(Anna) Hi, my name is Anna. I’m 53 years old.
I’m temporarily living with my mother and father during the pandemic.
(Jenny) My name is Jenny Hammarlund. I am Anna’s mother.
I’m 78 years old.
Anna is living with us during the pandemic. I agree with what Anna said.
(Ester) Anna, do you usually watch TV and listen to the radio?
(Anna) Yes, all the time.
(Ester) What kind of programs do you prefer?
(Anna) Hm.
P3, always. I love P3. I don’t know why, but I like it.
I listen mostly to P3 (on the radio).
They deal with clear issues.
It has to do with “The Morning Show”. I like when they have a bit of fun.
I also listen to “P3 Documentary” sometimes.
And late on Monday evenings I listen to “Jack's Ghost Stories”.
Stories in the evening on the radio. It's the best thing to listen to.
And there's music that goes with it.
It's good to sleep to. It's the best thing you can do.
(Ester) Do you usually watch the news? (Anna) A bit, I'd say.
(Ester) When you watch TV or listen to the radio,-
-do you ever think it’s hard to understand?
(Anna) Certain words. Sometimes.
(Ester) What about it is difficult?
(Anna) Boring and repetitive things. About Donald Trump the whole time.
Can't they try and talk about something other than Donald Trump?
I would rather they talk about when we will be vaccinated.
Not about Corona. I’m sick of the corona virus.
(Ester) It's hard when a topic is boring?
(Anna) It's boring, and I don’t know certain words.
I want to watch other things than just news.
A little news is OK. Then they need to speak clearly.
They hop over certain words. I don’t get what they're doing.
They are so strange sometimes.
(Ester) “News in easy Swedish” on TV and “Clear text” on the radio-
-do you think the language they use is easy to understand?
(Anna) A bit, I’d say.
(Ester) Would you want more radio and TV programs-
-to talk that way?
(Anna) Yes, I think so.
(Jenny) Anna listened to TV, to “News in easy Swedish”.
Anna, you thought it was really good.
It was calm...
(Anna) Yes, it was easier.
(Jenny) They were cool and collected. And in easier words.
(Jenny) I think you understood everything. (Anna) Yes, I did.
(Jenny) When we listened to it quarter past five on TV.
(Anna) Yeah, it was better.
(Jenny) Exactly.
(Ester) The problem Jenny mentioned before, about finding programs.
It's not always easy to know when they are.
(Anna) Yeah, it’s hard to find them. I can’t do it. It's difficult.
(Ester) Then you need someone else to find the program?
(Anna) Exactly.
(Ester) Jenny, you mentioned that they are hard to find.
(Jenny) Yes. Anna is living with us. We try to help her find things.
Every morning Anna, you ask.
(Anna) Yeah, I do.
(Jenny) “What's on TV today?” you ask.
Then we look at the TV guide in the daily news.
We don’t see when things are. It’s very hard to find.
When is it, And what programs have audio descriptions?
Information is lacking about these particular things.
Another problem I see,-
-Anna is an avid listener of P3.
It's then difficult to suddenly switch to P1 on the radio.
To find the program. And keep track of the time.
And then there’s the 5-minute program, a short piece on P1 in the evening-
-that Anna doesn’t listen to.
Those of us around her have to set an alarm.
And tell her, “It's time to listen to the 5-minute news.”
It's not worth it for such a short program.
It’s a bit of a pain.
Now that she's living at home, we help her.
But the staff at her home would never be able to-
-keep track of when the 5-minute news is on P1 on the radio, I don’t think.
(Ester) If you were to tell a student going to school-
-for TV and radio...
What would journalists have to learn, and how should they work-
-to make it easier for you to understand?
(Jenny) Easy words.
(Anna) Exactly.
But what happens...
It’s a bit difficult. I don’t know.
(Jenny) What about Henrik?
(Anna) Yeah, Henrik. Couldn’t he do it? He's better, and it works.
(Ester) What does Henrik do?
(Anna) He talks slowly about nature. In a program I listen to sometimes.
He's very easy to understand. And he tells you everything.
He should do the news too.
The “Seven Continents” program I listen to,-
-you could say it's slower and clearer.
He explains every detail. All about animals and stuff.
It's the best. I listen to that.
I can concentrate and hear everything he says.
It's the best thing to listen to.
(Jenny) Of course, we check if there's a nature program-
-for Anna to watch.
(Jenny) There’s also “Veterinärerna”. (Anna) Yeah, that’s good too.
(Jenny) It’s a program about veterinarians. It’s not Henrik.
But they also talk about what they're doing with the animals.
In some programs with audio descriptions there can be too much talking.
That's why it’s good if the journalist doing the interview-
-or the person at the clinic does the talking instead.
That they say things like, “Now the dog is...” or the dog's name.
Instead of the audio description narrator saying it.
That the journalist describes things.
Describe, but you don’t need to add so much.
(Ester) It’s enough to describe a bit of what’s happening on screen?
(Jenny) That they describe. I think it's good for everyone.
Even the group that has difficulties understanding.
It’s better when descriptions come in the situation itself.
(Hasse) My name is Hasse Hammarlund. I am Anna’s father.
I’m 78 years old.
At the moment, Anna is living with us during the pandemic.
(Ester) Hasse, you had some thoughts about what could make journalism-
on the radio and TV easier to understand.
You talked about natural ambient noise.
Can you explain what you mean?
(Hasse) I’ve given it a lot of thought. I used to be a sound technician.
When you are visually impaired you use your sense of hearing.
That means that quite a bit of how you understand the world-
-comes from natural sounds.
That means that programs with natural sounds in the background-
-give a better idea of what you're seeing.
It adds to the audio description-
-if you try to use natural background sounds.
Especially in movies.
There, the tradition is to add mood enhancing music.
But it detracts from the sounds needed to increase understanding.
(Ester) Can you give a few examples of natural sounds?
(Hasse) We’ve seen that nature programs tend to let nature speak-
-through its own sounds.
They let the background sounds act as part of the description.
In some ways, nature programs...
It’s only logical to hear birds chirping, not music.
If you can’t see, it increases understanding,
I can hear birds chirping. And I can hear a car in the background.
It’s part of your understanding.
(Ester) How could you use this in news journalism?
(Hasse)Journalists and those doing the recording have to think about-
-incorporating an explanatory and natural sound scape.
It would be great to include ambient noise that could aid understanding.