EASIT. Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
This is unit 3C. Easy to understand language
and audiovisual journalism.
Element 3. Technical Aspects. Editing and voicing
easy to understand audiovisual journalistic content.
I am Andrej Tomažin, from RTV Slovenija,
and in this video lecture I will focus on how editing and voicing E2U AVJ content
differs from standard editing and voicing practices in audiovisual journalism.
In this lecture you will become familiar with special practices
in easy to understand audiovisual journalism with regards to editing
and voicing easy to understand content.
In any audiovisual content production, whether it is done for television or radio,
voicing plays an important part.
As a clearly mediated narration is an essential part
of the audiovisual journalistic content.
The voices we usually hear on radio or television are rich, crisp, resonant
and free from certain impediments that could make it harder
for the listener to understand.
“The Electronic Reporter” by Barbara Alysen lists the common errors
with voicing in audiovisual journalism. These are: placing stress or emphasis
on the wrong words;
speaking in a ‘sing-song’ voice; using upward or downward inflections
in inappropriate places.
Using a tone of voice that is inappropriate for the story;
speaking in a monotone voice; speaking too fast or babbling;
slurred speech, where syllables or even words are left out.
Speaking too slowly; poor enunciation.
The book “Broadcast journalism” by Andrew Boyd
adds that minor speech impediments in English speech such “as weak ‘Rrs’
could be barriers to an otherwise promising career.”
In any case, the foremost quality of a voice we hear
in audiovisual journalism,
regardless of language, is its capability to clearly convey a message.
Voicing for easy to understand audiovisual journalism
must make a few adjustments but has to stay true
to the standard voicing practices for radio or television,
which promotes the clarity of the message.
In this sense, easy to understand voicing must be slower and well enunciated.
John Charles Herbert in his article ”Broadcast speech
and the effect of voice quality on the listener” argues that the broadcasted voice
also needs to contain inflection and rhythm,
since no one would listen to a monotone voice,
which is devoid of feelings,
nor to a voice which is overindulgent.
Voicing for easy to understand audiovisual journalism
basically goes another step further in providing users with greater clarity
and understandability of the content.
At the same time, a less monotone voice
makes it possible for the listener to understand
the narration as more familiar.
Analogous to the principle of proximity from the book “Leichte Sprache”
by Ursula Bredel and Christiane Maass,
which argues for the necessity of using the I-Here-Now forms
to make the Easy-To-Read language closer to the user,
one could argue that proximity in an audiovisual journalistic context
and especially voicing might work inside the dichotomy of monotone
versus non-monotone delivery.
Although this might lead us to think that a more dynamic voice would seem
more familiar and appropriate for easy to understand
audiovisual journalistic content, we still have
to consider the standards of broadcast voicing.
The main purpose of E2U AVJ is that the images, narration
and additional graphics convey the same message.
For that reason, edited moving images and voices should go hand in hand.
In this sense editing is the most important process
as it mixes different aspects of audiovisual journalistic practice.
When producing easy to understand audiovisual journalistic content,
the images should not address themes or contexts beyond the original content,
provided within the narration.
For example: when the journalist talks about a monsoon
and the damage created by it,
the images need to correspond to that particular narration.
The images should not, for example,
show an undamaged landscape as a contrast to the narration.
When editing audiovisual journalistic content for standard news bulletin shows,
the cuts tend to be shorter in length and change within 3-5 seconds.
The images don’t always correspond to the cuts and edits,
but create a parallel story,
which is then united in the mind of the viewer.
In this sense, when producing easy to understand
audiovisual journalistic content, the editor should edit the video material
according to the narration and allocate the viewer
more time to comprehend the moving images.
This means the edited cuts with easy to understand AVJ content
tend to be longer than the norm.
Since there is not much actual audiovisual journalistic content available,
which would define itself as easy to understand,
we chose to briefly analyse news bulletins from Yle Uutiset Selkosuomeksi,
a department from the Finnish national broadcaster YLE,
which produces news in Easy Finnish
in both textual, audio and audiovisual format.
Their edits and cuts tend to be longer,
around 6-8 seconds and the speed of speech is slower than on the standard news.
They have also introduced elements that do not exist
in standard language news.
They use, for example, a core sentence which is repeated half-way
through the news item.
This repetition in narration also corresponds to the repetition
in the moving images or graphics.
The core sentence enunciates the central theme of the news item,
and with the use of repetition makes it more memorable.
This is how journalists and editors at Yle Uutiset Selkosuomeksi
from the Finnish National Broadcaster YLE made the video news bulletins
more available to the user.
One of the areas of news bulletins and the editing process
which are often used are certain graphical elements.
Graphical elements in most cases explain new information
or deliver some additional information.
When producing easy to understand audiovisual journalistic news items,
we can also encounter certain words or concepts,
which need explanation. We can explain these
with the help of narration and enrich the explanation with the aid of graphics.
Analogous to the explanations in easy to understand language,
the explanations should be distinguished from the core elements of the news item itself.
With this, the viewer can distinguish what serves as an explanation
and what is the information conveyed by the news item.
When producing easy to understand audiovisual journalistic content,
a journalist should lean on the pre-learned formats,
but at the same time adapt these formats according to the audience.
When creating easy to understand audiovisual journalistic content,
this can be most easily done with the help of validation and tests with the audience,
making sure it is understandable to them.
I hope this information was useful.
This video lecture was prepared by Andrej Tomažin from RTV Slovenija.
You can reach me at andrej.tomazin@rtvslo.si.
Partners of the EASIT project: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona,
Universita degli studi di Trieste, Universida de Vigo,
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, SDI München,
Dyslexiförbundet, RTV Slovenija, Zavod Risa.
EASIT. Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.