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Article: Getting bit.(THE RESEARCH REPORT)(sound bites)
- Article from:
- Columbia Journalism Review
- Article date:
- May 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
ANYONE WHO BUYS THE BELTWAY complaint that television news reporting shrivels both politics and public discourse has two new reasons to worry: sound bites are getting shorter and video reels are getting longer. That means less talk of policy solutions and more rolling shots of diplomatic handshakes, tarmac striding, and presidential cowboys whacking underbrush on Texas ranches. In the Journal of Communication's winter issue, Indiana University professors Erik Bucy and Maria Grabe update a landmark 1992 study, which found that clips of presidential candidates speaking between 1968 and 1992 had dramatically shrunk from an average of one ...