BBC Voices.

Aims:

In November 2004, the BBC conducted a survey to find out people views and attitudes towards various accents. 5010 people took part in the online survey by ranking celebrities accents in terms of pleasantness.

Method:

The survey took place from the 17th - 26th of November and included people from the age of 15 and above. The sample was drawn from Greenfield's bank of approximately 140,000 members, all of which are checked to prove the authenticity of the participants  recruitment is done via the media, emails, online promotions and word of mouth. The BBC voices survey represented a 49:51 male to female ratio and 63 identified local areas. a 'middle-aged spread' occurred  where people aged 25-64 were over represented and people aged <24 and >65 were under represented. In this particular survey  social class data was not collected and cannot be discussed. 97% of people surveyed reported English as their first language. 

Findings: 

Throughout the UK, Sean Connery and his Edinburgh accent was voted most pleasant, followed by Trevor McDonald who was voted into second place overall. It was evident that people held a preference for accents relatively close to their own for instance, Scottish people generally preferred Ewan McGregor's accent. Ian Paisley's voice was voted 'least pleasant' by all areas other that Northern Ireland. 
59% of respondents wished 'at least occasionally' that they had a different accent, the most desired accent is he standard English accent (RP). Many suggested that having a strong accent make them hard to understand and felt that another accent would make this better and make them sound more pleasant. However, across the country, people voted an 'accent identical to your own' as one of their favourite accents, as well as being advantageous when applying for jobs. 95% of people in Northern Ireland, 79% in Wales and 87% in Scotland consider themselves to have a 'moderately strong accent' at the very least. Opposed to only 63% in the East of England and 64% in the South who believe their accent to be moderately strong. More that 4/5 people admitted to changing their accents in certain situations, such as meeting people for the first time, and after drinking alcohol. 

Conclusion:

As a general rule, people prefer their own accents, or accents similar to theirs. This may be because they find them easiest to understand or just because they find them easier to relate to. This brings in an element of bias, as does the use of celebrities voices as people may already have preferences in terms of favourite actors ect for reasons beyond their accents, which makes the survey less reliable. Also, if the survey were to be repeated, efforts should be made to get a more evenly spread representation of age groups, as well as less common accents, or accents inclusive of people where English is not their first language. Other than that, I feel that the ratio of men to women is good, as is the chosen age range of 15+. The fact that the survey was conducted by a respected organisation may increase the reliability as the respondents are more likely to take the survey seriously, it is also stated that precautions were taken to validate the participants to ensure that third parties were not altering the results. 

Revised Accent Table:

1) Received Pronunciation
2) Edinburgh 
3) Dublin 
4) Newcastle 
5) Yorkshire
6) Cockney 
7) Glasgow
8) West Country 
9) Birmingham 
10) Liverpool 
11) Devon 
12) Cardiff
13) Belfast 
14) Manchester