The audio going with the video - some observations on the Rodney King case

Authors

  • Angelika Braun Forensic Science Laboratory of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v1i2.217

Keywords:

Rodney King, audio enhancement, disputed utterance, noise

Abstract

While the so-called Rodney King video of a black man being beaten by a number of white policemen taken by a man named George Holliday on 3 March 1991 has been broadcast world-wide via CNN, the sound-track of that recording has attracted a much lesser degree of attention. This may in part be due to the fact that the quality of the sound-track is adversely affected by noise generated by a police helicopter. This case report focuses on different aspects of forensic phonetic work: enhancement of audio records of disputed utterances, and the examination of specific types of background noise.

Author Biography

  • Angelika Braun, Forensic Science Laboratory of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia
    Angelika Braun received her academic training in Linguistics and Phonetics at Marburg and Cologne Universities. She took her State Exam in 1980, working as a research assistant and lecturer in Phonetics at Marburg and Gottingen afterwards. She took her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Phonetics in 1988. Since 1986 she has worked in forensic phonetics, first with the Forensic Science Laboratory of the Federal Criminal Bureau (BKA) and - since 1989 - as the head of the Speaker Identification Section of the Forensic Science Laboratory of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia.

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Published

1994-12-01

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (1994)

Section

Case Reports

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

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How to Cite

Braun, A. (1994). The audio going with the video - some observations on the Rodney King case. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 1(2), 217-222. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v1i2.217