Why TV anchors speak the way they are speaking?

Why do Tv Anchors speak Telugu, the way they are speaking? Is it ignorance, willful, tutored or aping some one?

The broken diction, uneven notations, mix of English words, undefined accent and lot more has crept into anchoring. With the spurt of television channels the trend has gone from bad to worse and language has always been a matter of concern for puritans or at least for the section which is treated as custodians of language and its ethics.

In a group discussion on “Classical Status to Telugu” broadcast by All India Radio, this morning senior journalist and former chief of Telugu Adhikara Bhasha Sangham, Mr ABK Prasad took strong objection to the way anchors of various Telugu television channels were speaking giving scant respect to the language.

“When I was heading Adhikara Bhasha Sangham, we did write to the management of all the television channels about the diction being used by anchors and the correctional measures to be taken. But no one has replied nor did any one acknowledge. The exercise was repeated and the result was the same,” he said while participating in the Vajra Varadhi programme of All India Radio (AIR).

However, when I met some anchors at private functions some of them said that the management itself asks them to speak Telugu with English accent and are happy with the way things are going on, he told during the discussion that went live from four AIR kendras simultaneously. 

Responding to Mr ABK’s charges, another participant, K Ramachandra Murthy of HMTV said, as the chief the channel, he did not ever say such a thing to anchors and “I believe Ramoji Rao must not have ever said such things.”

The trend which was started by a Hindi channel was picked up and some channels and brought in the dress code and started mixing Telugu and English and others followed the pattern, Mr Murthy pointed out.

Though there are schools and institutions that boast of teaching mass communication and almost all major channels have their own journalism school, still the language and diction of anchors is always a controversy.

Vajra Varadhi, is broadcast from Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Kadapa kendras on every first Wednesday as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations, AIR officials said.