Justification: Living with Kleine-Levin Syndrome: The Unknown

Over a year ago, I came across an article on the Daily Mail about a young girl living with Kleine-Levin Syndrome, and from then on I had my heart set on creating a radio documentary on the topic for my Major Multimedia Project.

Having read the article not knowing anything about it, I learnt about the rarity of the syndrome which is what led me to take it further and pursue it into a documentary. Being an original idea and such a rare condition, my intent was to raise awareness to the syndrome and investigate the effects it had on a person’s life, in order to make the public eye more aware of our surroundings.

BBC Radio 4’s aims and objectives are to inform, educate and entertain (Bbc.co.uk, 2016), as well as providing their listeners with speech and factual based programmes. For those reasons, I decided that their audience, of which are 51% male and 49% female (Digital Spy, 2018), would be best suited, as their listeners would be a majority of parents, which is what I would like to think the documentary would have more of an effect on.

Throughout the production of my documentary, I recognised that I would have to follow a few of the Ofcom Broadcasting Codes: Section Three: Crime, Disorder, Hatred and Abuse, Section Five: Due Impartiality and Due Accuracy, as well as Section Seven: Fairness. All of these guidelines combined reinforce the professional standard I am working towards in order to produce an ethical documentary. I ensured I followed these efficiently, in particularly Section Three, as it states in the code “Ofcom’s duty is to prohibit the broadcast of this type of recording” (Ofcom, 2018). I wanted to ensure I remained sensitive to my interviewee’s at all times and not to broadcast audio that may influence a type of bullying against them.

I knew that I also had to be ethical in my documentary and this is something I recognised with one of my interviewees. Listening to feedback I received from my pitch, I was advised to ask to record my interviewees at all times in case they were to fall into episode. Although the journalistic thing to do and it would have made radio gold, I felt that this was not necessary and that it was rude, and it actually made me feel uncomfortable to do. Therefore, I chose not to follow up on this feedback. Referring back to my ethic seminars last year with Dr Ann Luce and her stories as a journalist, I felt I was confident enough to make the documentary the best I could without doing so.

I felt that it was important to interview someone who has recovered from Kleine-Levin Syndrome as advised in my pitch feedback, in order to create a positive note that there is an afterlife. However, this proved difficult to find and instead I used inspiring and positive quotes from the interviews I already gained in order to end the documentary on a high, which I feel justifies not being able to find someone. On top of this, I already had 5 interviews and a 6th would have proved difficult to fit in on top of the interesting content already produced.  

Further to my pitch feedback, I was told not to swamp my documentary in music as the story would lose it’s meaning. I have used little music as I possibly can, but where I have it creates a feeling for the listener and tells them how to feel. I have left speech with no bedding music in places following the style of Radio 4 documentaries.

Focusing on two main but different case studies, the listener is able to contrast between them and understand how the condition effects everyone in different ways. It acts as a hook that draws attention to my listeners and influences them to continue listening remaining intrigued throughout. Further to this, it is always good to focus on different sides of the story, treating them equally (Media.diversity.org, 2018).

I have added extra content onto my blog, in particular on interviewee posts, which acts as a second platform where people can find out extra information if they feel necessary. If someone listening to my documentary feels they have similar symptoms, they can also refer to my blog for further information which acts as a source of help. I have also added a support tab to my blog, listing websites I used for research and in particular the blog of one of my interviewee’s; again listing symptoms and is a useful user experience.

Ending my documentary on a positive note conveys to my listeners the attitude I and my interviewees have towards Kleine-Levin Syndrome. By finding a professor who believes there will be a cure one day was something I never expected and was delighted to have such a response, something I believe that my listeners will love. It will also have an amazing impact on those who have the condition and their families.

The main challenge I faced throughout this project is trying to find a fifth and final interview. I was keen to have a medical opinion in my documentary and I was recommended to speak to the UK’s leading sleeping specialist however failed to get in contact. After speaking to my supervisor, I broadened what content I could obtain and reached out to a professor who specialises in brain and sleeping conditions. I luckily obtained this interview 4 days before deadline, again another challenge working to such strict deadlines.

I also had to ensure I was sensitive with my interviewees as I know that this is isn’t always the easiest topic to talk about. I ensured this was done by preparing my interview questions and giving them a chance to read them and agree with what they were comfortable with before we began.

After reading a blog about a mother’s son and his condition, this is how I sourced interviews. I also used Twitter and Facebook as a platform to try and find out more information and to find interviews, which had a great response.

The term ‘Sleeping Beauty Syndrome’ is also associated with Kleine-Levin Syndrome, however I later found out that this if offensive to those and their families, so to remain professional and ethical towards my interviewees I no longer use the term out of respect.

Overall, the last 3 months working on this project has been difficult. However, despite all of that, I believe it has made me more of a respected journalist. Being able to raise awareness to such a rare condition, and with only just shy of 100 confirmed cases in the UK, I feel is a special moment in not only my time at university but the start of my journalism career.

References

Bbc.co.uk. (2016). BBC - BBC Radio 4 - BBC Trust. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/services/radio/service_licences/bbc_radio_4.html [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Digital Spy. (2018). Radio 4 target audience?. [online] Available at: https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/675792/radio-4-target-audience [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Media-diversity.org. (2018). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: http://www.media-diversity.org/en/additional-files/documents/A%20Guides/Conflict%20sensitive%20journalism%20handbook%20[EN].pdf [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Ofcom. (2018). Section three: Crime, disorder, hatred and abuse. [online] Available at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/section-three-crime-disorder-hatred-abuse [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].