galoisien

.... a thought that occurred to me arriving in Charlottesville a day early before Orientation.

But it's BORING!

As a linguist, I like diverse and natural accents a lot.

Maybe we haven't hit it far enough South. But when the receptionist speaks to you in a unique accent, and so do the people in the lift (though you do hear a lot people who speak "General Newscaster American"), as well as the girl talking excitedly about her engagement ring --- and the television stations don't, I feel that something is amiss.

I can't help feeling how silly news it must be for network policies that tell their newscasters to suppress their regional accents, especially for stations dedicated to a local area. In Singapore something similar happens too -- nearly everyone speaks "Singlish" but due to government policy newscasters must adopt some artificial and stilted faux-high-brow English instead.

galoisien

Sorry, posting from a phone; it won't allow me to edit. I meant to say 'wannabe linguist' instead, haha.

katliamom

It's not that "policies" suppress accents -- rather that there are fewer accents to suppress. And most TV journalists change jobs -- and locations -- often. Their accent is as much a result of migrating all over professionally as it is of any biases.