It is a technique that is guaranteed to get media coverage. Some of history’s most famous speeches have focussed around a single image these such as Nelson Mandela’s “road to freedom” and Margaret Thatcher’s “the lady’s not for turning.” These allow the speaker to strike the message deep into the audience’s hearts. It is often used at the beginning of speeches as in Barack Obama’s inaugural in January 2009 when he told crowds “we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over discord.” Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Think of George Bush’s remarks to Congress after the September 11th attacks in 2001. This highlights the senses, and forces the audience to pick sides. Having nuclear weapons, possessing nuclear weapons, developing nuclear weapons, is illegal, and they need to stop.” Threatening to use nuclear weapons is illegal. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: I was particularly struck by the power of this device when Beatrice Fihn, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons sent this message to U.S. Abraham Lincoln’s “Government of the people, by the people for the people” is one of the most memorable. American presidents down the centuries have been using this technique in their speeches. When we make points in threes this gives the impression of finality. Some of the most powerful sound bites come from the rhetorical devices that they mastered. They then use them again in their Tweets as 280 characters are the equivalent of around 50 words or 17 seconds of speech.Īlthough we talk about today’s sound bite culture, it dates back thousands of years to the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who developed the art of rhetoric. Speakers, who want their messages to be memorable, ensure that they plant at least one sound bite in their media interviews and speeches to illustrate their central idea. They knew that sound bites serve as a perfect delivery vehicle for their key messages. What I may not have grasped in my rush to hit my deadline was that the speaker or in some cases their communications teams had carefully crafted that sound bite with the express intent that I would use it. They were the couple of sentences that made for lively copy and were instantly memorable. ![]() As a journalist, I knew immediately what sound bites I would use in my radio or television reports for the BBC.
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