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Vox pop

Vox populi is the voice of the people, or ‘man in the street’ interview. It’s a different kind of interviewing from that discussed in the previous chapter, but the use of the opinions of ‘ordinary’ members of the public adds a useful dimension to the coverage of a topic that might otherwise be limited to a straight bulletin report or a studio discussion among officials or experts. The principle is for the broadcaster using a portable recorder to put one, possibly two, specific questions on a matter of public interest to people selected by chance, and to edit together their replies to form a distillation of the overall response. While the aim is to present a sample of public opinion, the broadcaster must never claim it to be statistically ...

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