VOICE IN BROADCASTING:Speech, Accent, Loudness, Stress

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Introduction to Broadcasting MCM 411

LESSON 11

VOICE IN BROADCASTING

Radio broadcast is essentially based on voice. Listeners know hardly about the face, dressing

up and at times the age of the person whose voice they are listening to. Most broadcasters

have their peculiar voice soft, hard, harsh or sharp. It is the producer who decides which

type of voice suits what type of broadcast if they fulfill other requirements as a broadcaster.

Since radio is a voice based mean of communication, it is needless to over emphasize the fact

that people with clarity of voice are supposed to be venturing as broadcaster.

But quality voice is by far a relative term. Every voice uttered may stand to convey some

definite meanings. It becomes responsibility of producers to judge a voice for a particular

situation and program where it serves the purpose of effective-communication. In fact training

in usage of different voices may open the gate for an ordinary voice to become a voice-to-be-

heard from a particular radio station. For example; a person has a very mature accent of

Sindhi language, he/she may be chosen for a typical Sindhi program which may build up its

own audience. So is for people in other languages, provided, they meet other criteria as

broadcasters.

We now look at some of the voice characteristics which a good broadcaster, as well as a

producer, must keep in mind while producing any piece of broadcasting.

Speech

The foremost thing for a broadcaster is to know the language he/she is talking in. There is

hardly any fun to stand in front of a mike if the speaker is not familiar adequately with the

language he/she is to deliver the message in. A mere knowledge of ordinary level of language

does not suffice the need for broadcasting for at times, the broadcaster is bound to encounter

a word which requires specific pronunciation just as in English language there are scores of

words and phrases which belong to other languages like sine qua non (outcome) or prima

Donna (show off). There are so many in Urdu. Since you are more working for a society where

Urdu is spoken and understood more than other languages, and some times the script carries

verses, knowledge of this language a cut above the ordinary becomes extremely inevitable.

Accent

For a standard broadcaster it is a must to talk in an accent which is socially acceptable. This

means highest number of listeners should agree with the pronunciation, colloquial speech and

the dialect. Any deviation from this position in a standard program like newsreel, or running

commentary on a test match, or a regular announcement in between programs may stimulate

laughter and the anger as well. In both cases this will cast a shadow on the broadcast quality

of your program.

Loudness

Loudness is a unique voice character. There is a standard voice-level at which human beings

talk to each other. If you speak louder, or cut down your voice volume, it may lead to al

together different meanings. For example, you say some one "be-off" in a low voice; this at

times may feel affectionate. But if you utter the same phrase at the top of your voice it certainly

communicates much more than ordinary meanings... and may lead to an ugly situation. Loud

means rage, low means polite. You may laugh at normal loudness. If you do so at a higher

volume, people may even think you as mad. In dramas this characteristic of voice leads to

more meanings

Introduction to Broadcasting MCM 411

Stretch

Voice has this extraordinary quality that one can stretch a word to a desired length to give it

different meanings. Think of QIRA'AT of holy verses. And think also about the words sung, you

may discover a whole genre of using words for completely different purposes.

Stress

Like stretching, stress on a word, or a syllabi like "I will see you", changes the meaning of

speech. Not only this, stress on a particular word in a sentence fetches the same result.

Look at the following elaboration;

Nadeem will go to Islamabad next week.

Change stress, or stress more Nadeem,

Islamabad, next and week, while keeping standard stress on the rest. Every time you are likely

to get different meanings.

Pauses

Silence in between a regular speech pauses as it is called as a term in verbal

communication, enhances the meaning of a word, situation and attraction of the broadcast. A

narration punctuated with pauses is just the other way you may think of a news-reading. This

dramatizes a situation, obviously to impart different purposes. But we also apply pauses in a

standard narration like newsreel when we have to change subject of news from one to

another.

There are more characteristics attached to a voice like sharpness, hackling, mincing words

and whispering. All these are used in different areas of broadcasting not only to add color but

also the meaning. It is always the skill of a producer to assign a certain piece of broadcasting

to a particular voice so that the program succeeds in building up the listeners all around.

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