Media, culture & identity term paper

Today, at the beginning of new century, a question about efficiency of communication and art of public speaking is very interesting and popular. There are a lot of various information sources on this subject and you can learn different important things from them. There are people who are unaccustomed to public speaking and they want to change this situation. Many people flinch from speaking in public and we can help them to change their mind in this question and maybe it will change their life in all spheres and directions. Let’s do this paper something like questions and answers session that help us to understand the secrets of public speaking. I have a wonderful idea to appeal to the great politicians and famous people who will be our teachers of public speaking. It is time to open their names and analyze their speeches. It will be Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; both of them were renowned public speakers in their day, albeit with very different performance styles and messages.

Last years enormous distribution was got by professions, where the main condition of success is a sociability of a person – ability to socialize with an audience in a competent way. First of all after such words we imagine journalists or sometimes teachers, but I want to mention that public speaking skills are necessary also for people of different professions. It is a sort of activity for people, related to the economy, business, policy, management and other spheres of life.

What gives a person free possession by speech? A man, freely owning speech, is held in respect by people who are around him almost automatically. He is interesting for all, easily enter into a contact, he can influence on interlocutors and achieve his aim in easy way. An oratorical art can be taught and history gives us a lot of examples of it. Practically all people who are interested in oratorical art can open own potential, learn to harangue public and become confident. In fact, possession by word is given to person from the birth, but our future awes close the door of public speaking for many people. I don’t want to say that it is easy, but if you have an aim you can reach it by your own efforts and by dint of hard work. In the next paragraphs I want to show the results of hardworking people who greatly influenced on listeners with their speeches.

Sara Sullivan in her article “The whole nation is listening to you: the presentation of self on a tabloid talk radio show” focuses on caller’s experiences of participation on a tabloid radio show. I think it is necessary to understand and analyze the influence of public speeches on listeners and control their effect. Listening audience is like a big organism with own needs that should be satisfied by such instrument as public speech. It is a great responsibility to find right words and use necessary intonation. Can you imagine that a lot of hours of training precede to successful speech appearance? Yes, it is true”¦ Speakers are interested in their positive image and that’s why the main aim of their words to reach hearts of their listeners and be closer to their problems and waitings.  Actually, speakers try to control the impression they “give off” and help people to believe in their words.

All speakers have own performance strategies and as I promise at the beginning of the work we will address to the renowned public speakers and try to understand why people like them and how they could became so popular. “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King and “The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X is one of the most notable speeches of all times. Analyzing these memorable speeches we can learn speechwriting skills from one of the greatest public speakers of our history. I think that these speeches are the historic masterpieces that greatly influenced on minds of millions people and made them believe in another future and possibilities.

Let’s begin from the King’s speech analysis and dwell on the key moments of it. Martin Luther King began his speech from the words: “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” that demonstrates his attitude to the public and emphasizes value of their meeting. The great speaker used specific performance strategies for the best influence and we should find them in his famous speech. I’ll focus on five key strategies that we can find and be interested in them from Martin Luther King’s most famous speech. First of all it is emphasis phrases by repeating at the beginning of sentences. Such specific technique of repeating words at the beginning of neighboring clauses is called anaphora and is commonly used in public speeches.

Anaphora helped the author to concentrate attention on his emotions, because these words were pronounced emotionally with fully confident voice. An example of anaphora we can find in many sentences, only the phrase “I have a dream” is repeated in eight successive sentences, for instance.  The next example of anaphora we can see in phrase “Let freedom ring from”¦.” There are a lot of examples of anaphora in the speech but I chose these two of them for the best King’s nature understanding and focusing on his wishes. The second strategy is concerning on the repeating of key phrases through speech that reflect the main theme of the speech. Martin Luther King used in the body of the speech many repetitions and if we count them very interesting patterns appear. Of course the most commonly used was the noun freedom and it was used twenty times. As we know freedom is one of the primary themes and such frequent use is wholly motivated. Counting other key themes we received the next picture: freedom (20 times), we (30 times), our (17 times), you (8 times), nation (10 times), America (5 times), American (4 times), justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times), dream (11 times). The third point shows us use of appropriate quotations or allusions. This technique is one of the widely used and examples of it are in the next sentences. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” [and the rest of paragraph 4] is a reference to the United States Declaration of Independence that we have heard for many times. “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.” [paragraph 2] addresses to Psalms 30:5 “For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Forth part will be concern on the specific example usage to make a speech more argumentative. Such examples demonstrate logical arguments and improve your words. In King’s speech there are a lot of geographical references and among we can see Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and so on. The last fifth technique is contained in using metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts.

Metaphors help to associate main concepts with concrete emotions and images that promote to the best speech perception. For example, King compare on contrast dark and desolate valley (of segregation) and sunlit path (of racial justice.) The effect of these metaphors was great and even now many politicians quote his words and use his examples.

The next speech for analysis is Malcolm X speech “Ballot or the Bullet”. I can said right now that techniques that were used in this speech help audiences sort out questions of personal, social and institutional identity. It is necessary to mark out that “The Ballot or the Bullet” was one of many speeches which addressed a main issue in the United States at the time when the confident leader was important and when black people were actively fought for their rights and best future. Malcolm X addressed in his speech to the people who believed in his words and who was waiting for them. For my opinion the Civil Rights Movement fought to overcome the racial inequalities inherent in the minds of Americans and Malcolm chose the right words to influence on people minds. His speech utilizes a wide range of rhetorical devices that keep the public interested and captivated. Malcolm X used arguments that was understandable for every person and could be applied universally. This speech is one of the examples that demonstrate us strong character of its owner and uncovers Malcolm’s nature emotions and willing to help for his brothers and sisters. “The Ballot or the Bullet” was addressed not only to the common people but also to the government and politicians who were responsible for the political and social situation in the country.  For example the next quote illustrates a great wish not to separate nation but vise versa to cooperate all people into one integer and be able to protect own rights and beliefs: “I’m not here tonight to discuss my religion. I’m not here to try and change your religion. I’m not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it’s time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you’re educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you’re going to catch hell just like I am.” By the phrase “If we don’t do something real soon, I think you’ll have to agree that we’re going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It’s one or the other in 1964. It isn’t that time is running out – time has run out!” Malcolm pay our attention on fact that it is time to become active and that only we by our own efforts can change situation and create our future by own hands. The author of the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” skillfully used the title and words with similar sounding provoking the audience to think about the real situation in the country and make a right well-timed decision. Malcolm associated himself with a victim of Americanism and did not consider himself American, because of the situation and attitude to the black people. I want to quote his words in acknowledgement of previous statement: “No, I’m not an American.

I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver – no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.” In such a way we can see that in this remarkable speech was used provocative line that was directed on strong stimulation for struggle and strong faith in victory.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned is time to conclude that every politician and leader of the different movement have own devices for successful speeches pronunciation. People want to hear confident words and see leaders who are strong in their beliefs and can change situation. Different leaders are important for different times and analyzing two famous speeches we understand that even using different methods of public influencing person can achieve an aim and provoke society to the active actions.