Many people would agree when someone says Obama’s speeches are
memorable. Speeches are a way to impress the world with words only.
Words can be inspiring and very powerful.
Obama is a big man in creating the feeling of unification in his speeches.
“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the
United States of America. There is not a black America, a white America,
a Latino-America, an Asian America. There’s the United States of
America.” Obama mentioned this in his convention speech in 2004.
Former president Obama involves every citizen in America in only one
sentence. “This is one of the most memorable things I have ever said in
my opinion” he said to me, and I would have to agree. In one sentence he
makes the speech about everyone. “I believe people could experience this
sentence as a ‘wake-up call’. By putting together opposites who not
always get along, could make them realise that everybody is equal.”
Sometimes people underestimate what the impact of a speech could cause.
In 2008 Jeremiah Wright expressed himself racistly and he cursed
America. At the time Obama held a very impressive speech. Normally Jon
Favreau, Obama his speechwriter, would write the first draft of a speech
and Obama would read it and give his notes. This time Obama gave
Favreau a lengthy draft. The next day, when Favreau had edited it, Obama
stayed up until 3.00 AM Sunday night to work on the speech. “Racism
have been one of the things in life where I had to deal with as a black man.
Becoming the first black president did make America more open-minded,
but it did not make every citizen as accepting I hoped they would be.” In
this speech ‘A more perfect union’ Obama spoke about the complexity of
racial politics by telling personal stories.
A speech the perfect way to spread your message. Obama is a
democrat and he made it to the position of president. However, no
one gets this position for free. The road towards this position costs
a lot of effort. Obama had to convince the majority of the American
citizens of his views. During the campaign period he have held a lot
of short speeches about his views. “It sometimes was hard to put
my views in the right words. It is important that you do not exclude
anyone.”
The thing of a speech is that everyone can hear it, but not everyone
has the same opinion and as a politician you want to attract the
majority of the voters. Whether you are a democrat or republican in
this case. In a speech it is about telling everyone about your strategy
to accomplish the things you want to accomplish. In a political
speech you make promises to the people. “Every time I made a
promise, I was scared that I could not fulfil my promise.” Most
politicians make promises where they are already almost sure of the
chance of fulfilling them. However, this is not everyone’s strategy.
The current president, president Trump, promised a lot of things but
could not keep every promise so far. He promised to create 25
million jobs in America. “When president Trump mentioned this, I
was ashamed. As president you cannot promise these kinds of
things. As a president you have to be realistic. Even if he is going
to be president for a decade, he could still not live up to it.” is what
Obama said about this promise. Part of Trump’s promise is true, he
did create new jobs by investing in the infrastructure but not the 25
million he promised.
Trump his speeches and Obama his speeches are not comparable.
Obama said: “In a speech it is important to address your words
directly to the American citizens. My speechwriter told me to use
‘you’s followed by ‘we’s to make the citizens feel that it is about
them and to remove the distance between them and yourself.
Politics is something of everyone.” In Obama his speeches this is
also retrievable. But Obama is not very impressed by Trump’s
speeches, even when Trump also speaks to the American citizens
directly; “Trump followed the advice of my speechwriter too well.
Trump does not get rid of the distance between politics and the
people but he creates more distance.” Trump continuously says
‘you, the people’, he shows that he feels there is and should be a
distance between ‘the people’ and politics. Creating unity in a
speech is one of the most important things in a speech. A speech
should contain stylistic devices to create certain feelings with the
audience and to transfer the messages correctly, but there is a thin
line between using and excessively using these stylistic devices.
So, when we speak about speeches we can indeed say that it is not
important who wrote the speech and that it is about the message. It
is about including everyone, even if they have various views on
things. It is about promising the things you can actually promise
and it is about using the right number of stylistic devices.
Written task – part 2: Language and mass communication
FLE
09/01/2018
Rationale
This written task is related to our study of language and mass communication, particularly in
which way politicians use propaganda to pass on their message.
Furthermore, my written task is related to the language used in political speeches. During the
lessons we have read and analysed several speeches held by politicians. We have analysed
the way stylistic devices are used and looked at how these politicians have used language to
send a message. I have learned that the use of the right amount of stylistic devices can
contribute to the message they want to send and that a speech can have a strong influence on
people. I also learned creating unity in a speech by using pronouns like ‘we’ and ‘you’ tribute to
creating a good speech
For this task I wrote an article in which I processed answers of an imaginary interview I have
held with Obama. This article would be published in ‘The American Prospect’, a political
magazine mostly read by adults with an interest in politics. This article is meant to show how
stylistic devices could make or break a speech. This is an interesting subject for my audience
because they are interested in politics and politicians give a lot of speeches.
To make the article look realistic I use the layout of an article of ‘The American Prospect’. I use
several real quotations from Obama’s speeches or answers he really gave in a real interview
to make it look realistic. I also use anaphora, ‘ it is about.. it is about.. it is about.. ’ to make the
article easier to read for the audience but also to show how the language in a speech is used
to make it look more appealing. The title of the article contains an alliteration to make the
article look more appealing to read.