[grc] NPR Speak dissed in NY Times

Tue Nov 3 10:01:00 PST 2015

Yay for Jay.  I hate speed editing.  I spend hours some weeks poking spaces
back into shows submitted to WINGS.

On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 9:58 AM, David Goodman <david at ibisradio.org> wrote:

> I think Donna is correct in that "homogenization" has been going on for a
> very long time and across both commercial and public media. But this trend
> - as described in the Times - represents something else. A movement towards
> "narrative storytelling" in all aspects of news and public affairs
> broadcasting. In fact, very few in public radio ever use the phrase "public
> affairs" anymore as if that will scare away millenials from listening.
> Well, it's not working because NPR's audience continues to skew towards
> people my age (55+). Another trend is towards the sort of frenetic speed
> editing represented by shows such as Radio Lab. A counter movement has
> emerged sometimes called "slow radio," that is being promoted most
> prominently by producer Jay Allison.
>
> Cheers,
> dg
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 11:41 AM, Donna Dibianco <
> communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Frieda. This article points out, at least in my mind, why, no
>> matter where in the nation, no matter what time it is, you hear just about
>> the same thing on NPR stations. The stations suffering CPB cuts will, if
>> they truly work on their station's sound, will fare well within their
>> communities. As for stations who contribute to NPR and are receiving these
>> cuts, I believe there are other distribution sources that will serve their
>> needs without impeding their content offerings.
>> I see this mass homogenization of US and NPR air-time a direct result of
>> using a single formula for broadcasting, a cloning of "sound", if you will.
>> We, as community broadcasters should run...run far away from
>> "standardized" content.
>>  Donna DiBiancoStation Start-up Specialist
>>
>> 503-960-1068
>> http://grc2015.net/
>>
>> www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco
>> www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess
>>
>>
>>
>>      On Monday, November 2, 2015 6:41 PM, Frieda Werden <wings at wings.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>  Kate Jessica Raphael called attention to this article, in KPFA's Women's
>> Magazine, and went on to share it on Facebook:
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/fashion/npr-voice-has-taken-over-the-airwaves.html
>>
>> When I moved to Canada in 2002, I found a big contrast between the
>> relatively conversational and heartfelt way people spoke on CBC and what I
>> heard as a very abrupt, choppy, and not very inflected way of speaking on
>> NPR.  I much preferred the CBC.
>>
>> Now, after 10 years of Conservative pressure on CBC radio - serious budget
>> cuts, consequent layoffs and reductions in new programming - CBC radio's
>> role as daylong friend of the listener has been destroyed. There are
>> endless repetitions, and none of the gentle winding-down to more relaxed
>> material at the end of the day that used to lead you to bedtime.
>> Everything is all mixed up, and people on the air have been sounding
>> pretty
>> stressed.  Possibly this will be reversed or at least improved under the
>> new government.
>>
>> Meanwhile, I've spent a fair amount of time in the US recently and started
>> to listen to NPR again, including online - mostly WAMU and WUNC.
>>
>> What the author of the NYT article refers to as NPR-speak is, he says, the
>> trend to imitate Ira Glass.  I  have never even heard a whole episode of
>> This American Life, just a few snippets; but the difference in NPR today
>> doesn't sound like this author's description to me.  What I noticed was
>> that  NPR news style, especially, seems more natural-sounding, a bit more
>> expressive and less grumpy.
>>
>> The article says the shift is due to "more amateurs in broadcasting," but
>> I
>> would hazard that it's due to more professionals in broadcasting, but from
>> more regions of the country.  I remember when I was at NPR in the early
>> '80s, a job came open for a Midwest regional editor and someone told me
>> that I wouldn't want that job because it consisted of rejecting and
>> discouraging contributors from outside the major cities of the east and
>> west.  Now I'm hearing deeply informative and well produced news features
>> from various parts of the country - not amateur at all, in my opinion.
>>
>> The change may well be attributable to a few decades of a different
>> funding
>> model for NPR.  Until about a year after I worked there, NPR got its money
>> directly from CPB.  In 1984, when I started covering public broadcasting
>> for Current, CPB was putting a lot of pressure on NPR, and so NPR changed
>> its funding model - having the CPB money go to member stations, in the
>> form
>> of grants for national programming - national programming meaning either
>> programming they acquired from NPR or programming they produced themselves
>> for distribution.
>>
>> This broadened the prospects for more producers in various parts of the
>> country to be paid for production.  30 years on, that seems to have made a
>> difference.
>>
>> I'm wondering if there is any argument to be made for community stations
>> that are losing their CPB grants, if they contribute to national programs.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Frieda Werden, Series Producer
>> WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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>>
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>
>
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> I.B.I.S. Radio
> Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA
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-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org