Saturday, February 9, 2013

Mexico's missing island mystery (Journal #1)

On September 10, 2009, the BBC World stories Documentaries website launched a, 23 mint audio, story about an island that was missing in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. According the documentary the Bermeja Island appeared on several "national and international maps from the 16th century,” and now one can find it and there is no explanation to how or why the island has vanished. David Cuen, who works for the Latin American section of the BBC world service and who is Mexican, is narrating his investigation on the island's mysterious disappearance.

This story was very interesting because, in my opinion, the title alone had the potential of grabbing the audiences' attention because it talks about something new and is very informative at the same time. The other point which makes the story even more interesting because not only does Cuen describe it as a treasure hunt, but also because the island would provide Mexico with "millions of dollars worth of oil deposits" and so giving a huge opportunity for the Mexican economy.

The audio quality was very good, it was clear and the narration was understandable. For example, the documentary opened with Nat sound of a sea cost or a sea chore where the audience could clearly hear the noises that came with such a scene like wave crashing and seagulls' scream giving a sense of the story's setting. Another example of that is when he provides some Nat sound of the streets of Mexico City like car horns.

Despite the fact that the story was mostly research and investigations, in other words full of facts, it didn't affect the way such information was presented or spoken. This only drives me to believe that the writing quality of the story was very well written, and even though the documentary was a, 23 mints, bit too long but that could be understandable given all the important points that had to be included to give a full story.

The beginning of the documentary was very strong and attention grabbing, however while the website was easy to navigate the audio file wasn't so I wasn't able to reach the end. Even the link provided by the website to download the documentary wasn't what I thought it also kept streaming online and was the same as the one on the original page of the story. I would like to go back and listen to the rest of it and also find out what Cuen uncovered in the end but I guess for now this will do!




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