The “Newscaster’s Voice”: Breaking down the voice that defined the broadcast industry
Brooke Bell
2/10/20234 min read
In most industries, having the “right” look is everything. In broadcasting, it’s more than that; having “the voice” can make or break a story.
For many on-air talents in the U.S., having a compelling voice goes far beyond just captivating an audience. It encompasses ideals that are ingrained in society.
A study conducted by Peninsular found that “80% of employers admit that they do discriminate based on accent.”
For Tisha Powell, an anchor at WAFB, avoiding accents was part of her college curriculum for broadcast journalism.
“We were told to basically be unidentifiable when it comes to where you were from,” Powell said. “That wasn't supposed to be something that people were supposed to be able to recognize.”
Powell studied broadcast news at Loyola University New Orleans in the 1990s. As a Louisiana native, a heavy emphasis was placed on her in college to avoid any accent or dialect that may link her to Southern Louisiana.
For Powell and many other on-air talents, the ideal accent to speak in was non-regional diction, or the “newscaster’s voice.”
Non-regional diction is a neutral accent that avoids association with any region or ethnic background. On the surface, this form of diction is persuasive for many reasons.
It’s viewed as authoritative and gives a reporter an edge of intelligence.
While accents may be considered endearing in daily life, historically, accents and dialects have been linked to stereotypes.
Some dialects, or forms of language that are linked to a region or social group, can trigger negative perceptions in a listener.
New research from the Sutton Trust revealed that Southern dialects have commonly been attributed to poverty or a lack of education. On the contrary, a British accent or neutral American dialect may be perceived as knowledgeable.
Although it may not be openly discussed, these connotations often affect its native speakers.
“I hear from students in my classes, quite often, informally, that they will be from some area in Louisiana, where people will speak with a very pronounced Southern English accent, and when they come to LSU, they are trying very conscientiously to get rid of the accent,” Irina Shport, associate chair of English at Louisiana State University, said.
According to Shport, they’re motivated by the stigmas their dialects hold.
“They do not want to be associated with stereotypes like a lack of education, poverty, ‘rural bumpkin’ and all those negative stereotypes that may be out there. They want to dissociate from that through the choice of language,” Shport said.
Leaving the accent behind may be plausible but changing the perceptions of the speaker can be even more challenging.
While accents have their own connotations, the listener’s biases ultimately dictate what is or is not perceived as trustworthy.
“Ultimately, it's not about a hierarchy of accents. It's about a hierarchy of speakers,” Shport said.
Perceptions of accents are made mainly by the listener. “[The hierarchy of accents] actually has nothing to do with the accent itself, but we project on the accent what we think of speakers coming from particular communities. So, if we think, for example, that a person comes from a ‘shithole country,’ then probably that attitude is associated with the accent itself. So, people start to talk about accents as if they're talking about speakers.”
While in college, the newscaster’s voice was taught to Powell to create marketability across all television markets. It took years for her to perfect her signature voice, but having a neutral accent unlocked a nearly three-decades-long career in broadcast journalism.
“I think that keeping a little bit of a Southern accent, probably would not have hurt me with the jobs that I have had,” Powell said. “Now, I've been offered positions in California, Colorado and New York. I think that not having an accent did open those doors for me.”
Aside from the connotations of accents, studies show that accents are not always well received internally.
“[Accents are] more costly at a cognitive level as it requires extra effort to understand the person,” Alice Foucart, a psycholinguistics researcher at Ghent University, Belgium, said. “The increased levels of activity show difficulties in processing lexical and semantic information. This can trigger negative perceptions.”
Anchors use neutral accents to help present complex topics in a digestible manner.
Perceptions of accents have traits of implicit bias. As a result, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against discrimination of accents or country of origin.
Despite legal protections, a neutral accent is still popular in broadcasting. For Sumner Bradley, a mass communications major at LSU, perfecting her on-air sound is something she hones as a reporter for LSU’s student news channel, Tiger TV.
“The voice is something that I sort of picked up when doing training,” Bradley said. “We never learned how to speak specifically or anything of that nature, but I guess I just tried to speak more clearly.”
While Bradley does not feel intense pressure to change her voice, she knows the importance of clear and concise diction.
“I think that news will always be one thing that needs to be articulated pretty clearly whether or not you have an accent,” Bradley said.
As Powell reflects on her lengthy career in broadcast journalism, her perspective on the “ideal” newscaster’s voice has changed. While she sees its value, times have changed and so have news reporting standards.
“You can wear hairstyles that you couldn't wear when I started off in the business,” Powell said. “You can have an accent that works in the region that you're working in. I feel like people who are watching you may be able to relate to you if you sound like they do.”
Powell notes that these standard changes are more apparent at local stations.
“There was a time when if you wanted to work on the national news or cable you needed to sound more like you don’t work from anywhere in particular,” Powell said. “But if you want to work in your hometown, in a local or regional area, if you [have an accent], it's okay.”