Author: Eshwar Cherkuri
My ranking of what makes a speaker effective would be credibility, relevance, knowledge, and objectivity. Credible ranks first because most speakers who are platformed in current media, podcasts, and television shows do not have the most expertise in the topic they are talking about, but because they were able to build up a reputation and popularity with an audience for several years, they were platformed with the ability to deliver a message to a large audience. Relevance is also important because an audience needs to understand why the speech they are listening to is important to their personal views, and how it can impact or entertain them. Knowledge is definitely important when talking about a speech, because an audience wants to be educated on the topic and needs to pay attention to something they wouldn’t hear anywhere else. Finally, I think speaking objectively with an audience doesn’t really matter that much with a large portion of the audience because lots of the audience come into the speech with a view that they already formed, and they want to be validated in that view and hear someone give them content from a unique perspective rather than an informative lesson.
A woman on TikTok was talking fast about how vitamins fixed what medicine could not, and her voice rose when she said real healing comes only from nature, not labs. What caught my attention about her story was that doctors gave up on her, so she saved herself, or so she claimed. Right after, she mentioned big companies blocking better ways to get well doctors to stay paid, she added that if people never completely recover. I was doubtful of her because she started without any proof of credentials and called herself a “certified wellness practitioner,” which meant little when she refused to name who certified her or explain what it covered. Although she was trying to promote her product, it was clear that she had no idea how it actually worked or the science behind it, and when people were commenting on the significance of some of the ingredients in her account, she was ignoring them. Those who know their subject see layers and would avoid claiming exclusive insight into a rigged game. What she said could have mattered, but it wasn’t how she spoke that mattered. What kept people from believing her was offering nothing they could rely on. My advice to this speaker would be to basically at least lightly research the ingredients that go into the vitamins she’s selling and how useful they actually are for health purposes.
The Megaphone 