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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Radio and Television News

Soundbite

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

/ˈsaʊndbaɪt/nounCommon term

In journalism & media, soundbite means: A short, memorable phrase or clip taken from a longer speech or interview and used in a news report.

In Turkish: kısa alıntı, çarpıcı söz, ses kesiti

How it is used

Broadcast reporters choose soundbites for their packages; spokespeople and public figures are trained to give good soundbites. It can be critical: a campaign of soundbites suggests short slogans without real substance. Also written sound bite.

Example sentences

  1. We only have time for a ten-second soundbite from the coach.

  2. The CEO avoided our questions and repeated the same soundbite three times.

Common collocations

  • a good soundbite
  • short soundbite
  • give a soundbite
  • soundbite politics
  • quoteThe exact words that someone said or wrote, repeated in a story inside quotation marks; as a verb, to repeat someone's words and say who said them.
  • vox popA set of very short interviews with ordinary people in a public place, asking them all the same question about a current topic.
  • interviewA meeting or conversation in which a journalist asks someone questions to get information, opinions or quotes for a story or programme; also the published or broadcast result.
  • footageRecorded film or video of an event, used in news reports, documentaries or programmes.

More terms: Radio and Television News

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