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Bellowing boorish broadcasters

By Ian Nance - posted Tuesday, 28 August 2012


If you become excited when talking to someone, perhaps you might speak a little faster, a little more loudly, but would you shout at them? Not if you want your conversation to be accepted credibly. Not if you do not want to shock them, or disturb them.

But shouting is almost entirely what happens in media sports commentary at present, as boorish broadcasters act out their belief that the louder their commentary is screamed, the more exciting it is!

If you caught any of the Olympics coverage, you will have been aware of it in many events, although I note that the equestrian and sailing challenges tended to let the pictures tell the story, with most description filling in background information which after all is one of the functions of commentary.

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Despite its not being conversation, the raucous ranters seem to feel that their obligation in their one-way communication of an event is for shouting to become louder as the contest climaxes, in some kind of vain attempt to create excitement and enthusiasm.

No! Emphatically... no!

There is a huge difference between excitement, and shouting.

Yelling is not the best way to convey excitement; it is more a sign of losing control, of indicating alarm or warning, of showing anger.

Shouting is also insulting to the listeners or viewers because it assumes that they cannot take in the overall scene for themselves and heighten their own excitement. It presumes they have to be led into accepting whatever level of thrill the commentator wishes to impose on them.

Shouting or yelling has become so formulaic in radio and television sports broadcasting that it has become almost a speech style in its own right, in a similar way to the nasal accents adopted by race callers.

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This style even permeates the voice reads of post-event scripts, as though the audience needs that kind of aural prompt to be able to understand the item. Sadly, producers have fallen for this habit also, and fail to assert control of the delivery to ensure that the message, not the method, dominates.

The sound and the form of speech is a major factor in rendering any language.

Take the contrast between the reading of an idyllic poem, and the declamatory exhortation of a nationalistic call to arms. The meaning of the message is very clear, no matter in what language it is delivered; many of us would remember the aural effect of Hitler's oratory, even if we understood no German.

If you were trying to make a sale, or convince a corporate meeting of the benefit of your strategy, would you shout to make your point? Probably only once, before you looked for a new career.

There are voice professionals who know how to convey a sense of exhilaration by their careful use of style and intonation, however, they seldom describe sporting events. Instead, they apply their skills and lengthy experience to marrying emotion and words with extraordinary ability. But then, that is their craft, and they hone it well. That is why they are able to earn a good income by applying their ability on behalf of advertisers.

On the other hand, the would-be-if-they-could-be sports commentators, usually marked by slangishly nasal accents and unrounded vowels (sorry, Julia), have created a sort of genré of colloquialism that sets them apart from other media types. Classically!

They present as the boorish uncultured bogans of broadcast, every bit as down market as many winners of sporting contests who celebrate with champagne, not by drinking it, but by shaking the bottle then squirting it over each other. This kind of sight and sound is becoming accepted as normal in a society which increasingly cannot, will not, or perhaps does not, know how to celebrate gracefully.

I will never forget a beautiful example of restrained, highly effective, sports broadcasting I encountered in a filmed news coverage of an English horse race many years ago.

Although delivering a seemingly unscripted call, the commentator sounded knowledgeable about each horse and jockey as, with professional dramatic ability, he took us through from the entry to the barrier, the jump, then to the crossing of the line in steadily increasing excitement, but never did he shout!

Instead, he varied the pace of his description, rising up in pitch, yet used carefully-positioned short pauses to bolster our interest, until the winner crossed the line. All the time, his comprehensible well-delivered language backgrounded what we were watching. Judging by the way he used language for effect I suspect that his background may well have been the theatre, and it was in huge contrast to the bellowing boofs yelling today's Australian coverage of sport.

I had the fortune to work, both in radio and television, with one of the country's leading race callers, Ken Howard, and he had this valued style; he used the tone of his voice, not its loudness, to generate excitement, and it worked ... London-to-a-brick on!

Clichéd shouting illness has also struck some TV news journalists who edit sports stories, particularly Rugby League. The scripted voice over presentation is often interspersed with a two or three word shouted grab from the original commentary, as though to confirm what is being reported. Or is that editing style just a current trendy habit?

Watch, and listen carefully to this very stereotypical presentation format during the next TV news sports report you encounter. That is, if you can bring yourself to suffer a little cultural cringe.

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About the Author

Ian Nance's media career began in radio drama production and news. He took up TV direction of news/current affairs, thence freelance television and film producing, directing and writing. He operated a program and commercial production company, later moving into advertising and marketing.

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