Radio-making isn't just for professionals. Every summer, several dozen people from across the country converge on the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University to learn the skills of audio documentary work -- recording, shaping and crafting a piece, and mixing it on the computer. They get guidance and inspiration from seasoned producers. (They also tend to eat good barbecue and see a Durham Bulls baseball game.) This show pulls together seven of the best works made by those students -- many of them first-time producers. "Southern Slices" is hosted by CDS audio program director John Biewen.

In 1919 his grandfather founded Maine Memorial Company in South Portland and the business has been in the family ever since.  Paul used to be a banker, and both he and his father never had any desire for him to take over the business.  But eventually Paul decided he needed a change and left the banking world behind to pick up his tools and begin carving.  Today he sees himself as an artist, transforming people’s memories of their loved ones into portraits on stone. 

The Rookie and the Veteran produced by Gillian Rutherford & Carma Jolly

Two Mounties, two different views of policing. Constable Alex Smith started his R-C-M-P training just one week after four officers were murdered in Mayerthorpe, Alberta. Then he landed his first posting - in rural Alberta at the Lac la Biche detachment, the hometown of one the slain officers. Meanwhile, his superviser, Staff-Sergeant Colin White has been on the force for 25 years.

Falling for Niagara produced by Kent Hoffman

Niagara Falls was once known as the honeymoon capital of the world, which inspired Oscar Wilde to call it "the second greatest disappointment" of married life.

So what's it like to grow up in Niagara Falls? Sarah Armenia always felt a bit embarrassed that one of the natural wonders of the world was overshadowed by tacky tourist attractions. Sarah returns to the Falls to see if she can finally separate the candy-floss tackiness from what she actually wants to call home.

Goodbye Glenavon produced by Sean Prpick & Neil Sandell
Nichole Huck grew up in the village of Glenavon, Saskatchewan.

Though she now lives in the city of Regina, her home town is alive and well in her heart. So when she hears that the only local school is closing, what else can she do but see it one last time.

Hallway Confidential produced by Carma Jolly, Jean Kim & Neil Sandell

Listen in on what's going on in the lives of some of the students of Stayner Collegiate High School.

Michael Morrey says there isn't much to do in a small town - he plays guitar, plays sports - and breaks windows. Vandalism isn't something he plans to do forever. Why does he feel compelled to do it in the first place?

The Chubs produced by Lindsay Michael

We visit a teen band called The Chubs in Plamondon, Alberta. It’s not easy playing alternative rock in a land where country is king.

NHPR, in partnership with Generation PRX and the Terrascope Youth Radio group at MIT teamed up to produce a one-hour special program. We invited youth radio groups from across the country to submit pieces for inclusion, and the following youth radio groups are featured in our program:

Terrascope Youth Radio – Cambridge, MA
Youth Radio – Oakland, CA
Youth Spin – Austin, TX
Blunt Youth Radio – Portland, ME
OutLoud Radio – San Francisco, CA
Alaska Teen Media Institute – Anchorage, AK

In one piece, Antony Jaureguí from Youth Radio in Oakland, California considers his personal energy consumption through the prism of his immigrant parents’ experiences and his own concerns about the environment.   In another piece, Libby Donovan from Blunt Youth Radio in Portland, Maine explores the pervasive nature of corn syrup in food ingredients and its impact on the environment.  Other pieces consider what it means to be “green” in the context of race, reflect on the public’s perception of environmental activism and contemplate a community garden’s impact.   

Other groups also submitted pieces, including Radiojojo Children’s Radio Network in Berlin, Germany and Curie Youth Radio in Chicago, IL.  Some of them will end up on the website for the show.  Members of the Terrascope Youth Radio group are hosts for this special and all the kids have had a hands-on role in writing the script and editing the audio.  NHPR finalized the hour-long show and distributed the program through PRX to public radio stations all over the country.  

For more than a hundred years, the tools of journalistic production – the ability to report, photograph and record events and distribute that material to a mass audience – have resided in the hands of a small group of people who, by convention and by law, have been called journalists.

But in this 21st century the tools of production now belong to just about everyone. Thanks to "Web 2.0" technology – blogs, wikis, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and video sharing sites like YouTube – billions of people can transmit text, photos, and video instantly to a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. The tools of journalism are no longer the exclusive preserve of journalists.

Web 2.0 has made the creation of highly interactive online communities both easy and inexpensive. And these online communities have become important reference points in many people's lives, often replacing more traditional sources of influence, including journalists.

What is now called the "mainstream media" has lost its control over the tools of its trade, and its importance as a centre of social and political influence. The business and philosophical model both appear to be broken, perhaps irrevocably.

There is much to celebrate about this democratization of the media, but there are also reasons to be concerned about the loss of an independent, professional journalistic filter at a time when everyone can be their own media. Can online communities of "citizen journalists" be counted on to help us make informed choices as citizens and consumers? What's lost, and what's gained when "News 1.0" gives way to "News 2.0?"