UNR profs study evolution of sound bites

University of Nevada professors David M. Ryfe and Markus Kemmelmeier have completed a study of the evolution of political quotes in newspapers and political sound bites on TV news, which have dropped to an average eight seconds per bite.   
   
As Congress opens its 112th session this week, author Craig Fehrman commented on their findings over the weekend in The Boston Globe. 

"The shrinking sound bite stands as a rare enemy of Republicans and Democrats alike," Fehrman wrote. " Whether running for president of the United States or for city council, politicians can count on seeing their words broken into ever smaller and more fragmentary bits."  

But while a "shorter, dumber, and shriller political discourse, it seems, has become another hazard of modern life," Fehrman said the Nevada academics argue the shrinking sound bite "stems less from a collapse in standards or seriousness than from the rise of a more sophisticated and independent style of journalism — which means the sound bite might not be such a bad thing.

"Letting politicians ramble doesn’t necessarily produce a better or more informative political discourse,"  Fehrman wrote.