Until recently, I have not paid much attention to the use of rhetoric and how I react to other people’s rhetorical strategies. After attending a lecture made by Gideon Yago, a former MTV news journalist brought to the Ohio University campus to talk about the upcoming election and the importance of young people voting, I left the auditorium unsatisfied because of a number of his rhetorical strategies used while presenting. During his lecture there were many moments when I felt offended by his language, unimpressed by his speaking skills and also stereotyped as a “typical” college student. I also felt that the actual content of his lecture was nothing ground-breaking and did not flow together in any way.
His use of offensive language during his lecture, in my opinion, greatly conflicted with what he was saying. For example, he was talking about some of the time he spent in the middle-east and how great of an impact it had on his life but he was also dropping F-bombs left and right. His use of offensive language took away his credibility on the subject and also made him seem unintelligible. His language also made him seem extremely unapproachable and as though he did not take the lecture seriously himself.
Another rhetorical strategy that offended me was his blatant stereotyping of the typical Ohio University student. He made more than enough knocks at the typical O.U. student who, in his opinion, drinks excessively, does drugs and sleeps around a lot while partying. It seems like his rhetorical strategy was to try to “relate” to the O.U. student by telling stories about drinking and sleeping around as well as how he knows that we do it too, but relating himself to such a negative image and relating his whole audience to being apart of that image was a very bad move on his part. While a few audience members reacted the way he wanted, many were offended by his stereotyping.
Overall, the image I received from Gideon Yago after listening to him speak and later talking with him after the lecture was that he is a very sarcastic guy that needs to mature himself before he starts lecturing students on college campuses. I understand that he was just trying to relate to his audience but he also needs to look professional and back-up what he is talking about with credibility and educated language.
2 comments:
Even though I did not go to this speaker, I can still relate to your point. I am the same way, in that I dislike people generalizing me, and people trying to relate to me too hard. When speakers, parents and teachers try to relate to our age group by using profanity and partying references it really annoys me. Its just not genuine and its too easy to spot. I think most people can spot when a speaker is nervous, like this I feel like most people can also spot when a speaker is not genuine. When I take a class with a professor, or attend a speaker who acts like that it immediately makes me lose respect for them. As for the generalizations about OU students, I really cant say too much because I don’t know what was said, but I do dislike when generalizations have been applied to me in the past, especially when they are completely untrue.
I also went to see that address; I have to admit that I was also disappointed. I went there expecting to hear more about his experiences as a reporter, and about his time covering the campaigns for MTV. What he actually gave was an outline of young adults’ engagement (or lack thereof) in politics and elections, the history of activists’ efforts to engage young voters over the last twenty years, and an exhortation to get involved this year- as the largest generation ever, we can really change things, and so on. Or at least, that seemed to be his essential message. You are right that his speech was meandering and unfocused. I had expected better from a journalist, although he himself pointed out that he was one only because he was in the right place at the right time. Recounting that fact in itself isn’t actually a very good way to establish oneself as someone you should listen to.
What I saw in his use of language was a somewhat older guy- late twenties, I think- trying to connect with his audience through his use of harsh language and references to partying. This is a good example of not being confident in your message or your delivery and therefore resorting to the “lowest common denominator” in an effort to reach your audience. I was not especially offended, because I grew up around men who talked like that all the time. However it did strike me as inappropriate to the venue and to the importance of his message.
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