Why Radio is often Superior to TV: an opinion from an MA Journalism student training to do both

It was not until I attempted to put together news packages for both television and radio that I realised how inferior a medium television can often be for the effective communication of information.

On an initial impression this may seem counterintuitive; radio is limited to audio information while TV enjoys the benefit of being able to visualise a narrative. After all, doesn’t ‘a picture paint a thousand words?’ Perhaps this is correct to some degree but there are a whole raft of reasons why audio-only presentation surpasses video for transferring ideas, a couple of which I will discuss here.

The limitations of images

Video production as a process is plagued with compromises from the offset. One might have a fantastic idea for a piece that is important, thought provoking and exceptionally relevant to one’s audience but if there is no way to visualise this, no matter how strong the information or audio component may be, it simply cannot be used (at least to any kind of affect).

It is a simple matter of fact that not all information which is important is able to be supported by relevant images. Owing to this one might often see packages that are laboured and uninteresting despite the content information being inherently fascinating. An apt example of this is the deployment of facts, figures and percentiles plastered over a monochrome still image; these are often exceptionally dull, tedious and more often than not a huge turn off for viewers.

Imagination

Often far better is it for the words to do the talking. Here we may cite traditional arguments that surround film adaptations of great books, i.e. the classic phrase: ‘the book was so much better than the film’ or ‘the movie didn’t do the book justice’. While Video may be able to fill in much more of the detail of a narrative, it is often far more powerful to creatively use language and sound alone to induce in your audience a sense of ownership over the resultant scene and meaning that is created. One can empathise with characters, situations and stories much more readily if they are in part created, and influenced, by an audiences own cognition and experiences. Listening to a news package the audience plays a far more active role in the transfer of information; indeed they are, in effect, a participant in the transfer of knowledge.

This is a point of discussion, not a testament cast in iron. Of course in many instances pictures are sufficiently endowed with the power, meaning and subtext to effectively be the story in and of themselves. But audio-only reports often have an edge over their illustrated counterparts which is not always fully appreciated. Indeed, often there is considerable truth to the phrase; ‘radio is the most visual of media’.