Why Voices Of TV Anchors Sound The Same In News Bulletins

The accent is usually the fascinating part. Broadcast speak in Kenya, especially among English news bulletins, mostly features Western accents and partly because some bulletins in Kenya are watched worldwide by Kenyans living in the diaspora alongside a few of their friends in the resident country as they might be considered neutral, one of the most important aspects of journalism.

"Decades ago it was called the Mid-Atlantic accent, now it's called the general American accent. It's a neutralized accent and it makes you sound like you're from everywhere but nowhere.

"Another thing we do is that we tend to over-enunciate, and the reason why we do that is because we want to be easily understood because we're relaying some important information. Lastly, we use our diaphragm when we speak, and the reason for that is because it gives our vocal cords a break," Reyes explained in a past video.

One news anchor who spoke to Viral Tea also noted that some voices may be amplified through technological means, that is the directors use feedback from the microphones to amplify from the gallery to make it sound bolder than while it is in real life.

Another reason why news anchors share speech patterns is that they are all taught to use standard broadcasting English, a form of pronunciation in which no letters are dropped. 

Voice Blunders

Plain speaking also needs to fit whatever footage is being shown while the anchor is talking because uneven modulation could be distracting, though some anchors do choose to emphasize words by drawing them out (“muur-der”) or adopt a more sombre tone when reporting on tragic events.

Some anchors have also reported being more careful with their speech because broadcast microphones are often unforgiving and any slip of the tongue in the digital era can turn you into a viral celebrity in seconds on social media. 

There's the added fact that most broadcasters are emulating the voices of their role models, so speech patterns get passed down. That is, if you have grown up watching or listening to a certain anchor and admire them on TV, there is that subconscious effort to mirror that voice, like a lot of women who wanted to sound like Oprah Winfrey because she has a great voice.

More Personalisation In Voices

These days, there have been calls from modern-day broadcasters to adopt voices like a person, just somebody's friend, keeping them company as they watch them at home, or in radio cases while doing their day-to-day activities. This is because the value of the "voice"  may be fading out among radio presenters.

Rather than having an authoritative voice, these days broadcast journalism is all about being relatable to an audience, with some radio presenters calling for those doing big voices to tone it down and be a real person, lest they risk alienating their listeners or viewers.