No Respect
|
It’s election time and open hunting season on the much used–and much despised–sound bite. The latest to take intention is Maryland U.S. Senatorial nominee Michael S. Steele, who charged his opponents “want to sound bite people’s experiences and sound bite people’s lives into 30 seconds, and persons don’t live that way.” And presumably don’t vote that way either. The mutual argument says former generations cast their ballots after giving careful consideration to the substantive messages and rhetorical flourishes of Lincoln, FDR and JFK. The “golden age of oratory” has turned to dross–replaced by slick political operatives in complicity with an indifferent news media. Today’s voters are fixed to chewing on a few pre-packaged platitudes before pulling the lever. Are sound bites a authenti threat to our democracy? Or do their detractors wax nostalgic over a “golden age” that never existed? While it’s unfeigned that audiences born before television, radio and the Internet were not bombarded by as a lot of bites, blurbs and headlines as contemporary Americans, the sound bites has existed since ancient times. For centuries, political, business and religious leaders have distilled their messages into memorable, bite-sized pieces. Several bites come to mine: Julius Caesar’s “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death.” Franklin Roosevelt’s “We have not one thing to fear, but fear itself.” And John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country may do for you. Ask what you may do for your country.” Then there is William Jennings Bryan’s widely known and esteemed “Cross of Gold” speech, delivered to the Democractic national convention in 1896. According to an electronic count, the full text features over 3,200 words. But it’s Bryan’s final sentence that gave the audience it is take-away message: “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” That is a classic sound bite. Far from “spinning” or obfuscating, the much-maligned sound bite crystallizes messages into unforgettable phrases and ardent pleas that persons remember, repeat, and act upon. Consider this quote: “I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I will not exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” With those two sentences, delivered for the duration of the second 1984 presidential debate, Ronald Reagan without any delay defused the “age issue” — a concern which had gained traction after Reagan’s unsteady performance in the firstborn debate. Michael Steele is rectify that persons don’t live sound bite lives. But they do decide from sound bite information. In my view, unless you are competent to distill your message into a digestible sound bite, you have failed to craft an effective message. Members of the amusement and news media have known this for decades. A good editor knows how to reduce an article into an attention-grabbing headline. A professional screenwriter condenses his plot into a one-sentence “log line,” suitable for publication in TV Guide. The savvy brander reduces the product or organization’s distinctive syndication points to a simple tag line — “Wal-Mart: Always low prices.” Headlines, log lines, tag lines, unforgettable phrases: these are all sound bites by other names. Some argue that, no matter of their benefits, sound bites have extinguished severe discussion of the “issues” by reducing politics to competing slogans. I have two thoughts on this. First, for the duration of the past 40 years, the usual public has never been wholly engaged in a unfathomed analysis of the issues. Had that been true, Senator Richard Lugar would have made Bill Clinton a one-term president. Most Americans cast their votes based on one or two issues they hold dear, and yes, these have been (or may be) scaled down to sound bites. Second, if the public is to become more involved in substantive discussions of the issues, the media will have to demand regular debate, rather than focusing on how sure schemes and tactics may aid a campaigner appeal to his “base” or the “swing voters.” Too often, elections are treated as sporting events. The results are deemed less interesting than the means applied by the winners to get elected. If the aim of language is to communicate, then the sound bite represents an apex of focused rhetorical power. Its simplicity, brevity and clarity are badly necessitated in a world jam-packed with images and noises. If not one thing else, it forces our elected officials to get to the point or get off the stage. |
