“Pay attention, attention please, attention please, attention, please mind, please mind the closing doors, please mind the gap between the train and the platform, Bitte seien Sie achtsam, Oberezhno, be aware of …, for your safety, your attention please, … to be aware of pickpockets, there may be pickpockets operating on this train, … to take care of your personal belongings at all times, please take care of your valuables, for your safety, any unattended or suspicious articles …, stay aware of your surroundings, … could be bomb, if you see something suspicious, we would like to remind you to keep your belongings inside, pay attention to your safety, at all times.”

Another way in which transit audio designs the audience is by placing them in a space that identifies as “risky”. While this may be done with explicit warnings, e.g. bomb or pickpocket warnings, it also occurs through the conveying of banal information to warn riders about more mundane risks linked to the physical environment, like “mind the gap”. But these announcements not only place members of the public in a risky space, they also ask the audience to be civil and vigilant. The request to be vigilant means to see while pretending that no one is looking. This simply foregrounds the fact that in public spaces everyone is already watching everyone else. (Moonay 2014, 36)

An additional question that is raised by these announcements is the creation of an audience that is assumed to be civil and polite. While the announcements tell the passengers directly to not smoke or eat, they ask its riders to be aware of pickpocketers (rather than directly asking passengers to not pickpocket). This subtle difference suggests that passengers are not the ones who pickpocket, but someone distinct from a passenger—a mysterious “other” who is not addressed directly but spoken about as a potential risk.