In his speech, President Obama addresses an audience full of NASA scientists and employees, as well as key political figures. Although this is the direct audience he also tailors his speech to reach viewers at home and the media. He recognizes that his audience does not want to see a drop in the NASA budget and assures them that he is a big supporter of space exploration. He addresses his indirect audience by countering the concern that tax dollars are going to waste with a sound argument as to how funding NASA is beneficial. He knows his audience very well and plays on their innate sense of patriotism to inspire them. He also includes the audience in his speech by using the pronoun “we.” He tells stories that any American could relate to and take pride in. Those stories include the first moon landing which is an exciting story for any American but even more special to scientists who work in the same field. Overall President Obama does a very good job of recognizing his direct audience and larger, more public audience.
While I like how President Obama appeals to patriotism, I would image that in our current time, we should be working to create strong relationships with other space agencies. The European Space Agency has been doing some great work over the years, and we can't forget how the Russians have been helping us by letting us ride their rockets to the ISS. Perhaps Obama didn't make the strongest appeal to the audience that day after all.
ReplyDelete-Anderson Lee
Obama tailors his speech well to his audience. He attempts to inspire both the audience in front of him as well as the audience at home. His goal is to generate a greater interest in space as well as urge NASA scientists and engineers to push for new accomplishments. It is clear that he is very concerned with our activities in space and does a good job of convincing the audience of their importance.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Obama tailors his speech to both the expert (NASA) and the layman (American public). He does a nice job convincing the audience to support space exploration. I suggest you include how the audience feels about this movement and how the American public is influenced by Obama.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sarina's idea that you should include how the audience feels because that will help tie in the idea of how Obama captured his audience. If he was trying to convince an audience that didnt believe in space exploration at all then he would use a different method than if he was trying to convince an audience that was slightly interested in space exploration.
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