TJ Walker argues that formal speeches still matter in the social media age. He uses Hillary Clinton's recent criminal justice address at Columbia as an example of how well-crafted speeches communicate policy better than posts and tweets. Walker also notes how politicians like Clinton have improved their speaking skills since 2008.
Chapters
Hillary Clinton gives a major address on.
Criminal justice issues and it's getting well received.
Former Secretary of State and now presidential.
Candidate Hillary Clinton gave a major address this week at the David Dinkins center.
Here in New York City at Columbia.
University, and it's getting a lot of good press. Now, of course, of course, her ideological enemies are attacking her, but even the attacks are pretty mild. The primary attack on her speech is that she's somehow contradicting something her husband.
Said a quarter of a century ago.
Most of the criticism has been quite positive, talking about the major substantive changes she's making. This video is not about the speech itself. It's about using speeches as politicians to drive news coverage and to really communicate a message. Now, the world of mass communication changes constantly.
And certainly when her husband was running for president, Twitter wasn't an issue.
Pinterest, Facebook, Foursquare, all of those things weren't an issue. But what I'm struck by still is the relevance and the power of a major speech. When a politician gives a major speech.
It'S a way of basically telling the.
Public and the media, hey, listen up.
This is serious. I've given a lot of thought to this. I've actually listened to a lot of different advisors, and this is a consensus of their views, too.
And this is the kind of stuff.
I'll do once in office as far as policy. So listen up.
That's the beauty of a speech. So it is still in many ways.
Far superior to a press conference, to.
A TV interview, to a press release.
To a tweet, to a blog post. All of those things have their place.
But when it comes to the ability to really put a spotlight on something.
New, something substantive, something that is significant in terms of policy, a speech is as powerful as it ever was, and in fact, in many ways more powerful because all the social media can amplify.
It again and again and again for.
People who didn't see it or weren't.
In the room initially.
This is why smart politicians spend a lot of time improving their public speaking skills. And again, being nonpartisan here, by my estimation, Scott Walker has improved dramatically in just the last couple of years on the Republican side with his public speaking skills. Hillary Clinton is a vastly superior public speaker from where she was in 2008. In 2008, she had this tendency to yell the whole time, and it became a sort of monotone. It was irritating. Now she uses a conversational tone of voice, which is exactly what you want to do.
So new media can change, technology can change, but if you're a politician. There's nothing better if you really want to communicate than to give a well thought out plan.
So called formal speech in front of a serious audience.
