Ted talk Analysis from university PDF

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ted talk analysis for the material given in class. descriptive...

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Media Analysis 1. Articulate Ngozi Adichie’s thesis in your own words. Ngozi Adichie talks about her experiences as a woman living in Nigeria, and throughout her Ted Talk, she theorizes that we should all be feminists. She believes that men and women deserve equal rights in all aspects of life. Adichie wants to prove to her audience that women are just as strong, powerful, and intelligent. Along with stating that both genders should be raised the same way and as a result, in future generations, boys and girls will be treated equally. In order to create a world without negative gender roles, everyone should be a feminist. The speaker believes that it is in our hands today to make a difference in gender equality. 2. If this was a written essay, which category would it best fit into (narrative, persuasive, argumentative, descriptive)? Support your claim with evidence from the speech in a well-developed paragraph. If this was a written essay, the category it would best fit into is a persuasive essay. Persuasive writing is one where the speaker attempts to convince the audience of a certain idea. It combines statistics, emotion, and anecdotes to help further the narrative. Throughout the Ted Talk, she is persuading the audience that men and women still aren't treated equally. In "We should all be feminists", Adichie uses ethos, logos, and pathos to prove her argument. To begin with, she uses logos by stating facts "About 52% of the world's population is female.” (Adichie, 7:20) This supports her speech and helps clarify ideas for the audience. Next, she uses ethos by mentioning Wangari Maathai. "The late Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai, said: "The higher you go, the fewer women there are." (Adichie, 7:34) By incorporating this into her argument it gets her point across effectively and adds credibility to her speech. Additionally, Ngozi uses pathos to appeal to the audience's emotions. She explains scenarios where the audience would feel sympathy or sadness. For example, she explains that women give up their dreams because they are not equal to men in relationships. "Now when a woman says "I did it for the peace in my marriage", she's usually talking about giving up a job, a dream, a career" (Adichie, 15:50). This causes the audience to feel sympathetic towards women who give up big opportunities due to a relationship, demonstrating the lack of progression in equal opportunities for women. Also, she addresses counter-arguments and convinces the audience to believe they are inaccurate to help prove her argument. For instance, "changes in policy, changes in the law, all of which are very important. But what matters, even more, is our attitude, our mindset, what we believe, and what we value about gender." (Adichie, 20:23) In this quotation, she brings up the opposing argument being that changes in policy and law have made life easier for women. This leads to her point that not only do the laws and policies need to change, but our attitudes and mindset as well.

3. Authors frequently use a variety of methods of development to advance their main idea - identify at least two methods of development that Ngozi Adichie uses in a well-developed paragraph. There were many different methods of development used in Adichie's Ted Talk that advanced her main idea. One of the main methods of development is illustrations with examples. An illustration is expanding on a point through stories and examples. Adichie does this often by recounting tales from her past to emphasize her points. For instance, "When I was in primary school, my teacher said at the beginning of the term that she would give the class a test and whoever got the highest score would be the class monitor...I got the highest score on the test. Then, to my surprise, my teacher said that the monitor had to be a boy. She'd forgotten to make that clear earlier because she assumed it was obvious” (Adichie, 4:02). Her use of anecdotes allows the audience to see things from her perspective and relate it to the main topic. Next, she uses the method of development of definitions. Definitions are explaining a word, topic, or general theme. The speaker ultimately uses her speech to define feminism. Ngozi defines feminism from the dictionary. "Feminist, a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes." (Adichie, 28:43) She uses this to appeal to the audience with the use of logos. Near the end, she shares her definition of feminism. "a feminist is a man or a woman who says "Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it. We must do better." (Adichie, 29:36) By saying both definitions, we see the difference of how one views this word. Lastly, she uses cause and effect to enhance her arguments.“The more "hard-man" the man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is. And then we do a much greater disservice to girls because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of men. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.” (Adichie, 12:49) This caused a cultivation of toxic masculinity in young men since the beginning of time. The effect of their weak egos enforces women to be taught in order to avoid hurting them. By using this method of cause and effect, Ngozi describes how women are raised to be submissive to men and proves her point that gender inequalities are still a prevalent issue. 4. Elements of style improve engagement and meaning in written work. Find and explain the impact of at least two of the following elements in Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk One of the elements of style used to improve engagement in the speech is writing from a narrative point of view. She used a narrative point of view by explaining multiple personal stories for the past. This allows the audience to understand her experiences of inequality. Speaking in first person has an effective impact on the viewers because it allows them to listen comfortably and lets them have a better comprehension of the point being conveyed. The speaker’s tone varies throughout the Ted Talk. When speaking of important matters her tone

becomes serious to let the audience know that this subject should not be joked about. During her speech, Adichie often uses humor such as “I could tell from his tone, the same tone that you would use to say something like "You're a supporter of terrorism." (Adichie, 1:50) Her tone is light-hearted, sweet, and inviting the audience to laugh with her. This creates a sense of engagement and interest. Next, Ngozi’s body language is an effective tool used to intrigue the audience. Although she wasn’t walking around, she used hand gestures and eye contact to captivate others. This allowed her to emphasize certain points. Also, the speaker’s body language was calm yet assertive. Her back is straight and her hands were together, however, she was not stiff. Her posture demonstrated confidence and knowledge. Additionally, she uses facial expressions. For example, when talking about a recent rape case she was serious. This was shown by her face. She wasn't smiling and had a serious demeanor, which was not present before. In all, Ngozi uses casual tone, body language, and facial expressions to keep the audience engaged. 5. You have likely seen at least one other Ted Talk, or speech/lecture in your 13 years of being in school. Analyze Ngozi Adichie’s talk through the lens of codes and conventions of the auditory medium. Which of these aid in the communication of her message to her audience? Codes and conventions are big aids in communicating the message to the audience. One of the many codes and conventions she uses is pacing. She speaks at a pace where the audience can fully understand and process what she is saying. The pace can link to other aspects such as pauses. If pauses are used in the right places, it can make the message interesting, clearer to understand along with emphasizing the point. For example, "A Nigerian acquaintance once asked me if I was worried that men would be intimidated by me. I was not worried at all. In fact, it had not occurred to me to be worried because a man who would be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in" (Adichie, 13:40). She pauses after saying this to give the audience a chance to reflect on what she had just said. This is a bold and empowering statement, by pausing, it emphasized her point. Another code and convention is the volume that she speaks at. She has a great volume that she maintains throughout the speech. Which is an essential part of engaging the audience. Lastly, she uses diction. Her use of diction throughout the Ted Talk is informal. She spoke in a conversational tone to engage with the audience effectively. She used descriptive language to create imagery such as when she describes masculinity as a cage and personified social constructs like justice. “Masculinity becomes this hard, small cage and we put boys inside the cage.” (Adichie, 11:27) This quote demonstrates the effective use of diction. With this, the audience gets an illustration of this issue. With the use of pace, volume, and diction it intrigued the audience and created a bond between the speaker and the public.

6. Juxtapose Ngozi Adichie's talk to the more traditional essay in the New York Times, Feminism Lost. Now What? What similarities can you see in the arguments or support? Use specific examples from both texts. Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk: "We all should be feminists" and The New York Times' article: "Feminism lost. What now?" have their similarities and differences. Some similarities I found were they are both pro-feminist. This can be shown by the introductory paragraph in the article. "The first female American president, 2017... Little girls getting to see a woman in the White House." (Chira) This quote demonstrates female empowerment visions that feminists wish to accomplish. In the Ted Talk, the speaker lists reasons and shares her stories to convince the audience that we should all be feminists. For example, "We teach girls shame. "Close your legs", "Cover yourself". We make them feel as though by being born female they're already guilty of something." (Adichie, 18:09) Both these quotes represent the importance of becoming a feminist and how changing our mindset will create a greater future. Additionally, the idea that only political power positions can be filled by men is discussed in both mediums. Ngozi states "But most of the positions of power and prestige are occupied by men." (Adichie, 7:26) There are a few instances where we see women in power. Even though more than half of the population is girls, society suppresses females from accomplishing great things like men. Furthermore, the overall article of the New York Times explains the defeat of Hillary Clinton and losing to men. Demonstrating men constantly taking power. Both these media address the problem of having male dominance and a lack of female leadership roles in higher positions. Lastly, they both use humor to engage the audience. For instance, "We need a ‘come to Jesus’ moment” "The overall struggle is to stay relevant in the age of Trump." (Chira) The humor keeps the reader engaged and makes the content relatable. In the Ted Talk, it said "A woman at a certain age who is unmarried, our society teaches her to see it as a deep, personal failure. And a man at a certain age who is unmarried, we just think he hasn't come around to making his pick." (Adichie, 15:00) Once again, using humor to grab the audience's attention. A difference I found is that Ngozi argued that although laws and politics have helped us. It is the mindset and attitude that we need to fix to make a difference. This is different from the article since it explained that now that Donald Trump is the leader, the laws that have brought equal rights will be forgotten. In all, both forms exceptionally described the importance of feminism.

7. An important part of reading is knowing what to do when you encounter new words. The New York Times article above has several challenging words (such as triumvirate, bristle, alienating, condescending, localities, and potent). Explain what strategies you used when you encounter a challenging word in this text.

While reading this article, I encountered numerous words I was unfamiliar with. Strategies that I use were re-reading the words in the article, identifying the context, and searching it up on the internet. The first step would be to establish the context the word is being used in. With this, I can assume what the sentence is implying. For example, while I was reading, I saw the word triumvirate. An inauguration that would usher in a triumvirate of women running major Western democracies." (Chira) Looking at this sentence the context of the word would be women wanting to run for political power positions. I then looked it up online. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a triumvirate is a group of three people who share power. After reading the definition I re-read the sentence to clearly understand the context of the phrase.

Works Cited TEDx Talk. “We should all be feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TEDxEuston” Youtube, 12 April 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc&feature=emb_logo. (26 July 2020) Chira, Susan. “Feminism Lost. Now What?” The New York Times, 30 Dec. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/opinion/sunday/feminism-lost-now-what.html. (26 July 2020)...