[grc] Fwd: NPR Speak .....

Wed Nov 4 20:11:55 PST 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Frieda Werden <wings at wings.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [grc] NPR Speak .....
To: peggy at kgua.org

On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 5:42 PM, <peggy at kgua.org> wrote:

> Although it can be fun to poke at NPR, I think it's better to revel in
> community radios reality. We share many voices, textures, accents,
> inflections and regional nuances. This is what makes us so wonderful. I
> love it when I hear someone say, "If you're like me you're probably always
> misplacing your "khakis" or "Have y'all heard this one?",  "Bueno", "Surf's
> up", "Yaatay", "Keeshi", or "It's Ku and time for...".
>
> We also have really big problems to resolve, we haven't even gotten to
> equality in funding when what we need is EQUITY. Our stations are the
> universe, let's make them healthy, populate them with local content and
> music, share global visions and embrace natural diversity. Let's step back
> and take in that 5000 foot view and see what an amazing, noisy, joyfully
> resonating, quilt we all make.
>
> Can I have a show of hands?
>
> *Peggy Berryhill*
> *KGUA General Manager*
> *707.884.4883 <707.884.4883>*
> *peggy at kgua.org <peggy at kgua.org>*
> *https://www.facebook.com/pages/KGUA/
> <https://www.facebook.com/pages/KGUA/> *
>
> *A project of the Native Media Resource Center *
> *a place to create,collaborate, educate and serve*
> *www.nmrc.com <http://www.nmrc.com>*
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [grc] NPR Speak dissed in NY Times
> From: Frieda Werden <wings at wings.org>
> Date: Wed, November 04, 2015 3:21 pm
> To: Maria Gilardin <tuc at tucradio.org>
> Cc: GRC list <grc at maillist.peak.org>
>
> Even 15 years ago, I noticed (and complained about) underwriting on NPR
> affiliate KUT Austin stepping over what I thought were the boundaries of
> underwriting to include calls to action and comparative language. I did
> notice in my recent NPR listening that this trend had gotten worse, as you
> describe.
>
> On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 8:30 AM, Maria Gilardin <tuc at tucradio.org> wrote:
>
> > This has become a great exchange!
> > There is one thing this article omits. The voice of the underwriting
> > credits on NPR.
> > They have recently become so obsequious and pandering that they make me
> > physically ill.
> > And the worst for me is that they are now done in a woman's voice.
> > Does it anger you too to hear "Chipotle" in that solicitous inflection --
> > or the salacious "Think about it" in their fracking commercials?
> > Maria
> >
> > Maria Gilardin/TUC Radio
> > PO Box 44/Calpella, CA, 95418
> > (707) 463-2654
> > http://www.tucradio.org
> >
> >
> > On 11/2/2015 5:40 PM, Frieda Werden 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
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> grc mailing list
> >> grc at maillist.peak.org
> >> http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Frieda Werden, Series Producer
> WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
> _______________________________________________
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>
>

-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org

-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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