Telling stories in untraditional ways

Cathal O’Luanaigh, News Decoder’s newest team member, brings a multilingual and multimedia perspective to our schools program.

Cathal O’Luanaigh speaks five languages.

Or, maybe, five and a half.

He rattles them off on his fingers: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and –– partially –– some German.

Needless to say, O’Luanaigh’s multilingualism adds to his global citizenship, a language needed all on its own as he assumes the role of Program and Communications Manager at News Decoder.

“Moving to loads of countries that speak different languages –– that’s never been something that’s phased me,” O’Luanaigh said. “I’ve always been told that everywhere is similar. There are things you can grasp everywhere: People are people, and places are places. Some things are different, but at the end of the day, a lot of stuff you just have to get used to, or throw yourself into.”

Expanding engagement

As program and communications manager, O’Luanaigh will help manage and expand News Decoder’s Schools Program, which connects students and educators across borders with journalism.

“The Schools Program is central to News Decoder’s mission of using the tools of journalism to teach global citizenship, and Cathal truly embodies that mission,” said Managing Director Maria Krasinski. “His teaching background and unique global perspective fit so well with our work to help educators build real-world experiences into their teaching and expand students’ global awareness and understanding.”

O’Luanaigh will also take charge of marketing initiatives, including social media outreach and community engagement with partner schools. One of his major goals, he said, is student involvement. And here he brings another distinct link: O’Luanaigh attended the European School Brussels II, a News Decoder partner institution.

“I really like the podcasting projects that are coming in and that approach,” O’Luanaigh said, emphasizing expanding multimedia elements of journalism in cross-border connections. “I think it opens it up to students who maybe don’t feel or don’t think that they can write, regardless of whether they can or not. Maybe it’s another entry for them.”

Making his own kind of music

O’Luanaigh, who is of Irish descent, grew up playing Irish music with the traditional bodhrán, a hand-held drum, and plays guitar and bass. He also knows how to play piano, trombone and cello. His repertoire of genres is just as varied: He loves to play rock, but also ska and classical music.

O’Luanaigh credits music to a year-long move to Uganda.

“I needed to fundraise to go out on that trip,” O’Luanaigh said, explaining his part in the Student Partnership Worldwide (now called Restless Development) program. “I did it by getting together with loads of friends who were musicians and artists who lived all over the place, and we put together a compilation album. Then we sold the album and did some concerts, as well.”

Fittingly, his first album was called “Foreign Exchange.”

Upon his arrival to Uganda, O’Luanaigh created a second album called “Conscious Youth,” under the music collective Studio Shpops (named after the sound that bottle caps make, referred to in Belgium as “shpops”).

“Conscious Youth” buzzes with life. There is the Trad song where Kamuli Trinity Nursery & Primary School students clap along to a drum, the hymn-like AIDS Anthem by the TASO Jinja Drama Group and the bass-heavy Wololo by Luga Flow Army.

The creation of this album was matched with O’Luanaigh’s 15 years of educational experience, including being an English teacher.

“In Uganda, we ran song contests in some of the schools, and people wrote about whatever the theme or the issue was,” O’Luanaigh said. “In that sense it was actually quite similar to writing as part of what News Decoder does. With music, you can approach topics that would otherwise be taboo, they become not as taboo depending on how you frame them.”

O’Luanaigh grinned. “That was something I think a lot of kids found really freeing,” he said. “At the end of the day music’s kind of people writing about things that matter to them, and I think that’s what journalists do, as well.”

Jumping into multimedia storytelling

It was during that time in Uganda, working on the Studio Shpops “Conscious Youth” album, that O’Luanaigh began to foster a greater interest in audio production.

“I realized I had a lot to learn about recording, and that there are a lot of people out there who had stories to tell, or were musicians who needed to record, but maybe didn’t have access to recording,” O’Luanaigh said.

He ended up taking a year-long audio engineering course, and returned to Uganda. This time, he wanted to teach what he himself had learned of editing and audio basics. And he left the recording equipment, so locals interested in music recording could continue the work “Conscious Youth” ignited.

This is how O’Luanaigh ended up delving into the future of journalism –– podcasting and video work –– recording for audiobooks, and even returning to Uganda to record sound packs of traditional folk instruments.

These creative talents set O’Luanaigh apart from a competitive applicant pool. “With News Decoder’s growing involvement with cross-border multimedia projects like WePod, our partners and students will benefit greatly from Cathal’s audio experience,” said Krasinski.

This is also O’Luanaigh’s focus as coming onto News Decoder’s team: Telling stories –– and helping students share their own –– in untraditional ways.

“For me, they’re all linked,” O’Luanaigh said of multimedia journalism elements. “It doesn’t matter what you’re recording, it’s the approach that’s the same. It’s just the story of the way you tell it that’s a bit different.”