Interviews and Sound Bites

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Chapter 7.2

• Interviews and Sound Bites

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• Lead-ins (set-ups) and tags
• What is necessary to set-up an SOT? Name and
  position of the person speaking some
  understanding of what theyre talking about.
• The best set-ups for SOTs (TV or radio) stand by
  themselves, self-contained they would make
  sense and make a contribution to the story even
  if you take away the SOT.
• For this reason, set-ups such as Heres what
  the mayor had to say or We asked the mayor
  what he thinks about the situation are not
  good. One-size-fits-all approach.
• Tend to become overused, all stories start to
  sound alike

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• Set-ups should not telegraph that an SOT follows
  in a live broadcast, if the SOT fails to play,
  the failure is more obvious.
• Above all else avoid parroting. Whats
  parroting?
• Saying the same thing in the set-up that the
  sound bite says, perhaps in the same words.

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• Examples from p. 156-57.
• Editing example (From interview) This is the
  biggest turnout weve had in years. We have
  people here from as far away as California. Its
  very exciting to see this.
• Set-up Davis says its the biggest turnout
  theyve had in years.
• SOT We have people here from as far away as
  California. Its very exciting to see this.

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• A tag wraps up the story a sentence that
  follows an SOT, some final bit of information.
• Tag often mentions the person in the SOT again,
  to re-establish the speakers identity.
• Example script, next slide.

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• A LAWSUIT HAS BEEN DROPPED OVER THE PROPOSED
  ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ORDINANCE THAT FARMERS BRANCH
  RESIDENTS WILL VOTE ON NEXT MONTHTHE SUIT WAS
  BROUGHT BY THE LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN
  CITIZENS....KNOWN AS LULAC....AND ACCUSED SEVERAL
  ORDINANCE-BACKERS OF HARASSING THE OPPONENTS.
  SPECIFICALLY IT SAID THEY WERE GIVING OUT PHONE
  NUMBERS OF THE OPPONENTS.
• TIM SCOTT....WHO HAD BEEN NAMED AS A
  DEFENDANT....SAYS IT NEVER HAPPENED AND WILL HAVE
  LITTLE EFFECTCLIP A1 06 "OF THE SUIT"THE
  ORDINANCE HOLDS LANDLORDS RESPONSIBLE IF THEY
  LEASE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. IT'S ON THE MAY 12TH
  BALLOT