How come a person from the South does not sound southern when on a newscast?

Question

The newsmen/women talk normal. How do they get rid of that accent?

Answer 1

When you are delivering news you have to be easily understood and pronounce your words very clearly. It's not that they don't like the accent it's whether or not the majority of America can understand it.

Answer 2

Well, I know in High School my English teacher used to always put a high emphasis on my way of speaking. The way I pronounced words, slang words like 'ain't' and things of that nature. While it may be a little difficult to understand, a news broadcasting job is very very English dependent, the people who watch these news channels are depending upon the clarity of the speakers voice to get informed about what they are watching.

Is it biased? Well, just about any job now-a-days is biased really. Not to say that your cousin should not have gotten a job, there are a lot of other essential functions to any news broadcasting company. But, again, I guess they have a right to hire just about anyone they see fit, and they if they have any prejudices against a person, they have ways to see about getting around it without going to court, but again, just about any company does I guess.

To more directly answer the question ... Newscasters go through a lot of rigorous speech training to have a 'more professional' voice, and one not tainted with local accent. With enough personal training, they can get that 'more normal' voice effect.

Answer 3

I don't know. How does this guy lose his accent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwaIWwuT1...

Answer 4

speech training