Journalists who provide voice-overs for lighter news items have started speaking in a peculiar, light news style. Has this been widely acknowledged yet? It’s like they are developing “speech fonts” which they can use in the same way different typefaces are used in word processing. You have Century Gothic and Times New Roman. They have Newslite. It’s quite bizarre because although it seems to have been invented by Americans it’s quickly spreading to other countries. I wish I could provide a sound file. In lieu of that I can say that the last time I heard this was in a news item on CNN this morning. It was about a new women’s shopping magazine called Lucky. Is this a trend? Will there be styles for all sorts of occasions?
Don’t we already have “speech fonts”? Compare the style of a news anchor (with serious news) with a football announcer, or a politician giving a speech, or someone whispering sweet nothings into your ear.
“Newslite” is just the latest design 
Arjuna34
Speech fonts- what an idea! They should catalog them:
BBC Radio Announcer- very clipped and “official” sounding.
Weatherman- lots of use of emphasis: “This cold front sweeps down…”
Used Car Salesman- loud, exuberant, almost manic.
Pro Wrestler- similar to Used Car Salesman, only aggressive.
Morning Talk Show Host- could be served a platefull of shit and still smile and say “that’s lovely!”.
Stonewall- Used by lawyers and politicans when giving their latest qualified denial of their opponant’s charges.
Newslite has a world-weary, heard-it-all before, cynical sort of sound. It would probably be inadvisable to use this style for certain types of news. It sounds sort of arrogant. Just as the Chiller font would probably look bad on your grandmother’s funeral invitations Newslite would sound bad if the subject was dead babies, that’s for sure. What I said about it being copied by newsreaders outside the United States is the truth you know. It’s all so memetic.
I read news copy on the air. I know what you’re talking about – but it is a very natural thing. It would be extremely inappropriate to report the sad tale of the man who was bisected by an 18-wheeler and lived for 3 hours, then use the same tone of voice to mention the new, carbonated milk beverage (with raspberry flavoring!). Which “font” would be more appropriate? Why, each deserves its own.
BTW, experienced speakers do use tricks that aren’t common in lazy, everday speech. They (we, I guess) vary the rate, pitch, and volume of our words. Ever so slightly. Just to keep the listener interested.
–Grump “and that’s the… WAAAAAAAY it… is” y
I know what you mean. It’s often quite interesting watching newsreaders quick-changing their facial expressions and voice intonations when they switch from tragic stories to less tragic. But Newslite is different. It’s sounds jaded and it comments on what is being talked about on a personal level. It’s kind of bitchy. I may be completely wrong here but was Barbara Walters responsible for it in it’s original form? Reading car accident stuff with solemnity and items about new consumer products lightheartedly is not the same as reading something bitchily.
Why isn’t Ananova able to read in different styles? You would think it would be eminently possible to program for happy, sad or the bitch style. It would just depend on stressing some syllables and not others. (Newslite actually conforms to a regular stress/unstressed pattern by the way). You should be able to create a Shakespeare style using the iambic pentameter quite easily, for instance. I suppose I’d rather have a human though - jaded or not.
Uh, Ananova is supposed to be able to read in “styles.” Indeed, this is supposed to be her big trick. Maybe you haven’t heard enough contrasting stories. I mean, I have hardly ever listened to this gadget, but I’ve heard Ananova switch between styles. (I’ve heard that that copywriters tag each story with an appropriate tone for Ananova to use.)
–Grump “anchors away!” y
No, you’re right I haven’t. I’ll check it out. Thanks very much.