Do we really still need the 'newsreader' voice?

[GlumWithRum]

Hi,

It just seems so dated, unnecessary and quite frankly, just a bit odd now. Still feels a bit 1950's.

I'm assuming people know the voice I mean? Quite nasal, usually rather posh, almost strangulated in some cases. Very little variety of accents. Basically none.

I honestly wouldn't have an issue if that were their real voice, but it never is. An example would be Charlene White. On Loose Women she has a completely different voice! Don't get me wrong, I understand the tone will be very different as they're entirely different programmes, but to have a completely different voice is just ridiculous. I'm assuming this is encouraged by the producers.

A friend of mines friend is a newsreader and she days she doesn't recognise her at all when she's on TV/radio. One of our local newsreaders sounds almost comical.

Anyway, just wondered if it was me who thought this style of presenting was getting a bit dated.

I think 'BBC English' is a watered down version of Received Pronunciation. Having said that, it's highly unlikely to be heard on a Radio 1 news bulletin but certainly on Radio 4 and Radio 3. Maybe it has had its day but it doesn't bother me at all. I can do a credible one myself. BBC News.

I like it. It comforting and don’t have to be annoyed with accents!

I was a radio newsreader when I started my career 20+ years ago. This was a regional station in wales yet we were discouraged from using our real Welsh accents and told to tone it down as much as possible. Learning the newsreader voice is hard. It’s not a natural way of speaking at all - lots of emphasis on syllables you normally wouldn’t put emphasis on, raising and lowering the tone of your voice in very strange places. These days it seems Welsh presenters are almost encouraged to sound super Welsh. Perhaps we have gavin and Stacey to thank for that. However I do think Sian Eleri on radio 1 has the most over exaggerated Welsh accent I’ve ever heard.

I like it too. Like pp I just want to listen to the information in a well spoken clear tone. I suppose I'm biased because it's similar to the way I speak (although I probably have more glottal stops if I'm feeling lazy).

I'm fine with it, thanks.

I like it. If you ever have the deep joy that is Reporting Scotland* as your ‘local’ news desk, where the team speak like no-one else I have ever heard in Scotland, the National news teams are like a breath of fresh air.

*Apart from Judith Ralston, and Sally Magnussen of course. Genuine voices and intelligence too.

I like it too. Clear, easy to understand by everyone regardless of regional accent, calm, reassuring.

This is the calibre of news in Scotland

😛

Broadcasting can change the way you sound a bit. Whenever I hear myself being interviewed on the radio I think I sound like Princess Anne which I really don't in real life so what you hear over the air might not be exactly what was said in the studio.

Having said that news broadcasting is listened to by people around the world (especially the BBC where some newscasts go out on the world service) Having newsreaders speak without marked accents and in a way that is largely the type of speech non native English speakers will have heard when learning English is helpful for international listeners.

The intonation helps deliver serious news without emotion which is pretty vital.

How often do you go on?

My Dad was a radio newsreader. Sadly he stopped doing it before I was old enough to be allowed to listen to the news, so I never had his voice broadcasting live into our home. However I’ve heard tapes and he sounds very much like he did at home.

It's just putting on your telephone voice isn't it? I swear like drunken sailor with Estuary vowels (damn you Mrs Diggle, English Teacher), but when I'm in Serious Professional Mode, I sound like Kate Silverton

Not very often and its mainly on financial type programmes - think a not very prolific female Martin Lewis.....

Did your father have a fairly RP accent in the first place? I find that I sound a bit higher pitched and truncated when I'm on air.

I can range from swearing like Malcolm Tucker to sounding like the late Queen. I heard myself back recorded the other day and was genuinely astonished at how posh I sounded. I think it's an automatic reaction to feeling like I'm under scrutiny.

@Papillon23 exactly! All my colleagues think my speaking voice (ego me!) is amazing. Which is odd, because in my head I sound like Lily Alan on a helium pony

It's important that every word can be easily understood by listeners from all over the UK, but there are MANY accents from all over Wales, NI, Scotland and England which achieve this, and all of these should be used. Some people are more difficult to understand to people outwith their local area, and unfortunately their accents aren't going to work for this particular job.

But sticking to one specific accent is outdated yes. And 'BBC English ' is not a neutral or non-accent no matter what people might think. It's an accent like any other.

Scottish, fairly neutral for Scotland but definitely Scottish and not English RP. Not high pitched, quite low actually. Sort of “warm”, think Jim Naughtie style. Good diction. My granny made him go to elocution lessons when he was a child. She was basically a Scottish Hyacinth Bouquet.

I talk like I could be on Eastenders. Not sure I want to listen to that. Even I find my accent irritating.

Do NOT even deign to take my Neil Nunes away from me!!!!!!!

That BBC voice lilting out of my Google speaker at 6am starts my whole morning on a positive.

When at college there were some rather posh Scottish guys (who were utterly lovely and charming to everyone unlike the English public school boys) this sounds a bit like their accent and I imagine that it would transmit much better than English RP as the vowel sounds are warmer.

I'd prefer to keep it.

I like it too. Clear, easy to understand by everyone regardless of regional accent, calm, reassuring.

Me too.
Something we can all understand, easily, whatever your own accent and however much of a hearing loss you have.

I like it. I have hearing problems and can't understand strong accents, so the "newsreader voice" is important for me.

I want to hear BBC English for something serious like the news. The person's voice needs to be completely neutral, otherwise it gets in the way of the content. Frankly, I can't bear regional accents on news and documentaries, because I just want to hear people speak properly. Comedy, drama etc is less of an issue tho. I also think that if we want to be taken seriously in our own professional lives, we need to soften or moderate the regional accents we may have had - they do create a bad impression.

Many people with hearing difficulties use lipreading instead of, or as an aid to, hearing, so the presenter has to take that into account, and not speak so that they're barely moving their lips. And they need to speak more slowly than one would in normal conversation, so people have time to hear and take in what they're saying.