Sound bite

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In film and broadcasting, a sound bite is a very short piece of a speech taken from a longer speech or an interview in which someone with authority or the average "man on the street" says something which is considered by those who edit the speech or interview to be the most important point.

As the context of what is being said is missing, the insertion of sound bites into news broadcasts or documentaries is open to manipulation and thus requires a very high degree of journalistic ethics. According to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, journalists should "make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context." ^[1]

Politicians of the new generation are carefully coached by their spin doctors to produce on-demand sound bites which are clear and to the point.

A sound bite is an audiolinguistic and social communications phenomenon whose nature was recognized in the late 20th century, helped by people such as Marshall McLuhan. It is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that deftly captures the essence of what the speaker is trying to say. Such key moments in dialogue (or monologue) stand out better in the audience's memory and thus become the "taste" that best represents the entire "meal" of the larger message or conversation. Sound bites are a natural consequence of people placing ever greater emphasis on summarizing ever-increasing amounts of information in their lives.

News media in particular cherish sound bites. Reporters agree that the best news footage contains at least one sound bite. Politicians in turn have learned (along with their speechwriters) to put greater effort into delivering the perfect sound bite. Originality is not necessary but highly valued. Sound bites are useful to help guide footage editors focus on parts of dialogue that help advance the overall message.

Not everyone enjoys hearing sound bites. They tend to sound best when delivered unplanned, and the logical inverse is often true -- the planned sound bite can easily ring forced and cast doubt as to the speaker's integrity. The importance of a sound bite is that "the message hits home".

The term is sometimes written incorrectly (or ironically) as "sound byte".

It is also the name of a book by Franz Ferdinand (band) frontman Alex Kapranos.

[edit] Historical soundbites

Classic examples of sound bites include Ronald Reagan's demand that "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" in reference to the increasing social pressure to remove the Berlin Wall. In this context, the well-delivered sound bite serves as a cultural icon that others are likely to know about.

More sound bites include:

"The only thing we have to fear is - fear itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." In one succinct phrase, the entire Apollo Moon program was culminated.
"Houston, we've had a problem." said by James A. Lovell in the Apollo XIII mission
"Read my lips: no new taxes", delivered by United States presidential candidate George H. W. Bush
"Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." said by Lloyd Bentsen as a retort to Dan Quayle's comparison of himself to Jack Kennedy in terms of political experience
"I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders" — Tony Blair following the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Blair had just commented that "A day like today, it's not a day for soundbites: we can leave those at home". [1]