#23: What is a vox-pop?
After the OpenField arts festival over the weekend, you might have seen me post a series of photos and videos I took in my capacity as a volunteer on the festival’s media team. These included some short interviews with festival attendees called vox-pops.
But what are vox-pops, and why do we use them?
Vox-pop is short for vox populi (voice of the people in Latin). It can also be shortened to ‘voxxie’ if you’re feeling particularly Australian and like to nickname everything twice. It refers to an interview, usually consisting one or only a few questions, with everyday people. This is as opposed to a longer interview with an expert or the subject of the story you’re writing.
The purpose of vox-pops is to show how people generally feel about a certain topic. At an event, for example, conducting vox-pops with attendees can offer insight into the experience of the audience which organisers, stallholders, artists and others involved might not get to have. Usually, a story using vox-pops will include multiple collated together for a general overview of how people are feeling rather than zeroing in on one person.
To conduct a vox-pop, a reporter will usually visit an area relevant to their story and stop passers-by to ask them a question on camera. This can be at an event, but it can also be on a busy street for a story that concerns a more general population. Most of the time, it’s best to ask for people’s permission to record them for use in a story.
The most effective collections of vox-pops usually include very few questions asked, and the questions themselves worded simply. Keeping in mind these are not in-depth interviews, reporters will mostly keep their vox-pop questions general and based in feeling. For example: ‘If you had to describe the event in one word, what would it be?’
The way a reporter chooses to present their collection of vox-pops can vary depending on the story – will it be played on radio, TV, social media? They can be weaved into the rest of the story individually or presented as a package, with the question included or the responses alone. If a collection of vox-pops is shown on its own, it will usually be most effective beginning with the most emotive response, then using the rest of the responses for context.
If you want to see an example, OpenField posted a collection of vox-pops on their Instagram. View them here.
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