Accent on the news: TV journalist Barbara Serra

"People bristle at the word 'foreign' but if you don't mention it, you hide what makes a lot of us different."

Image © Barbara Serra

“Yes, I was the first second-language English speaker to present a mainstream TV bulletin. I have also been the only one. And given that was in about 2006, I think that tells you quite a lot about the way that diversity in British broadcasting and in the British press doesn't really touch on the issue of language."

TV correspondent and news anchor Barbara Serra was our featured speaker at the 15 May meeting of London Freelance Branch. Previously at Channel 5 News, BBC London and most recently Al Jazeera English, Serra now works freelance. So, does she find it a problem being an Italian-born but London-based primetime broadcast journalist for whom English is her second language?

"In the rightful discussion about diversity and inclusion, there is a bit of a blank spot," she said, observing that 14.5m people in the UK were not born here, according to the last census. Even if half of them came here as children - and are culturally British and speak English as a native language - that still leaves millions of people that are effectively "foreign". Six million are Europeans with, or still applying for, Settled Status after Brexit.

"I did not sound like this 20 years ago when I started working for the BBC," admitted Serra, referring to her own accent. "And I remember after my first couple of BBC London bulletins, this email came into the newsroom which said: 'I do not pay my licence fee to have the news read by a foreigner'.

"No victimhood here: I think we need to accept that news is about trust, and trust is tribal. If you have a foreign accent, then by definition, you are not part of the tribe. But I don't think that we're just looking at an issue of discrimination. We are journalists, and our main tool is language. You can't really compromise on it."

The way we speak is very closely linked to who we are, Serra noted. It will say something about one's nationality, level of education and so on. And this can be a tricky situation when you are trying to convince a domestic audience that you truly understand them and their culture.

Harking back to the mid-2000s when she was working at Sky News, she said that despite having attended an international school while growing up in Denmark, she was put through a year and a half of voice training. There was a lot of pressure to make her accent "more palatable to a British ear". It's that tribal thing: trying to build trust with an audience.

"It's not that I don't believe in changing your accent. You can. But it is incredibly difficult when you're a journalist: we're not actors, we're not learning lines, we don't get to do it again and again. If you're a reporter on the scene somewhere, you get one shot."

Besides, she said, heading down the elocution road is not a panacea for all ills. "You will never sound British, you will never sound American, you will never sound Australian. You will just sound like a clearer version of what you already sound like."

The things to aim for, then, are those you would get with any kind of voice tuition: better breathing, diction and clarity. "Make sure it's not 'The rain in Spain' kind of Eliza Doolittle training. Don't try to sound like something you're not, because authenticity matters. Authenticity will be your strength - especially these days when diversity and inclusion are rightly, finally, gathering pace."

What matters most is trying to understand the audience as best as you can, knowing also that your background can be a source of huge strength. As an example, she observed how trade union laws are different in Europe - which helps explain why (at least until recently) strikes are more common there than in the UK. This kind of broader knowledge is surely a strength for a reporter with an international background when conducting interviews.

If you don't use those strengths, she said, you risk ending up being pigeonholed. "I always resisted being sent to Rome as the 'Rome correspondent'. I'd go for the death of the Pope... and then I'd come back. Because once you go down that road, especially if you're freelance, you can't afford to do just the one story."

At the other extreme, Serra admitted that early in her career she would simply "sound wrong" when reporting on a local or regional story. But then she would be sent on an international story, based on the generalisation that she "sounded international", but for which she didn't have any in-depth knowledge.

Serra wondered whether the time had finally come to challenge the assumption that foreign voices reporting on domestic news doesn't quite work. What about the aforementioned 14.5m people living in the UK who were born elsewhere? This minority is even more obvious in London, where 40 per cent are foreign-born. Serra joked how she would be sent onto the street to conduct vox-pops, knowing that it could sometimes take a little while before they'd stumble across enough native English speakers to include in the final report.

It was no surprise to hear that Serra's biggest bugbear is that there's absolutely no EU citizen representation in broadcasting. Those 14.5m people might still have their accent of origin even after 30 years, but that won't tick any "diversity" boxes. How can a broadcaster claim to be meeting diversity targets without representing these people?

"Go watch ITV London and BBC London, and tell me when you hear a foreign-sounding voice. I don't mean vox-pops, I mean reporters and presenters. I've had this discussion with editors so many times... But you know, we're getting there."

When she turned freelance, Serra launched a newsletter on Substack to raise awareness and discuss the matter more widely: News with a Foreign Accent.

Most of the newsletter content is free and she hopes to provide practical tips to subscribers, but raising awareness is the key factor to begin with. "Believe me, I've had conversations with editors who just don't 'see it'," she said. "For them, it's not seen as diversity or even as an issue at all. But then I know that there's a lot of especially younger journalists who are very upset by the situation."

Serra said she was also writing a book on fascism based on her documentary Fascism in the Family, originally aired on Al Jazeera. It looks at the links between Italy's fascist past and its present, taking as a starting point the history of members of her own family and their support for Mussolini.

"That is a very European, Italian story, and very foreign to the British and American mindset for obvious reasons: because of history and World War II. It's funny how nobody wants to see the rise of the far right but how language is affecting all of that."

After recounting her experiences, Serra tackled a range of questions from Branch members.

Q: How do I know whether my English accent is good enough?

"I would differentiate between language, accent and culture. Language is imperative. With the best will in the world, however much you care about diversity and inclusion, you cannot compromise on your command of the English language.

"So if I was a young journalist who doesn't have English as a native language, I would have an honest chat with myself, and maybe try to find someone who will be honest with you. Ask yourself: 'Could my English improve? Are there holes in my grammar?' Because that's unforgivable. You can't get away with it. 'How's my vocabulary? How do I improve it? Do I need lessons?'

"For most of the people who are already working as journalists, it's more just about listening a lot. Have Radio 4 playing in the background on loop. I'm picking Radio 4 because a neutral-to-posh British accent is something to anchor yourself to.

"Really work as much on your language as possible. As a second-language English speaker, you will absolutely not be forgiven any kind of mistakes."

Q: How can I get out of situation diplomatically when native English speakers misinterpret me?

"I know that dynamic well. If there was one network whose whole ethos was to bring different voices as in different narratives, but also different voices, it was Al Jazeera.

"I'll tell you a little story. My father was a news junkie, and he spoke English as he was a businessman. Sometimes I would catch him watching Sky News. 'Oh, my God,' I'd say. 'What are you doing? You're cheating on Al Jazeera!' And he would say: 'No, no, I love Al Jazeera. But sometimes I find Sky News easier to understand.'

"If you think about it, second-language English speakers need the clarity of native speakers - even more than native speakers themselves.

"The way we speak is so linked to who we are that it's hard not to take offence. You feel attacked for who and what we are.

"I had focus groups, and focus groups are brutal. So I would get the comments, but I worked on it. I think it depends whether you are on air or not, and there's a wider discussion about English as the global language and the privilege that native English speakers have in all fields. But I do think that if someone says 'That wasn't clear,' I think all of us can benefit. I will never stop working on my voice. I never go on air without doing a little exercise.

"You're always going to find people that are rude. I don't know whether I can give advice on how to deal with them. But there is also an element of trying to steel yourself to the negative feedback and not see it as negative. Because to me, the worst thing, especially for younger journalists, is that no-one tells you anything. Your career goes nowhere, you get depressed and you think: 'OK maybe I just didn't have it.' Well, you know, maybe you did, but a lot of things weren't addressed."

Q: How do you approach the problem of idioms?

"This is a million years ago, but I remember at Sky a note was passed around containing a long list of clichés not to use. Never use a pun! I always used to get really angry when they would creep into the international headlines. You just lose the audience, especially so if you have a second-language English audience.

"It's a very different discussion when it comes to domestic news: if it's part of the spoken language, then it's up to the second-language English journalist to adapt.

"Not understanding English idioms will really throw you if you're in a live news environment. The pressure is on the second-language English speaker to know them, then you can choose whether to use them or not. Sometimes they can sound a little bit fake but you should know what they mean."

Q: How can I give feedback to a second-language English speaker without sounding negative?

"You know, even if it is negative, it might only be negative for now. I'm not a voice trainer, but I think a lot of us who are either native speakers or use our voice for broadcasting... we kind of know what sounds wrong, even if we don't know how to put our finger on why.

"Compare their reading voice to their live broadcasting. That was one of the hardest things that I found, because I had to break this awful singsong pattern that I had had. I would talk about destruction and death but I sounded like I was singing opera. Bizarrely, when it comes to tracking a package, which you think would be easier, sometimes you have to break your speech patterns.

"Right now, getting different voices and different points of view is absolutely crucial, right? [A person's background] changes the dynamic a lot because that can bring authenticity to a story. If you think they're good, why not offer some training?

"That's what annoys me about international news and people going 'We're good, we hear the world!' Well, it's funny, because when I turn off the video, and I'm just listening, all I hear is American, British and Australian or New Zealand accents. I mean, in international newsrooms, there are probably more people from New Zealand than there are from France, Germany and Spain combined, writing about Europe.

"The point I'm making is that we shouldn't just expect people to have that kind of linguistic skill. I wonder whether newsrooms, especially the ones with an international footprint, should start hiring people by judging them primarily as journalists."

Q: Do you recommend any EFL (English as Foreign Language) courses for journalists?

"I'm working on one. My course would be very much on what we've been discussing now. But I am not a language teacher. We can talk about inspiring people and how they can go around it.

"I am on the board of a charity called Breaking Barriers that helps asylum seekers into employment, and a lot of what I do is literally just talk them through an interview because it's so essential. We want to hear those voices in broadcasting.

"Then the problem is that broadcasters may hire someone with a refugee background put them on stories concerning that background. Great, I've done lots of stories about Italy and a lot of things that were related to my background. But that does not a career make. You can't just be a one-trick pony unless you become political editor or whatever. So what I'm trying to do is to raise awareness in newsrooms, but you know, it's a hard nut to crack. I mean, they just don't see it.

"Remember that nationality is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. I'm actually a big fan of diversity box-ticking: it gives clarity and you have an at least an idea of who's true. And obviously the protected characteristics will include ethnicity and religion, which would overlap with language, but there is nothing that just highlights nationality. And so sometimes it can get a bit lost in that.

"Everyone here has the enormous advantage to live in an English-speaking country. So I don't think we should get too hung up on English for journalists. Ultimately, journalism is everything, right? I wouldn't worry too much about the specific language course. I would worry about just practising and improving the spoken language and the written language as well. You could not be in a better place than the UK to do that."

© Alistair Dabbs