Yesterday President Barack Obama spoke about his initiatives in the field of clean energy research before a crowd of students, faculty, and community members in Penn State's Rec Hall. This was a part of his visit to the university to observe ongoing projects related to energy-efficiency.
President Obama's speech was entirely focused on how to improve the manner in which the United States develops and uses energy. However, despite such seemingly dull topic, President Obama was effectively able to captivate his audience. His speech began with talk about the Super Bowl to flatter a concentrated Steeler community found in Pennsylvania. The crowd immediately warmed up to this appeal and applause was heard throughout the arena. President Obama also appealed the pathos of the audience in another manner by complimenting Coach Joe Paterno on his incredible 400+ career wins. By referring to these football teams during his speech, President Obama connected with his audience early on which would cause them to listen more intently to his proposed agenda.
Aside from appealing to passions such as football teams, President Obama encouraged everyone in the audience to take control of their work and take pride in what you do as a student or researcher. He referred several times to winning the future but then explained that such change could only be achieved through hard work and determination. President Obama called for students to be proud of their potential and to work to achieve because the world is becoming very competitive now. His words of encouragement that young people take control of their own destinies and work to change the world for the better received positive reception because of the challenge issued to work to improve our country and our way of life.
President Obama is a master of captivating his audience. He speaks with authority but he also speaks with humility. Whenever he opens his mouth to say anything, you can be sure that everyone will listen to what our President has to say.
I agree with the fact that President Obama is a talented speaker. The tactics he uses to captivate his audience usually are pretty successful. He uses humor (claiming to never have heard of the guy that coaches our football team) and things such as the superbowl that people are passionate about. I think you are right in saying that when Obama speaks, people listen.
ReplyDeleteObama has a lot of charisma and vision, and I think that's why it's sometimes captivating to hear him speak. It was smart of him to personalize his speech by talking about Penn State's football culture.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you chose Obama's visit to blog about this week. I was unable to go, so it was nice to hear your detailed description and personal take on his speech. I consider Obama a very intelligent speaker. I agree with you completely that he really masters the task of captivating his audience so as to facilitate the audience's attention. I've always found that, although he is the President of the United States, the audience can always relate to what he says. He finds ways to connect directly with the audience, using informal and personal topics, such as Joe Paterno's 400th win, which makes everyone feel that he is there to speak to THEM, and not just another random group of people.
ReplyDeleteWell if you hadn't picked it up from what I wrote, I'm incredibly biased toward President Obama. I campaigned for him back in high school and everything so I apologize if this is not an accurate recollection of his speech.
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