Production and perception of broadcaster speech

What is it about?

This research compares the speech of students enrolled in a broadcast journalism program to the speech of non-broadcasters, all of whom are asked to read a script as if they are "on the air." It finds few differences in their productions of several sociolinguistic variables associated with "correct" American English, suggesting that training plays little role in shaping productions of these variables. It also reports audience ratings of the "professionalism" of these students' readings. Audiences are able to identify untrained broadcasters when the speaker is white, but unable to do so consistently when the speaker is African American.

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Why is it important?

In the United States, there is a general belief that broadcasters provide the model for "correct" speech. This research shows that broadcasters and non-broadcasters producing several sociolinguistic variables that are popularly associated with "correct" speech nearly identically, demonstrating that training plays little role in shaping broadcaster speech. This suggests that sociolinguistic attitudes about these variables determine broadcaster speech, rather than broadcaster speech providing the model for correct speech. It also finds that, regardless of individual productions, audiences struggle to rate African American news readers as professional. This suggests that popular associations between broadcaster speech and correct English in the United States encode prejudice against African American English.