Any good high school student of English ought to know what passive and active voice is, hence I should really go into the topic of the day and explain when and why each of the two "voices" is used. Rather than assume that everyone knows, let me nonetheless begin by touching on what we mean by passive and active voice.

Active voice is when a sentence is written in a manner that the subject of the sentence is at the beginning of the sentence and it plays an active role in the action described by the verb. In other words the subject is the doer. Here is an example:

Samson usually drives very fast on the highway.

In this example, Samson is the subject of the sentence and he is playing the active role of "driver" since he is the one who drives very fast on the highway.

When it comes to the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is moved from the beginning of the sentence and is placed at the end, where we expect the object to be. The object likewise, is moved to the beginning of the sentence where we normally expect to find the subject. In a passive sentence, the focus is on the object and what is being done to it. The subject rests quietly at the end of the sentence and is not an outright doer of any action. Here is an example:

The highway is usually driven on very fast by Samson.

In this example, the focus is on the highway and what is usually done to it. We hardly realise that Samson is the one doing the driving.

The norm is to write sentences in the active voice, but at times journalists and writers deliberately write sentences in the passive voice in order to protect the subject from criticism or to avoid unneccessary attention or interest on the subject. A newspaper headline that reads: "Bafana Bafana misses victory against Ghana" will not give Ghana as much glory as one that reads "Ghana defeats Bafana Bafana." In a similar fashion, a crime report that states that Person A was robbed by Person Z, will create a focus on Person A as the victim of the crime and not make readers focus on the evil act that Person Z has committed.

Passive and active voice can therefore be seen as subtle tools for manipulating news and information. Look out for it the next time that you listen to the news or read press articles or historical accounts.