Expressive Intensification in Radio Broadcasting: Techniques and Resources
Appeal and Expressive Intensification in Radio
Radio reporters can intentionally leverage the expressive possibilities offered by technical and sonic components. This intensification involves utilizing and combining two or more sound bites to enhance the message. These resources are not limited to the oral sound system.
Radio’s originality lies in its ability to blend different sound systems and codes: words with meaning, music with lyrics, music with sound effects, etc. This is not mere ornamentation; it reinvigorates the expressive power, allowing programs to convey more information. Without this, it wouldn’t just be unnecessary decoration but could become semantic noise.
1 Technical Resources
These resources utilize tools to produce more expressive sounds. Examples include:
- Echoes
- Reverbs
- Filters
- Sound planning
- Installation
- Speed and time alterations (as discussed previously)
2 Sonic Resources
These relate to how sounds are articulated, similar to figures of speech in literature. They often involve repetition:
- Alliteration: Repetition of one or more sounds, bringing a specific sound to the foreground and creating a rhythmic effect.
- Anaphora: A sound used to begin each program or segment, making it easily recognizable to the listener. Jingles and sound effects fall under this category.
- Epanadiplosis: A phrase or block that starts and ends with the same distinctive sound.
- Anadiplosis: Ending a portion or fragment with specific sounds and starting the next with the same sounds.
- Hyperbaton: Disruption of the logical sequence of sounds.
- Asyndeton: Deliberate omission of linking resources, like fading out, in favor of a direct jump.
- Polysyndeton: Abundant use of linking and fused sounds, like merging multiple audio clips without completing a sentence, to draw attention to similarities or contrasts in letter or rhythm.
- Ellipsis: Omission of narrative situations and less important moments to emphasize intentionally selected ones.
- Comparison: Establishing a similarity between two sounds or realities based on their phonetic resemblance or other characteristics.
3 Discursive Resources
These are artificial resources used in radio reporting to emphasize ideas, thoughts, and feelings:
- Hyperbole: Exaggeration of a thought, feeling, or opinion.
- Prosopopeia (Personification): Attributing human qualities to animals or inanimate objects. Commonly used in narratives and stories.
- Irony: Using music or sounds to contradict the spoken words, indicating the opposite of what’s verbally expressed.
- Antithesis: Stark contrast between two ideas, feelings, or situations (e.g., laughter followed by tears, party music followed by funeral music).
4 Associated Resources or Ironic Acoustic Sound Tropes
This trope involves using sound with a different meaning than usual. It primarily utilizes metaphors and is often found in daily news or specific programs.
The metaphor is based on a comparison, not an identity, between two realities based on one of their aspects.
News of the Use and Abuse of Montage
Due to its expressive capabilities, montage can be used for both creative expression and manipulative distortion. It can be employed to mislead the listener through fabrication and misrepresentation of reality.
Certain programs allow for creative freedom in conveying ideas and feelings, encouraging the use of rhetorical devices. However, informational programs require data usage that aligns with journalistic principles and standards.
Continuity and Informative Programming
Radio adapts its language to the specific requirements of each message. Continuity, managed by a speaker or the station’s headend, ensures a seamless flow between programs, creating a continuous narrative.
Each program, whether recorded or live, contributes to the overall flow planned by the station. This creates a “supermontage” through program management, scheduling, and relationships, similar to how segments within a program are structured.
Radio, in this sense, operates continuously. It provides the latest information as it becomes available, interrupting non-informative broadcasts with news flashes when necessary.
Station Identification in Broadcast Continuity
Radio stations use specific signals for recognition and branding within their continuous broadcasts. These signals often incorporate musical rhythms and the station’s name to avoid monotony.
Territorial network radio stations typically use callsigns identical to the network head, often accompanied by the announcement of the exact time.