sound bite

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A sound bite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio. It is often used to promote or exemplify the full length piece. It may also be abbreviated as SOT^[1] for sound on tape.

Before the actual term "sound bite" had been coined, Mark Twain described the concept as "a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense." 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 more strongly in the audience's memory and thus become the best "taste" of the larger message or conversation.

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." ^[2]

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.

The term is sometimes written incorrectly (or ironically) as "sound byte".^{[citation needed]} It is also the name of a book by Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos.

Historical sound bites

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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 not likely to know about.

More sound bites include:

• "The only thing we have to fear is - fear itself". (the most famous phrase in Franklin D. Roosevelt's first Inaugural Address in 1933)
• "This was their finest hour". (the concluding phrase of Sir Winston Churchill's speech to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1940)
• "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy....." (the opening phrase of Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech declaring war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor had been attacked)
• "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." (the most famous phrase in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address in 1961)
• "Ich bin ein Berliner" John F. Kennedy on June 26, 1963.
• "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Neil Armstrong from the Apollo 11 mission
• "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".^[3]
• "Elvis has left the building" was an announcement often heard on the public address system after an Elvis Presley concert to disperse crowds lingering for an encore.
• "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." On January 26, U.S. President Bill Clinton, standing with his wife, spoke at a White House press conference, and issued a forceful denial, which contained what would later become one of the best-known sound bites of his presidency.^[4]

See also

• Non-denial denial
• Buzzword
• Media clip
• Propaganda
• Video clip

References

External links

Look up sound bite in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• SoundBite Concert Series at CU-Boulder
• Top 5 Political Soundbites