Speech Packages
Research: (Reference:
http://www.slideshare.net/MediaCSC/speech-packages)
what is a speech
package?
A factual真实的 pre-recorded component of a radio programme.
It’s purpose is to
provide listeners with information about a certain topic.
What radio
stations can I hear a Speech Package?
Speech packages
can be found on a variety radio stations and radio programmes from all BBC
stations to more specialist radio stations such as talk sport and
regional/local radio stations run by students or communities.
Amongst many, they
can appear on the following types of programmes: News Bulletins Longer News
Programmes Current Affairs Programmes Magazine Shows.
What is contained
in a Speech Package
l Interview material
l Links
l Vox Pops
l Actuality (any other relevant information):
Sound effects
Music bed
Music Clips
l factual programmes
(i.e programme genre (discussion,
magazine, music sequence, documentary, investigative); subjects, eg consumer,
business, lifestyle, sport; pre-recorded; target audience (national, regional,
local)
l news programmes
(i.e.information and current affairs
programmes; context (bulletins, longer news programmes, current affairs);
purpose (in-depth reporting, obituary死亡的)
l contributors
(i.e. eg interviewees, reporters,
correspondents, experts, politicians; vox pops; recording (face-to-face,
location, studio-based, telephone)
l ethics伦理学and regulation管理；规则
(i.e. stereotyping; privacy; confidentiality机密; representation (women,
minority groups, ethnic groups)
Reading: Speech packages in context
l The most common
role of the pre-recorded speech package is to inform listeners about a
subject which the radio station considers they will find interesting.
l Packages are used in
new bulletins(公告) of shorter durations.
l The longer the news bulletin or programme, the more easily it can
accommodate longer packages, and there are no rules about how long a package
should itself last, opther than those set by individual stations or programmes
which determine the typical length of the packages they wish to include in
their output. (Rudin and Ibbotson, 2002)
l A mixture of music and speech is intended, and the added
variety of a package can considerably enhance a radio station’s output.
l The term ‘package’ is sometimes replaced by ‘feature’, depending
on the cultural of the radio station or network in which it is used.
l ‘Feature’ can also refer to the kind of whole programme described by
Kaye and Popperwell (1992, 75), as a ‘stew’(汤) containing ‘every ingredient in the medium’.
l Another synonyms for the ‘package’ ‘feature’ is ‘wrap’(外套)-usually used in a news context to mean a short, simple package which may consist
simply of a reporter delivering a two or
three-part script to wrap(包；缠绕；隐藏；掩护) around one or two short clips
of interview.
l ILR news began using the American term ‘billboard’
l
Depending on the context, a package may also be intended to entertain and /or to educate.
l An Important ingredient in many packages is actuality-
recorded sounds which add greater variety and hence colour to what would
otherwise be a comparatively(比较地；相对地) dry narrative
delivered by a reporter. This
usually includes spoken comments from interviewee, and further description
added through the creative use of non-verbal sound effects. Other
comments may take the form of vox pops, 公众舆论 which consist of a range of
opinions on a single topic, edited
together in a justaposition which invites
listeners to compare the different response, and which purports to be representative of the views of a
particular cross-section of society.
l
It is vital that the content and style of a package suit the main purposes for which it is intended.
l
The package must also be appropriate to the context and the target audience.
l
There is a role for music, too, depending on the subject and the nature
of the radio station.
Eg: BBC Radio One is targeted at young
people between the ages of 15 and 24, and while speech on
that station often moves at a faster pace, it is also likely to have a musical background or bed
under it.
l
Keep listeners’ attention
l
In order to keep listeners’ attention there has to be a musical
accompaniment to the verbal discourse
they create in their packages by putting different elements of speech and
actuality together.
l
Typically, a package briefly tells a story: a word that can suggest fact, as well as fiction.
l
Harder items are more news-oriented, while softer ones include lighter
items and pieces that, although serious, aren’t particularly related to the day’s
news and might have more in common with(和…一样) the feature pages of newspapers
and printed magazines.
l
Packages use various codes and conventions, which include the spoken
cue(线索，暗示) that precedes the item, the reporter linking the various elements of the
package together, the tone
used- whether serious
or light-hearted-
and the evidential nature of
the interview clips and the
actuality.
l
Consequently, the listener is most likely to construe the package as
something genuine (真实的) and truthful, and to knowingly or carelessly(粗心地)
include false information or interviewees who aren’t genuinely who you say they
are would be an abuse of the listener’s trust.
l
This concept of truthfulness-
situated as it is within the realist paradigm- becomes
more problematic when
sound effects are used to add variety and interest to a package.
l
Ethical question
Making packages
l
The first decisions to be made relate to the context
and the target audience, as well as the subject matter.
l
Accessibility
l
Care should also be taken over the language used, as explained in the
later section on scriptwriting.
l
Finding an appropriate idea for a package can be the result of brainstorming. It often
involves writing down a topic
or a subject heading in an idea ‘bubble气泡’, then surrounding it with sub-topics, each in its own
bubble. Each of these new bubbles may itself suggest a number of other ideas to
explore in the same way.
l
Location work can be both time-consuming and
enjoyable, as well as adding interesting
atmosphere that can ‘paint picture’ in the listener’s mind.
l
The importance of the original. Many of the ideas of the speech
package came from the work of others, whether printed or broadcast. However, there are ethical and legal reasons why trying to be original is better
than lazily copying other packages you may hear, and practically, listeners
would soon get bored with the same material being endless recycled. It can help
gain the boggest audiences and the best professional reputations.
Finding
an angle
l
To create a five-minute package about crime, which deals with the
subject in any meaningful way, it has to be narrowed down considerably to an
aspect within a sub-topic of a topic connected with it.
l
Part of deciding the terms of reference is deciding on the particular angle from which to approach the
sub-topic, and it is the angle that most closely defines the content.
l The choice of angle will influence the type of interviewees to be included.
Each perspective
might have an important role to play in the package, but it is also important
not to use either interviewee in the wrong way.
l
Finding the right person will probably take a considerable amount of research.
l
Some people just don't sound very appealing in front of a microphone - perhaps because their
voices are not radiogenic, or more
usually because their speech patterns are inconsistent or dull.
Finding an angle
l
Beginners need to be realistic about their chances and plan
alternatives to follow up very soon, if they don't seem to be making early
progress with their first choices.
Interviewing for packages
l
Codes of practice
l
Ethical standards of behaviour include keeping to any promises made when
agreeing on the interview, so it's best to make as few as possible.
l
Occasionally, in order to secure the best interview, broadcasters have
to compromise, even so far as agreeing to the interviewee having a veto over
all or part of the content.
Planning interviews
l
Pre-production: Research can be from a range of
different sources, often categorized as either 'primary' or 'secondary'.
l
Questions are intended to draw out the interviewee into providing the
detail, the concepts or the real-life experiences and observations that
can be more interestingly articulated by this 'expert' contributor than by the
presenter.
Planning an
interview in advance can help to keep it focused. Having a series of questions written down - or
at least a bullet-point
list of areas to cover- provides a structure for the interview. It is
important to listen to
the answers, though, at the time, in case the interviewee says something remarkable that listeners
would like to hear more about, or in case the answers are complicated or
confused by jargon which needs further explanation. There is little use in
wondering what the interviewee meant, when editing the material later, when a
simple follow-up question at the time of the interview (such as, 'What do you mean by that?')
could have produced some much more usable material.
l
Generally, open questions are
more likely to draw out detailed responses from less talkative interviewees-
that is, questions which ask who, what,
when, where and why. Closed
questions have a role too, for checking
information, or even for pressing interviewees who are not being as focused
on a particular point as you would like them to be.
l
The importance of the open question. Open questions that ask for
impressions, feelings and sequences of events tend to produce the
best, most fruitful material. When constructing questions, there is usually a
way of restructuring a closed one that springs more easily to mind, to make it
open and so more likely to prompt the interviewee to give a fuller account.
l
It's worth remembering that not everyone will understand a question in the same way.
l
the mixing desk (through a telephone balancing unit)
l
The poorer audio quality of most telephone lines means radio stations
use either studio-quality landlines
or ISDN technology to achieve
better-sounding results when they can. Studio work has the added advantage of
all the travelling being done by the interviewee, but a clear disadvantage is
the absence of relevant ambient环境
sound, if it is
wanted.
l
Mic handling noise
l
Recording vox pops can considerably enhance a package. As a vox pop is a short sequence of
different people's responses to the same question or set of questions, it is
practical to standardize certain features of the recordings in order to simplify post-production.
l
The structure of a package is a defining element
in any assessment of its quality. Packages of
any length can be very simple productions, in the manner of a short news
feature or a billboard.
l
Structures that use shorter reporter links and interview clips, while being more sophisticated, are
inherently more complicated to produce.
l
The importance of the link in a
package. Links need not be long, however, and
they can perform the valuable
additional functions of conveying to the listener both the direction and the
purpose of the package. The opening link should set the scene, quickly establish some
parameters as to what the
package is about, and cue
the first interview clip. Each subsequent link should move the narrative forward, signposting where necessary any
change of direction, and cueing, (either explicitly or implicitly) the next
event. The final link
may briefly reach a reasonable conclusion based on the
previous content, providing an element of closure.
l
There may be music or relevant actuality before the first link, and the
package may end on music or actuality- in fact, the most creative of packages
may use music and sound to punctuate
the narrative at a number of appropriate points - but these should not
be used indiscriminately不加选择地.
l
The importance of the music and
the sound effects：At a sense
junction in the narrative, the music or effect can provide a punctuation mark -
denoting an aural full
stop, or a change of paragraph.
l
If used effectively, (see page 217) this technique can make fairly ordinary material
more interesting. In every case, care must be taken over the levels of
each element - that speech isn't drowned by
music or effects, and that the overall level is constant. Mixing
may be done live through a mixer, or
more usually by adding extra audio in a multitrack software environment,
such as Adobe Audition or SADiE. The use of music and other sounds that are
someone else's copyright
is subject to certain rules.
Scriptwriting for packages
l
Links should be written to be spoken, such as 'can't', 'won't' and
'couldn't' make it sound more like the reporter is speaking to the listener, rather
than at the listener. The personal nature of radio is one of the medium's strengths,
and this is an opportunity to exploit it to the full.
l
Sentences should not be too complicated for the target listener to
follow.
l
Links that cue into interview
clips should normally identify the interviewee. After appropriate people have been found, with
impeccable无瑕疵的 credentials凭证 to be speaking on the subject, it is important that the listener knows who they are in order to
determine their relevance to the subject, and is able to interpret their
contributions in terms of their positioning and perspectives on the subject.
l
Avoid stating the obvious fact
that the reporter asked a question, leads more coherently into the interview clip by accurately paraphrasing
the doctor’s first comment. Apart from being a more efficient use of airtime, if this economy of words is
repeated several times over the total duration of the package, there will more time to include
more interesting material.
l
An elaborately structured package will use several links and often return to an interviewee who has been heard earlier on.
Production and post-production
l
Links should sound authoritative but friendly, usually bright but solemn where necessary, informed
but willing to explain. Remember that the links pull the package together, take
the listener through the other material and give the package both direction and
purpose. So the reporter
should be telling listeners the story, in a way they can follow.
l
Once the links
have been recorded, they can be combined with the interview material, any sound effects, music and
actuality, and the whole package should be edited to smooth and awkward transitions between its
various elements.
l
Some thoughts about my project. I should think about the station style
and the appropriate time. Make sure the subject and the angle are appreciate to
my chosen context and the target audience likely to be listening at that time.
Include actuality to add interest.
Analysing packages
l
Although radio's appeal to the imagination can be one of its strengths (Crisell,
1994, 7-11)
l
Polysemy 一词多义
l
Ideology/representation (reinforce the particular ideology or not?)
l
In each of these different contexts, there are sets of assumptions that
are constantly being reinforced through naturalization,
according to dominant ideologies that
transcend most routine attempts achieve balance.
l
Issues concerning representation frequently arise in reporting. Each contributor,
and even the reporter, is a member of several demographic groups, relating to
age, gender, class, regional origin, religion and sexuality (Boyd, 2000, 200-1)
l
Connote the realism
l
Using actuality
and music may also
add further layers of meaning to the package. Beginning with an establishing sound,
especially after some contextualization
in the cue that precedes it, can connote either time or place, and contribute effectively to the discourse because
of the images it can create- taking the
listener to the location of the story. It is
worth considering the semiotic value of each of these, and how
they operate.
l
Injecting surprise, skepticism, boredom, excitement, awe or any other human emotion into the
tone of the delivery can qualify
a statement or something to which it refers, by placing intended or
unintended values on it.
l
Reflexivity
l
Textual analysis
l
Closed narrative structure
l
Semiotic value
l
Anchorage
l
Encode/decode
l
Models of audience theory (based on the prior knowledge of the subject
matter)
In this reading I found some useful points which will help my interview
to be as professional as it can be:
Setting
People at Ease
l
Tell the subject which subject areas you want to cover and which you don’t. This
will make them more prepared and therefore relaxed.
l
Make the first question
deliberately relaxed, as you are setting the tone for the interview, so it you are relaxed
so will the interviewee.
Framing Questions
l
Avoid closed questions
l
Signify your area of interest to give encouraging guidance
l
Rehearse排练 questions
l
Ask for the specific
and ask for a story
It is also important to make sure you can edit out the interviewers
voice. For example getting the interviewee to include information in their
answer.
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