thing about the broadcast was the live direct contact that I had with my viewers.  I ended up with 40 total live viewers, including one from Brazil! I was surprised that a good amount of the viewers left live comments and feedback on what I was reporting.  I tried my best to have live interaction with the viewers and respond to their comments, in order to retain as many viewers as possible and make it a truly interactive experience.

The biggest issue that I had with the broadcast was time.  I was aiming to shoot for around 3 minutes, and I ended up with nearly 7.  This meant that my final project was cut off my more than half.  I think that I could have been helped a lot if Periscope kept a live timer on the screen that showed how long the broadcast was going.  In the future, I will keep track of the time myself so that I know how long my show is running.

Although we were encouraged to interview people, I declined to do so.  I felt strange walking up to someone I didn’t know and having them answer impromptu questions for live viewers all over the world.  I know I would have felt uncomfortable talking to someone’s phone for a broadcast I knew nothing about.  In the future, I will try to find ways to incorporate live interviews into my broadcasts, as I know that they could provide valuable perspective.