Voice Production

With the ‘look’ goes the voice–and probably just as much controversy. Certainly in British broadcasting the idea of what speech is ‘acceptable’ has changed dramatically over the past thirty years. Before then it was rare to hear any regular broadcaster who did not speak with the tone and accent closely associated with the south-east of England. Since then the arrival of local radio and television has produced a wider variety of regional accents, allowing viewers to identify more comfortably with broadcasters from their own area. Whether this has contributed to the drastic drop in the standards of language usage is entirely subjective.

The wish to communicate

Although almost any voice will improve with training, not every one will be suitable for broadcasting. The main thing for the beginner is to want to communicate. This means writing for speech in a way which comes across to the listener as natural. Sentences should be constructed so proper phrasing is possible, because that in turn will aid the audience’s comprehension. The second priority is to ensure the words, once written, are delivered with a reasonable range of inflection. Some voices are naturally monotonous, but to make matters worse many young reporters develop a tendency to speak quickly in a flat undertone they think adds a sense of urgency to their work. In general the more nervous the speaker, the higher the pitch, so although it is by no means easy, the reporter must allow his or her muscles to relax so the full tonal range comes through. The listener relies on the clarity of the speech as much as on the power of the pictures, and the reporter who speaks poorly is doing only half the job.

Appointments procedures for reporters often include a rigorous voice test, and those who have been found to have lisps, other speech impediments or impenetrable accents have been denied the jobs their otherwise excellent journalistic pedigree deserved. Some speech deficiencies can be cured with practice or the attention of therapists: the viewer should be spared the rest.

Pronunciation

Another essential ingredient of the voice-and-speech process is pronunciation. This is often a matter of editorial policy rather than individual taste, because the audience needs to be sure a name or place mentioned in last night’s news is in fact the same as that repeated by someone else from the same programme tonight or tomorrow. The biggest news organisations have sophisticated methods to aid this consistency. The BBC supplies its broadcasters regularly with updates of ‘difficult’ names and places in the news, supplementing this with additional information when international conferences, the Olympics, or similarly lengthy events occur. Not every broadcaster can afford to go that far, so dictionaries of pronunciation, a good memory and a homemade index based on experience can be made just as effective.

Voice production

Write as for speech, keeping sentences short. This combined with simple, everyday language, will help make delivery seem more natural. When setting out voice-over scripts try to remember the convention that text appears on the right and production/technical instructions on the left. Mark words or phrases to help with intonation.