VO-SOT
Voice over, sound on tape. In
television news, a VO-SOT is a
story written by a
reporter or
producer for the
anchor to read (voice) over video or a graphic, featuring a quote (sound bite or SOT for "sound on tape") from an interview subject. Video may be shot by a photographer unaccompanied by a reporter, who then gives the reporter the details of the story to write without having witnessed the actual event. (The reporter is generally responsible for writing the story and giving the photog direction in terms of what kind of sound bite to ask for.)
Generally, the VO part is a short verbal description of events read by the anchor, followed by the SOT. As in, "Today a family pet was brutally beaten on the city's east side..." followed by video of the town police spokesman saying, "...we have two credible leads but have not made any arrests in this, uh, case. Just terrible, this case."
VO-SOTs are used for stories where producers have a decent amount of info and a good sound bite, but not enough to make a long story. Also used for scaled-down versions of older stories.
See also VO and package.