In our exploration of transit audio, we found that the announcements use a combination of words that create the audience through its direct address. Often following a phrase such as “attention” or “dear”, the announcements use particular forms of address to call upon (or “hail”, as Althusser’s theory of interpellation would state) their perceived audience. This sound collage draws attention to the terminology used in these announcements. Commonly, “passengers” is used to describe the audience (spoken in the plural and thus forming a collection of individuals, or a public). Other terms include “customers”, which highlights the production of a paying audience, or “users” or “riders”  which marks a distinction between those individuals in here versus those non-users out there. In recent years, many cities have shifted from using “ladies and gentlemen” to use words like “everyone” to be “gender-neutral to include all passengers who ride” (CBS New York 2017). Other announcements use additional terms that identify specific groups within the total audience, such as “pregnant women”, “individuals with disabilities”, or “children”.

 

The announcements transform listeners into conscious or subconscious audience members which act as a collective public or as individuals distinct from other passengers or non-passengers. The terms raise questions about who these systems are asking us, or requiring us, to be—individually and collectively.