I, like many others, only remember speeches that are influential in my life or that have touched the audience in some way. The most recent famous speech I've heard was from our President Barack Obama. He is an amazing speaker and knows exactly how to deliver his message. I have only watch him speak several times on this campaign trail and was able to witness his inauguration speech. Obama really motivated me to be a citizen and to step up to my potential. During his speech, he mentioned struggles and triumphs of the past, the present, and future. First he really spoke about the true issues of American but he also gave solutions. The one thing that made his communication memorable was the setting of the speech. This was the inauguration of the nation's first African American president and so it gave everyone, including myself, chills that we are even watching America make history. To me, he's like the Martin Luther King, Jr. of my time. I trust in him as a President because he came from similar background as I did. I trust him because he shares the same beliefs as I do. He shared his core beliefs with the nation during his speech and that also appealed to many people. He speech was a reality check by confronting the issues, but he also gave inspiration, motivation, hope, and change to America.
As I mentioned earlier, I don't remember horrible speakers so it's hard for me to narrow down a bad speech. But since I am on the topic of American Presidents, I must say that our previous president, George W. Bush was a horrible and probably the worst President speaker in my time. I have only been able to seen some of his public speeches to America and I am appalled by his lack of communication skills. He rarely memorized his speech and most of the time having to look down at his paper. I am very impressed by how President Obama was able to remember a 30 minute speech that was address to the entire nation during his inauguration. I would be so nervous and stutter / stumble the whole way through. But President Obama did not even flinch! Anyways, Bush as a speaker was so horrible that they even created a "Bush-isms" with quotes of his ridiculous statements. I just remember that he was unable to connect to the audience because his message was about fantasy and what he believed is true. He never saw eye-to-eye with the American people and never spoke of reality.
Signing out,
Events Dreamer
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Hello EventsDreamer,
ReplyDeleteI have to absolutely agree with you on your statements about Our president. It seems that he delivers his speeches effortlessly and captures his audience in a way that amazes me. I have yet to hear a speaker as effective as he is, and it makes me proud to call him my president. I too named former Pres. Bush as the worst speaker, and he was the first to pop into my mind. It always felt embarassed for him when he would stumble over his words, or forget what he was trying to communicate. I would think to myself, how can you call yourself a president and not have the ability to deliver an effective public speech..? It was just really disappointing, and at times hard to listen to/watch.
Hello EventsDreamer! In your opinion, why do you think Bush did not connect with his audience? Do you think people who are not supportive of a speaker as a person, are more critical of the message? Or possibly even the way a message was presented? Given Obama's current approval rating, if he were to give a speech exactly as Bush would have, do you think people would support him?
ReplyDeleteHi Prof. Perez,
ReplyDeleteWith further consideration, I must agree that most people who are unsupportive of a speaker may come to his speech with criticisms and preconceived knowledge that blocks out his message. Because Obama is very likable, he does not have much of a problem speaking to his audience and because Bush's rating is very low, he does have a problem with getting approval. But Bush's lack of communication and speech skills has nothing to do with the disapproval of the nation. It just has to do with him not being able to connect on a real level. During questioning sessions after his speeches, he always dodges some questions that he doesn't want to answer and moves on to the next topic. To me, that does not connect to your audience, that's ignoring your audiences' needs and therefore will cause your audience to ignore you and criticize you even more.
Hello Events Dreamer,
ReplyDeleteI will comment first on your last comment post and than on your blog post.
I fully agree with you on why George Bush was possibly the worst speaker in this nation's history. The audience is picky, but understandable when they know that the person delivering the speech is a good natured person.
Unfortunately George Bush never established that with this nation and that is unfortunate. I often heard him speak to only think to myself: My brain is refusing to receive any messages from this speaker, because of his terrible delivery.
It's difficult to accept the message when the speaker delivering it doesn't look serious which turns you off from the speech.
On your 2nd point: Best Speaker - Barack Obama
President Obama looks directly at the camera when speaking which makes huge difference to the audience listening. He also has knowledge about the subject which shows that he knows what he is talking about even if the speech may or may have not been written by him.