Sound bite

A sound bite is an audiolinguistic and social communications phenomenon whose nature was recognized in the late 20th century, helped by people such as Marshall McLuhan. It is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that deftly captures the essence of what the speaker is trying to say. Such key moments in dialogue (or monologue) stand out better in the audience's memory and thus become the "taste" that best represents the entire "meal" of the larger message or conversation. Sound bites are a natural consequence of people placing ever greater emphasis on summarizing ever-increasing amounts of information in their lives.

In film and broadcasting, a sound bite is a very short piece of a speech taken from a longer speech or an interview in which someone with authority or the average "man on the street" says something which is considered by those who edit the speech or interview to be the most important point.

As the context of what is being said is missing, the insertion of sound bites into news broadcasts or documentaries is open to manipulation and thus requires a very high degree of journalistic ethics. According to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, journalists should "make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context."

Politicians of the new generation are carefully coached by their spin doctors to produce on-demand sound bites which are clear and to the point. The term is sometimes written incorrectly (or ironically) as "sound byte".

It is also the name of a book by Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos.

Historical sound bites

Classic examples of sound bites include Ronald Reagan's demand that "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" in reference to the increasing social pressure to remove the Berlin Wall. In this context, the well-delivered sound bite serves as a cultural icon that others are likely to know about.

More sound bites include:

"The only thing we have to fear is - fear itself." (the most famous phrase in Franklin D. Roosevelt's first Inaugural Address in 1933)
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy....." (the opening phrase of Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech declaring war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor had been attacked)
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." (the most famous phrase in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address in 1961)
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." In one succinct phrase, the entire Apollo Moon program was culminated.
"Houston, we've had a problem." (said by James A. Lovell in the Apollo XIII mission)
"Read my lips: no new taxes", delivered by United States

presidential candidate George H. W. Bush

"Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." said by Lloyd Bentsen as a retort to Dan Quayle's comparison of himself to Jack Kennedy in terms of political experience
"I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders" — Tony Blair following the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Blair had just commented that "A day like today, it's not a day for soundbites: we can leave those at home".