Some gravitas, please
I love the radio. It fires my imagination with words from which I build stories and images and meaning in my mind. I love the different accents I hear on air these days and I love the growing world of podcasts — those offshoots of, or replacements for, radio shows.
But I don’t love all the voices that float across the airwaves. Some mumble. Others garble. Still others over-emote, the speaker thrusting themselves at me through the radio. Less is more, say I. Leave me room to make the story my own; don’t invade my space with your Self. Back off. Tone it down. Let the words build the story and create the impact in my mind.
But my real pet peeve is the breathy voices. The small voices. The timid voices. These don’t take up enough room in my radio. They have no gravitas. I’ve noticed this particularly with recent new voices reading the news on my local station. If anything needs gravitas, it is the news. Present it with confidence and show that confidence with a clear voice, a strong voice, a trustworthy voice.
In short, sound like what you are: The bearer of so-often grave news. Make me believe you know what you’re talking about.
Which brings to mind the sentiment expressed by Kim Campbell, Canada’s former only female prime minister, in regards to dress codes for women broadcasters. She called it demeaning that female news anchors on TV so often wear sleeveless dresses. She got into hot water on social media for her comment, but I stand by her. Dress with gravitas to deliver news you want taken seriously. Don’t dress as if you were heading to a party.
Same goes on the radio. Don’t speak as if you were chatting, when what you’re doing is bringing news of murder and mayhem and global warming. Dress your voice in the equivalent of a business suit. Leave the cocktail dress at home.
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A Post a Day in May No. 15 For the past two years, I have posted something to this blog every single day in May. This year, I hope to do it again.
Breathy voices and dressed for a disco? I know what you mean. I complain about the clothes and Julie tells me this is how women dress for work these days. Except for her cousin, Maureen McGuire, who has anchored our local news for thirty years. Maureen often looks like a nun and never fashionable!
ReplyDeleteThe breathy voices bother Julie most of all, not on podcasts so much as in singing. Julie is a voice major for her undergrad degree, and she cannot tolerate this generation of young girls who pant thru their tunes. But perhaps a mezzosoprano isn't a judge of current trends?
The thing that bothers us both the most is something different we've noticed in the past few years. Practically everyone, both in life and on different media, raises their voices at the end of a sentence, not for a question, but for some godawful effect I suppose. I'm listening to the news right now and it's happening.
Maybe I'm just cranky?
I never thought about that before but there are certainly voices that speak to me, get my attention and others that don’t at all.
ReplyDeleteAs for women broadcasters clothes, I’ll have to check what they wear. I can’t say that this is something I notice. I probably would if it was offensive but I don’t think that it already happened.
So what about the photo of Kim Campbell holding her legal robes strategically in front of her nude body? It was 1990, and she defends it as art, but that seems to leave her with no room to cast stones. If art and fashion have a place in the legal and political world, they will also exist in broadcasting.
ReplyDeletePamela: That very argument was made during the social media storm, for sure. Campbell replied that she wasn't presenting news at the time. She tweeted, “Photo was art — juxtaposition of bare shoulders (femininity) and legal robes — (male dominated power structure)."
DeleteFor me, the context is what distinguishes the one situation from the other. News broadcasts are not art, and nor are they parties. Men have it easy, because their dress code for both contexts is, essentially, the same -- suit, tie, jacket. For women, the dress code is very different.
Dress for the context. This may mark me as a second wave feminist, ignorant of, or willfully ignoring the progress of, third wave feminism?
It's an interesting discussion! Third wave feminists would probably be in favour of women expressing and presenting themselves any way they please, and the more removed from the standard "masculine" suit, the better. Another aspect of this topic is the way the news program itself is evolving - in direct competition with the younger generation's current preference to seek information from online sources, many of whom could not be called professional journalists. The traditional media giants can actually gain back some of the attention by putting women front and centre, and it may be no accident that they look more colourful, even somewhat provocative. I agree with you that gravitas is a good idea for a serious news program - but maybe it's simply not high on the priority list any more.
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