Six tips for selecting powerful voice clips

Sound clips make a story livelier, more interesting and more authentic. But not all voice clips are good and make sense. Before you use a sound clip, you should consider whether it will truly provide users or listeners with new insights.

In practice, some “golden rules” for using voice clips have evolved:

1. Voice clips should be unique.

Sound clips make sense if they contain at least one of the following:

* Strong feelings
* Expressions of opinion
* Humor/wit
* Something about the personality of the interviewee
* Eye witness reports
* Historical sound documents

2. Voice clips are not for conveying facts and background information. These essentials should be part of your text, not part of the voice clip.

3. Caution with expert language or jargon in voice clips.

Journalists often use sound clips when they have to report about complex subject matters, e.g. complicated scientific or business topics.

Photo courtesy of fawkmee/flickr

Frequently, the journalists themselves have not fully understood all details and aspects of these issues. But they fear that they might be unable to translate the specialists’ “jargon” into generally understandable language. Such sound clips containing expert lingo are usually incomprehensible for the user or listener. It is better to leave them out.

If the journalist cannot understand what is being said, then chances are that most listeners or users will not either.

If you are doing interviews and the interviewees talk to you in a language only experts will understand, immediately ask them to rephrase their thoughts using simpler words.

4. Do not include the contents of the voice clip in the introduction.

When leading into a sound clip, journalists frequently make the mistake of saying exactly the same things that the user or listener will hear again from the interviewee. This is a waste of time and it is boring for the listener or user. Instead, guide the listener towards the statement of the sound clip, explain who is speaking and what they are speaking about, but do not summarize what the statement is about in advance.

Example
Not good:
Journalist: “Minister X believes the construction of the new factory will create jobs and provide economic impetus for the city.”
Minister X: “As the minister in charge, I believe that the construction of the new factory will create a large number of jobs for our city. This will provide economic impetus for our city.”

Better:
Journalist: “Although the construction of the new factory is contentious, Minister X believes the positive aspects outweigh the negative.”
Minister X: “As the minister in charge, I believe that the construction of the new factory will create a large number of jobs for our city. This will provide economic impetus for our city.”

5. Voice clips should be neither too short nor too long.

Radio listeners and internet users need a little time to get accustomed to a new voice, but you don’t want to bore them with someone just going on and on and on… As a rule of thumb in a radio piece, voice clips should be between 10 and 30 seconds long.

If you are selecting voice clips for an online article, keep them short. Nobody wants to listen to five minutes of sound or interview online and just stare at the computer screen. Try to keep individual voice clips to a maximum of one minute.

Photo courtesy of loopoboy 2.0 / flickr

6. The voice should go down at the end of the sound clip.

The listener should hear that the interviewee has come to the end of their sentence and/or thought. If you cut a sound clip at a point where the interviewee’s voice is up, the listener will suspect that the interviewee may have further expanded on his or her thought. So a statement cut in mid-sentence may sound like you are trying to keep something from the listener – manipulating what was actually said.

In short, ask yourself these core questions:

1. Can I as a journalist say what the sound clip contains better, simpler or clearer?

* YES => do not use sound clip
* NO => use sound clip

2. Does the sound clip contain something that I as a neutral reporter may not express (e.g. opinion, emotions)?

* YES => use sound clip
* NO => do not use sound clip

For more tips on radio production and working with audio, check out our Manual for Radio Journalists

By Peter Hüllen and Thorsten Karg