Widening the base, amplifying the citizen voice

Widening the base, amplifying the citizen voice
The primary season saw the beginning of a new kind of politics in Philadelphia, one that must be carefully nurtured if it is to grow. One facet of this new kind of politics is evident in the number and variety of mayoral and city council candidate forums held in virtually every neighborhood across the city and sponsored by a wide range of groups. Great Expectations sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Inquirer was joined by the Next Great City sponsored by Philadelphia Future and the Next Mayor project sponsored by The Daily News, WHYY and the Committee of 70. Some others included two forums on education sponsored by Cross County Collaborative sponsored two forums on education and the 2007 Future Leaders Mayoral Forum sponsored by the Philadelphia Youth Network and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. In the midst of all this candidate talk, it is easy to miss something what is perhaps a more important kind of talk: citizen talk. Not citizens asking questions of the candidates, but citizens talking with each other about the issues and about the campaigns. The Great Expectations Project is the prime example of this brand of citizen talk. With more than 50 citizen forums in neighborhoods across the city (and two in the suburbs), it was one of the few projects in which citizens talking to citizens came before, and formed the basis of, citizen questions to the candidates. Why is this important? Why does this signal a change in politics in this great city? Think of politics in Philadelphia (or in any democracy) as a triangle ? a triangle in which each side represents a different kind of political actor ? one side representing elected and appointed officials, another representing professional stakeholders (such as developers or well funded special interest groups) and the base representing the citizen voice. In Philadelphia ?politics as usual? is like an isosceles triangle with two very long sides, but a short or narrow base. That is, the voice of citizens is often dwarfed by the voices of officials and professional stakeholders. And, if what we?ve heard in Great Expectation citizen-driven forums is accurate, citizens are tired of getting the short end. What they want, and what Great Expectations has helped create, is for this isosceles triangle to grow into an equilateral triangle ? a triangle in which citizens and the citizen voice is equal in strength to that of officials and professional stakeholders. - Harris Sokoloff

Voices.com Makes Giant Splash at VOICE 2007 in Las Vegas, NV
Major Sponsor Voices.com heated up Vegas sands with charisma and good old-fashioned fun at the Voice Over International Creative Experience (VOICE).

Political Ad Voice Talent

I heard a great piece on NPR yesterday with two guys who do a ton of attack ad voice-overs.  Their normal voices were similar to their TV voices, but they both used subtle changes in pacing and breathing that transformed them from normal deep-voiced guys into all-knowing voices of serious condemnation.  Using those voices, they then read various nursery rhymes and turned them into attack ads.  Funny stuff.

There's a woman who does a lot of the GOP ads here in Minnesota, and I'm sure lots of other places, too.  It's hard to describe what she does, but it's this weird sort of hiss or lisp or cutting off of the last part of a word.  It so perfectly captures the prudish, pious disgust that motives certain parts of the conservative frame of mind.  I'd love to know if that's really how that woman talks or if she actually uses that voice intentionally.  She's either a master of her trade or an actual pious, prudish woman full of disgust.

Both the guys on NPR said they really had to check their own politics at the door.  I suppose that's true in a lot of jobs, and we all do check our politics at the door in a variety of situations, such as a Libertarian swingers party.  I have to think if you were a hard-core partisan it would be hard to not have second thoughts about literally being the voice of your opposition.  I'm not sure I could do it, although it's entirely possible that getting paid like premium voice talent could influence my thinking on the subject.

Jimmy O'Byrne - Actor, Musician, Voice Overs, Talking Books,…
Jimmy O'Byrne is a versatile actor, musician, voice over artist, and has recently moved into the world of talking books. As a producer/director for many productions, Jimmy is well versed in behind the scenes

Voice123 (voice123.com) Announces Advertising and Marketing Opportunities
Voice123 starts to sell advertising space on their website and offers marketing partnerships for the voice over industry. [SANEPR 16 January, 2007]

SpeechMagician
This software builds the audio files for your mobile devices, such as the real voice MMS, color rings and truetones for mobile phones. It also builds the dubbing voices for your videos and movies and the asides for your PowerPoint and other presentations. It can attach the voice indexes and labels to your songs in the CD and protable MP3 player. It reads the text for you as all the text to speech software can do. Over 10 languages and 20 voices supported.

First Online Voice-Changing Clinic Opens
Screaming Bee opens a new voice-changing clinic for online gamers. The very first clinic of its kind provides customers with advice for improving their online voices. It also provides real-time technical support and education.