How long before we start seeing strong Northern or foreign accented presenters on the news?

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

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I was just watching BBC News 24 and thinking how nice it is that the presenters all speak clearly with Middle Class accents. But knowing this country, do you think there might be a time - in the interests of equality and diversity - when we start seeing black dreadlocked presenters with heavy Jamaican accents, or working class people with heavy cockney/Northern accents dropping consonents left, right and centre?

Will the BBC - and similar large national institutions - one day adapt to the "multiculturalism" this country enjoys over its airwaves? Or will it always keep two feet firmly on the floor of its own traditions?
 
No, because heavy regional dialects are difficult to understand for 99% of the people that don't live there.

Maybe on the regional / local news (I think they do this anyway) but certainly not on their world-wide broadcasts.
 
Watch BBC NI or BBC Scotland if accents are your thing. Then you'll realise that you prefer the sound of middle class news presenter accents. I'm Northern Irish and I hate my accent.
 
I really like Steph from BBC Breakfast (Middlesborough accent), but apparently she gets loads of abuse from the public. Quite sad and pathetic really, she's perfectly articulate and clearly knows her stuff.

OTOH C4 news have a sports reporter who speaks MLE (Multi-cultural London English) who is absolutely terrible, but that's nothing to do with his accent. I have to turn it over when he's on.
 
We won't I hope (no offence) as it makes listening to the news so much easier having clear concise English enunciation.

Though the BBC do have Huw Edwards who has a Welsh twang - but again he has clear and articulate enunciation - that's the key to news reading, there is no point in having someone that the general populace cannot understand. That business reporter, Steph also has a northern accent, but again speaks in a clear and concise manner so despite a twang, the dialect is pure English.

Besides, I'm sure local news bulletins by local news teams have local presenters anyway so I don't see the need for it on a national level?
 
Not sure if serious question.

I couldn't understand a thick geordie accent as much as he cant a thick cockney one.

Thats why they speak this "posh" clear one.
 
The accents aren't that hard to understand in reality, the only reason people have problems understanding them is due to a combination of unfamiliarity & the requirement for a good vocabulary.

The focus should be on the ability to understand the speaker & correct use of the language - not so much regional accent.

Part of the problem is when people think of a regional accent news speaker they envisage a barely literate half-wit hammering on (as opposed to an intelligent & well spoken individual who just happens to posses a regional accent).
 
I do find rather drôle that people think that the BBC reporters speak "posh" - it's just a neutral English accent. If it were Received Pronunciation I could understand the implication that it was "posh".

It irks me a little that people think I'm "posh" because I don't drop my Ts and pronounce my Hs - whereas I'm just an average British bloke (though a bit of Jonny Foreigner too to be fair :p).
 
My immediate family is: British (posh), British (Scottish), Canadian and Irish (Dublin).

I've grown up in the North of the UK too. I cannot understand a strong Geordie accent nor a strong Scottish accent and i've lived with the accents for a fair amount of time. If I have difficulty, then international viewers will have no chance - especially if you start truncating words and sentences into strong dialect phrases, or just pronounce lazily dropping the odd vowel or consonant.
 
Those are problems related to a poor & lazy vocabulary - not so much accent, you can have regional accents without being incomprehensible as long as the persons grasp of the English language is good.

Freefaller said:
I do find rather drôle that people think that the BBC reporters speak "posh" - it's just a neutral English accent. If it were Received Pronunciation I could understand the implication that it was "posh".

It irks me a little that people think I'm "posh" because I don't drop my Ts and pronounce my Hs - whereas I'm just an average British bloke (though a bit of Jonny Foreigner too to be fair :p).
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Indeed, but that's kind of the point also - BBC English is an accent.

Even "Received Pronunciation" is regional (south of England) due to the locality of it's speakers to Oxford/London (which in my view undermines the claim it's accent neutral).
 
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Freefaller said:
I do find rather drôle that people think that the BBC reporters speak "posh" - it's just a neutral English accent. If it were Received Pronunciation I could understand the implication that it was "posh".

It irks me a little that people think I'm "posh" because I don't drop my Ts and pronounce my Hs - whereas I'm just an average British bloke (though a bit of Jonny Foreigner too to be fair :p).
Click to expand...

Yes, this is worrying. People think I speak "posh". It's just a normal English accent.
 
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