Delivery

Ahh, delivery. Now that’s a topic I can sink my teeth into! As an individual with a broad media background, delivery is of the utmost importance. This is even more true in broadcast mediums like radio and television, where the delivery of the message tends to create the personality of the media figure in question. When public orators came to prominence, they were individuals who understood the nature of events in many contexts and were able to deliver their messages in a fashion that people could understand and relate to. They “…recommended that speakers use a modulated tone and speak slowly and clearly” (409). This style of delivery is still used frequently, but it is mainly relegated to those who are more polished, educated, and pandering to a higher-brow audience than others. Those others, however, still exist in great prominence, especially on cable “news” programs and talk radio. In these mediums, it is commonplace to have a pundit or “expert” sharing his or her opinion, but doing so in a very different fashion. They will likely talk over others, raise their voices for no apparent reason, and often outright attack those who don’t agree with them.

Some might say this has to do with the type of audiences these types are pandering to. These audiences are more likely lower-brow, lower-class, less educated and less refined than the audience of polished orators and broadcasters. So what does education have to do with media literacy, or literacy as a whole? Yes, ancients would have been surprised that education and literacy are currently linked in our society (406), but that is more a commentary on the scarcity of both literate individuals and common written languages in ancient times than anything else. I would think the invention of the printing press made writing much more accessible for the masses, thus both inviting and forcing more members of the population to become literate. Today, with the ease of electronic language translation and the borderless communication opportunities that exist for many people, there is almost no way literacy and education could not be linked, at least in civilized areas.

The fact that this form of oration and broadcasting is not only considered acceptable, but also encouraged by networks that portray themselves as bastions of journalism and news-media is absurd. This is clearly not what the ancients envisioned when they were practicing public oration. Yes, they took a great many cues from actors and the theater in general to enhance their ability to project their thoughts and feelings to their audience, but again, this was prior to the advent of media that could accomplish such goals. Today’s orators need not be as theatrical as those that preceded them. There are many cues they could take from ancient public speakers, but theatrics and pandering to those who are less literate and educated are hardly the correct ones.

Lastly, how could I not mention Cicero’s perception that rhetorical delivery and sporting activities overlap? The competitive nature and cultural significance of both for the Ancients does make for a natural connection, as Crowley & Hawhee point out on page 407. I really had nothing to add on this, but given the nature of a great deal of my comments in class, I certainly couldn’t pass up mentioning that factoid. See everyone tonight!