The "Glottal Fry" and Other Radio Intrusions

Writing in the Sunday New York Times, Anand Giridharadas notes that the word "so" has replaced the ubiquitous "well" and "um" as the new oral connective tissue. Giridharadas claims that these uni-syllabic forms are "no longer content to lurk in the middle of sentences, (they have) jumped to the beginning where (they) can portend many things: transition, certitude, logic, attentiveness, a major insight."

And citing a report on NPR, Giridharadas says that fully 25% of the sentences in the report began with the word "so:"

"So it's, I think, the fifth largest in the nation. So, but now that's the population in general. So there are sort of two, there are two things that are circumstantial..."

I thought the Times might be exaggerating. The report seemed to take the "so" sentences out of context and string them together to make a point. In fact, the Times was pretty accurate.

The story referred to a broadcast conversation between Michel Martin, host of the program "Tell Me More" and NPR's correspondent in Arizona,  Ted Robbins. It aired April 23, 2010.

Here's an excerpt of this "so-so" conversation:

MARTIN: So, Ted, I wanted to ask you, how is the Hispanic vote playing out in regard to this measure? As I understand it, some 30 percent of the population in Arizona is Latino. 

ROBBINS: That's correct. So, it's, I think, the fifth largest in the nation. So, but now that's the population in general. So there are sort of two, there are two things that are circumstantial, there are circumstances and there are things within Hispanics' control that are affecting the situation.
The things that are circumstantial are the fact that a larger than general portion of the Hispanic population in Arizona is under 18. So, of course, they can't vote. And then there's also a lot of folks who are in the country either legally or not legally, but they can't vote because they're not citizens yet. So, if you pair them away, what you have is 17 percent of eligible voters are Hispanic. That's of the whole population. So they don't, you can see that that halves the number of total Hispanics in the state. So the numbers belie their electoral power. 

MARTIN: Well, 17 percent is not an inconsiderable number. I mean, you can be a swing vote with 15 percent if you vote as a block. So, I wanted to ask, what impact does the Latino vote have on the politics of the state at this moment...?

This is surprising since NPR has a very strong tradition of producer control over all content, with the exception of live-to-air broadcasts. This type of conversation, also known as "two-ways" between host and reporter are usually pre-recorded. The producer with her/his acute sense of hearing and "radiocity" doesn't hesitate to intervene to tell the host to do it over. The rough recording is then edited into something considered "airworthy." But obviously, not in this case. The producer presence seems to have been missing.


Another auditory annoyance on NPR and increasingly on CBC Radio is the "glottal fry" also known as "creaky voice."

This is speech therapist or voice coach lingo for a tightening of the larynx which produces a raspy quality to the voice.  I hesitate to mention this, but it seems to occur more frequently among female reporters than male. One possible explanation: the pressure on radio reporters to sound "authoritative" (aka, male). This can also be cured by solid coaching.

Remediation is easy. Once pointed out to the reporter, it usually disappears within days. One explanation for it: new reporters often tense up before delivering a script; they calm down once they are in mid-delivery; they tense up again at the thought of ending the script on time. Hence the increased presence of "glottal fry" at the beginning and at the end of the story.

The increased presence of the "glottal fry" is, I fear, a result of the absence of performance training inside many broadcast operations. In paring budgets, one of the first things to go is staff training. It is cheaper to contract it out.

Unfortunately, once the training budget is gone, it rarely returns. And bad habits tend to be viral: when one high profile journalist has the malady, the infection spread as others quickly adapt and imitate.

The Value of a News Ombudsman

After an intense few days in Oxford at the annual general meeting of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, some reflections on the outlook for ONO and for the status of an in-house news ombudsman:

• The irony of meeting in a place of sweet contemplation and study was not lost on our beleaguered membership. One about-to-be newly appointed newspaper ombudsman was clearly anxious about the prospect of becoming the "complaints department" at his newspaper. As he wrote to me afterward, "(The conference) was (for me) a well dosed mixture of theory and praxis, of formal and informal contacts, of study and pleasure....Thank you again for the support, and like I said: being a news ombudsman may be the most loneliest job in the newsroom, thanks to ONO and its members, I'm not so lonely anymore."

• The number of ombudsmen continues to grow steadily everywhere. Even in the US after losing 13 members to the recession, four more have returned, supported by their news organization. The executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller has again supported the role of the Public Editor at the paper and has said that the esteemed Clark Hoyt will be replaced when his term expires this summer. While ONO has only one member in France (Véronique Maurrus at Le Monde) there are more than a dozen "médiateurs" in other French newspapers and broadcasters. ONO needs to be more multilingual to encourage them to join. 

• Next steps: more translations into French, Spanish and Chinese for the website, the creation of a manual on "how to be an ombudsman," more outreach both inside the US newspaper industry and overseas. Much more to do.

• The powerful influences of the British media was in full-throated display while we were there. The newspapers and broadcasts were obsessed with the sea change to British politics, due to the hung parliament (aka, minority government). Lots of anxiety about how a coalition might govern. It gave a Canadian observer the ability to tell his British colleagues that a minority government actually can function quite well, since it forces all parties to become more moderate in order to survive.

• Some of the well-known nastiness of the British press was also on display as Simon Hoggart of the Guardian described Ed Miliband, one of the Labour Party stars and potentially its next leader as "bearing a resemblance to a maître d' at an upscale Indian restaurant." Thus Hoggart was able in a snide phrase to draw attention to Miliband's Jewish appearance by invoking both race and class. Will someone complain to the next Readers' Editor at The Guardian? Or did the phrase just appear too clever by half to these North American eyes?

• The BBC has posted the salaries of its top managers. After one was listed as earning £100,000 p.a., he  was immediately and publicly disinherited by his family. A family spokesman was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying that the executive had brought shame on the family.  

Saving Ombudsmen To Save Journalism

Still in Oxford, meeting with the Organization of News Ombudsmen and hearing from some of the most thoughtful practitioners both from the news business and the academy.

David Levy, the head of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism here in Oxford, referred to the concept of "churnalism," - the fact that news events are being used and reused ("reversioned," to use the in house phrase) without adding to the development of the story. "Churnalism" (what a great term) is the by-product of the smaller editorial presence in most media where the audience hears the same story again and again simply because there isn't the time to move the story along.

Dr. Levy also referred to the "digital windsock," (another wonderful visual concept) where a story has editorial longevity simply because it exists on the web, but without the civic importance that contextualization might provide. Dr. Levy asked the toughest question which was: is journalism about democracy? Or is it really about jobs for journalists?

Charlie Beckett from the London School of Economics reinforced Dr. Levy's approach when he quoted the new head of BBC News who has told his staff that they must either understand that the web is the ultimate journalistic goal. "Get there, or get out," was the paraphrase.

Professor Beckett said that the role of the new "cyber" ombudsmen should be four-fold:

1. they must be facilitators, not judges.

2. they must be moderators, not regulators.

3. they must hold forums, not courts.

4. they are educators, not enforcers.

"Mutualized Media"

At the ONO Conference in Oxford. The Guardian is showing leadership about how to marry legacy and social media. Alan Rusbridger, the editor was supposed to speak. But the political crisis in the UK kept him in London. Chris Elliot, the Managing Editor (and next Guardian readers' editor as of July 1st) is here to give us the view of what mutualized media will mean:

1. Mutualized media encourages participation. It invites  and/or allows a response.

2. It is not an inert "us" to "them" form of publishing.

3. It encourages others to initiate debate, publish material or make suggestions we can follow, as well as lead. We can involve others in the pre-publication process.

4. It helps form committees of joint interest around subjects, issues or individuals.

5. It is open to the web and is part of it. It links to and collaborates with other material including services on the web.

6. It aggregates and curates the work of others.

7. It recognizes that journalists are not the only voices of authority, expertise and interest.

8. It aspires to achieve and reflect diversity and shared values.

9. It recognizes that publishing can be the beginning of the journalistic process rather than the end.

10. It is transparent and open to challenge - including correction, clarification and addition.

How this will change the role of the ombudsman is what we are here in Oxford to determine.

A Crucial Time for News Ombudsmen

About forty members of the Organization of News Ombudsmen will meet in this beautiful "city of spires", Oxford, UK beginning later today in the Annual General Meeting. Details of the meeting can be found on the website.

This year we are meeting under the auspices of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. They have done a terrific job helping ONO. The actual venue for the meetings will be at St. Anne's College where term is still on so the frenzy of completing academic obligations will fit right in with our own concerns about relevancy and time lines.

It's been a surprisingly good year for ONO as our group has emerged from the teeth of the media recession actually stronger than before.

We have gained new members in Belgium, Israel, France, Ireland and Turkey. Most significantly, we have gained back a few old members and a few new ones in the United States, where we lost 13 ombuds due to newspaper cutbacks. We are still down a few in the US, but four more media organizations decided to create the position.

We have also done significant outreach to part of the world where the idea of media self-regulation is a power agency of democracy. And of course, there is more to do.

We were able to accomplish this thanks to a grant from the Open Society Institute which also gave us the funds to update our website thanks to Social-Ink in Brooklyn, NY. We launched a campaign to draw attention to it thanks to Scott Circle Communications in Washington DC. The result is that visits to the site are up anywhere from 120% to 300% per month.

The question for the conference is how to expand what we do and do it in a way that can offer our organization's considerable expertise at journalistic mediation which would then put ONO on a more secure financial basis. We think it's an obtainable goal, especially in these times.

Stephen Pritchard from The Observer in London is ending his two year term as president of ONO. His likely replacement is Jacob Mollerup from Danish Public Broadcasting. It's been great fun working with Stephen and I look forward to working with Jacob.

Meanwhile the British media is obsessed with the minority or "hung" parliament. Labourites are furious that the Lib Dems have abandoned their natural ideological allies in favor of the Tories. This is particularly true because many in Labour were told to vote strategically for Clegg and the Lib Dem only to keep a Tory from winning in a constituency. Many did and they now still have David Cameron,
P.M.

I told them that a coalition can be a functional thing since it tends to soften the ideological edges of all parties - at least for while, if Canada is an example. But in the UK, the economic situation appears so perilous, that stability counts for more than ideology - at least for now. Perhaps for Ombudsmen too!

The Supreme Court of Canada Says "Don't Trust a Journalist!"

Bad news for investigative reporting in Canada and in the US.

In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that the Toronto daily, The National Post, must hand over an evidence envelope to the police for DNA testing.

The envelope contained information, according to the National Post that connected the former Liberal government to a series of bribes and kickbacks, allegations that eventually drove the Liberals out of office.

The Prime Minister of the day, Jean Chrétien claimed the documents in the envelope were forgeries and demanded that they be tested to determine if the whistle blower could be identified. The reporter, Andrew MacIntosh refused, claiming that he had an obligation to protect his sources. The SCOC disagreed.

The court ruled that journalists have no broad constitutional immunity to protect sources and any such claims have to be weighed on a case-by-case basis.

It said in this instance, the right of the police to investigate a potential crime outweighs the newspaper's right to protect a source. Justice Rosalee Abella was the one dissenting voice.

In the US, another setback for investigative journalism:

A United States district court judge has ruled that Joe Berlinger who has produced a film called "Crude," must turn over 600 hours of unused footage ("outs") to Chevron, owner of Texaco, the oil giant that Amazon rainforest dwellers accuse of polluting their environment with billions of gallons of toxic waste. Only about 1 percent of the footage was used in Berlinger's film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and was released in theaters last fall.  Berlinger's lawyer plans to appeal, and says the decision "threatens grave harm to documentary filmmakers and investigative journalists."

Just in time, the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) is meeting next week in Oxford, England to discuss how the role of a public editor/readers' representative/ombudsman must function as a watchdog for independent journalism at a time when wikis, bloggers and other media critics are assailing journalism from all sides.

The National Post (which has no ombuds) is a case in point: would an independent mediator have resolved this issue before it got to the Supreme Court? Should ONO proactively offer its good offices to independent investigative journalists to help adjudicate conflicts before they become litigation?

At a time when the highest courts in the land doubt the integrity of journalism, there has never been a greater need for independent news ombudsmen to restore the reputation of news organizations and strengthen the role of journalism in the public good.

Hauling Up the Anchors on Canadian TV

Kevin Newman has announced that, come this August, he is leaving the anchor position on Global TV's nightly newscast.

Global is the Avis Rent-a-Car ("We Try Harder") of Canadian TV News...in surprising second place behind CTV but ahead of CBC's The National, that venerable institution which has undergone more face lifts than Joan Rivers. Why CBC with its powerful editorial bench strength remains in third place is the subject of much internal rancor and heated discussion at the CBC.

As for Global, the fifty year old Newman is a former CBC-er who cut his journalistic reputation in the US with ABC. He has (only) been anchoring Global for nine years which makes him a TV tyro compared to CTV's Lloyd Robertson (age 76, 34 years as anchor) and Peter Mansbridge (age 61, 33 years as anchor). Newman's departure is out of step with the anchor-for-life trend of Canadian  TV news.

Some background: Global's parent company - CanWest Global is in bankruptcy protection, so in a highly volatile industry, Newman's departure throws another complication into an already uncertain media industry.

This departure may signal further changes: Could Robertson (who has denied he will soon retire) be replaced by Newman? At the CBC the return of Ian Hanomansing from the local CBC TV in Vancouver to a  network reporter on the National has tongues wagging on Front Street about Mansbridge's future.  

More serious opportunities now present themselves. If TV management at all three networks think that this is only about serial anchoring, they will be missing an enormous opportunity to reinvent television news in a substantial way.

In the early 1980s, the CBC moved its nightly news into a hugely successful one hour prime time package combining the best of daily journalism with sharp interviews and investigative documentaries. Could a similar sort of game-changer happen now?  Is any network bold enough, (or wealthy enough) to try this again by harnessing the considerable reach of new and social media? In this Internet driven age, it's just a waste of resources to commit so much money and talent into a single nightly broadcast, as the US networks already appreciate.

Morning TV now draws larger audiences pretty much everywhere. The nightly news serves a vanishing demographic. And the Internet continues to hold out its tantalizing but still elusive possibilities.