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Editor’s note: This post is part of News From Creatorland, a column where journalist and entrepreneur Fernando Hurtado shares learnings and observations from the frontlines of creator journalism.
A few weeks ago, I was scrolling on Instagram when I came across a video from a local TV news station.
In the video, a news anchor is promoting an interview with an immigration expert that would air that night on the newscast. What struck me about the content was the voice. It was the classic news anchor voice, whose hallmark characteristics are:
Communicate two tones lower than your natural speaking voice. Project as if speaking to someone 20 yards away in a baseball stadium. Speak slower than you speak to your friends. Use a strong emphasis on keywords.
Combined, these characteristics yield a sound that’s similar to the voice that guides riders through buses and trains on Chicago’s public transit line.
No one describes the voice better than journalists who use it. In this TikTok video where news anchor Caroline Collins is doing a “get ready with me” video in her “newscaster voice,” the Houston anchor describes the voice as her “overly dramatic broadcasting voice.”
And that’s precisely the problem.
Replying to Chrissy Kelly NEXT ON THE TIKTOK BEAUTY NEWSCAST…. NEWS ANCHOR VOICE! I dont actually talk like this on the news, but I did have fun with it!
♬ original sound – Caroline Collins
The voice is not natural. The style of voice that ruled the airwaves in the late 1900s