Rationale
This written task relates to the language and mass communication part of the IB English program. The definition of mass communication is the delivery of messages to general public by utilising mass media such as national press, radio, and television. The Michelle Obama speech is a good example. Her speech was shown on television news all over the world and the text of her speech was discussed in all mayor American- and European newspapers.
Speeches are an important part of mass media messages. I analysed the Michelle Obama speech in order to understand what kind of tone and vocabulary is needed to make the impression that she did on people all over the world. What made this speech so special?
I wrote a magazine article to inform my audience of the first ladies choice of the successor of her husband Barak Obama. I choose for a magazine article because this way I could inform my audience and analyse the text of the speech at the same time. I used a headline to attract attention and subheadings for dividing the speech in a structured way. I used quotations to support my interpretations.
I wrote this article for everybody who is interested in the successor of President Obama since the US is one of the most important nations in the world and people are interested in what happens because in a certain way the new president will also have an effect on European politics. I wrote the article from my point of view, as a European looking at the elections, because I have no (emotional) connections to the US so I can use my “helicopter view”.
Word count: 274 words
Text
First lady for first female President
With the elections almost coming to an end Michelle Obama impressed both democrats and republicans with her speech at the democratic national convention in Philadelphia on July 25th. Her timing was perfect: Days before WikiLeaks published thousands of emails incriminating Democratic Party executives. People started to loose faith in the Democratic party. Michelle Obama saved the day with a speech very different from the ones we are used to hear in election time: The main focus was definitely on pathos. She starts off very personal with anecdotes about her husband and her children. It is her story. But suddenly it becomes our story, about our children.
Choosing a roll model
At the beginning of her speech Michelle shares a very personal moment with the audience: The way she felt when she saw her daughters leave in ‘those black SUV’s with all those big men with guns’ for the first day at their new school. When she continues that she saw their little faces pressed up against the window and thought ‘what have we done?’ the audience imagines how she must have felt. And this is exactly what she wants to achieve. This personal story forms the foundation for the underlying message to come: ‘With these elections we can choose who will have the power to shape our children for the next four to eight years of their lives.’ So who do we trust to be a roll model for our children? Michelle Obama states that she only trusts one person with this responsibility and believes is truly qualified to be president of the United States; Hillary Clinton. This part of Michelle’s speech is intimate and personal.
A friend to all
In the next part of her speech Michelle Obama connects her personal story about her daughters with Hillary Clinton. She mentions Hillary’s lifelong devotion to America’s children. All children, regardless race or background. She mentions Hillary’s work as a lawyer representing children with disabilities and her fighting for children’s health care as a First lady, also her ‘decades of doing relentless, thankless work’ addressing that what she does for the nation’s children she does out of the goodness of her heart. By doing so she wants to convince everybody that Hillary should lead the country and is the best alternative for Trump. She is the role model America needs. With stating that she wants the kind of President with the ‘proven strength to persevere’ and ‘someone who takes the job seriously’ she makes her audience compare Hillary to Trump. And when she finishes this part of her speech with her wish for a President “with a record of public service’, ‘someone who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters’ and especially with ‘that you can’t make snap decisions if you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips’ it is clear that Michelle Obama is able to attack Trump without even mentioning his name once! Even though this part of the speech is about serious matters the tone is witty and humorous. Some of her remarks comparing Hillary to Trump have a sarcastic undertone.
Positive message
“Michelle Obama also uses Trumps slogan “make America great again”. Actually she attacks him with a positive message stating that America is great. “So don’t let anyone tell you that this country is not great, that somehow we need to make it great again”. She calls America the best country on earth and states that the diversity in America is a strength, not a weakness. This is a smart thing to do. No American likes to hear that his or her country is not what it used to be. It is sort of personal if someone tells you that the country you are living in goes down the drain. What does this say about you?
A house built by slaves
In the last part of the speech the language changes from fairly simple to almost poetic. Michelle uses the metaphor of ‘cracks in the highest and hardest glass ceiling’ which can be broken through when Hillary is elected President, meaning equal rights to powerful jobs for woman and people of a certain race. Hillary will ‘lift all of us among with her.’
The most powerful part of the speech is actually an inconvenient truth: …In a house that was built by slaves. Michelle, a black woman, states that she wakes up every morning in a house build by slaves as to mention how much American society has changed. That black people are no longer slaves and can reach as high as anyone else. A woman as president is just as possible as a black woman living in a house built by slaves. It shows that America makes progress.
‘That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.’
‘The shame of servitude’ and ‘the sting of segregation’ These alliterations make sense when you hear the last word of this emotional part of the speech; Slaves. It is a word that stays with you.
Word count: 892 words