I quit watching television news — both local and national — years ago, mostly because it’s a bunch of superficial infotainment, but also because the manner in which television news people speak is quite annoying. Why do they speak so oddly, with stress seemingly scattered randomly throughout their sentences and those idiotic nods and chin tucks? Doesn’t anyone tell them how stupid they look? I would think after seeing this style skewered on “The Daily Show,” more of them would wise up.
ascenray–I’m in broadcasting school right now, so I think I’m pretty qualified to answer.
When it’s done right, (and it sounds like the people you watch are doing it wrong), your voice inflection is supposed to help the viewer, not annoy them. It helps you transition from story to story, and emphasize important points. If you don’t do it right, you end up sounding like Shatner (What are…YOU DO…ing, Spock?). But if you had to listen to an anchor’s monotone for half an hour, you’d be putting an axe through your TV.
Local NBC WNCN-17 in central North Carolina now does something I call “big head” news. Most of the anchors are shown in close-up, so their heads fill most of the screen, presumably to make their reports appear more immediate and important. Even on a small 13-inch set I find this distracting – I can only imagine what it looks like on a large screen.
The alternative to anchorspeak isn’t a monotone. Why not speak naturally? And that doesn’t explain the weird head movements.
Some of them do speak naturally. I work as a studio op at a news station here in Austin, and for many of them, their on air voice is the same as their off air voice. The problem with the inflections in the wrong place though, that could be caused by a number of things.
For example, here, they generally don’t get their scripts until two minutes before the show (well, the scripts are there for a good half hour or so, they just don’t show up until two minutes prior), so when they read on air, it’s the first time they’re reading the scripts. Also, if the prompter is too slow or too fast, it can trip them up and cause problems as well. And sometimes, they just can’t seem to read simple words for some odd reason (for my shift, it’s generally because they’ve been up since 2 a.m.).
There are some with an “announcer voice,” but that’s due to years growing up with stereotypical new casters who they’ve been told are what they should aspire to be, and unfortunately, they’ll just never live up to the likes of Cronkite and Rather (excuse the butchery of said names, but you know who I’m talking about).
All Monica Lewinsky, all the time!
Speaking naturally on tape often comes across as being pretty flat and monotonous, so as a result reporters will put emphasis on words they think are important. It doesn’t help if they emphasize the wrong words…
As for the strange head movements, they’re actually pretty normal. Everyone bobs their head around while they talk; it’s just that you’re rarely looking in someone’s eyes while they do it. Also, don’t forget that the TV camera is tight on the reporter’s or anchor’s head, which exaggerates the movement because it cuts down on perspective.