Political Speech Analysis

Sydney Thomas-Ware
February 20, 2012
Neo-Aristotelian Criticism

Over a year and half ago an epidemic broke out that spread like a wildfire. It wasn’t swine flu or polio; it’s not contagious nor was there a medical cure that could prevent it. This epidemic was seven consecutive suicides within several weeks amid teenagers who were bullied for being homosexual or perceived as gay or lesbian. Bullying amongst children and teenagers dates back centuries ago, but it wasn’t until 2010 that as a society we decided to say, “enough is enough.” There was a lot of media coverage on the suicides amongst the Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) youth, but it was two gay men Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller who decided to go viral with the message “It Gets Better.” In their video they talked about their lives growing up, being gay, how they were bullied, and how they got through their hard times as teenagers. Their video was promoting to the GLBT youth that life does get better after high school. After Dan and his partner posted their video a swarm of viral videos started cycling onto YouTube promoting the same message to the GLBT youth. What began as a video message of hope for the youth soon turned into a non-profit campaign called the It Gets Better Project. This project is an online community where you can view millions of it gets better messages from people all around the world spreading their love, hope and support to the GLBT youth and anyone who is contemplating suicide.
One video that received a lot of media coverage for his heartfelt message was Fort Worth, Texas councilman Joel Burns. During a city council meeting Joel Burns gave a personal and heart-wrenching message to the youth about the recent events occurring with the teen suicides. Barely able to finish his speech through the pain and tears, Burns spoke about his youth, being gay, bullied, his family, feeling unaccepted, and how he made it through all those hardships. His message was simple but how he delivered it and what he said touched the hearts of millions, receiving him over 27 million views on YouTube to date. The media plays a significant role in how politicians approach delivering a speech. The topic and how the media portrays the event affects how a politician will use the five canons to comment. It’s important for us to find answers about how the media affects a politician’s speech so that we can discover how the media affects how we portray politicians. Using the five canons from a Neo-Aristotelian criticism, I’ll be analyzing Joel Burns’ it gets better speech to demonstrate how the media affected his speech.
Before Joel Burn’s gave his speech on October 12, 2010, the It’s Gets Better Project and Dan Savage’s video had been posted several weeks earlier gaining a lot of media attention. Dan was being interviewed on top news networks, thousands of people all over the world including celebrities, politicians, and President Obama were beginning to post video messages on YouTube and the campaign’s website. The first canon Invention is what gave Joel Burns the courage to speak about the topic. Invention involves a speaker’s major ideas, lines of argument, or content. With the media success of the It Gets Better campaign already in motion this gave Joel Burns a reason to make his speech. Without the media coverage on the suicides and the success of the campaign Burns’ logos or rational evidence as to why he is speaking publicly on such a touchy issue would diminish. To begin his speech Burns displayed a picture of one of the seven teens that committed suicide, thirteen-year-old Asher Brown. As the picture displayed Burns told Asher’s story of how he was bullied in school and how his father found Asher dead with a gunshot wound to his head. Burns uses an inductive approach, telling specific stories of several of the recent teen suicides for evidence as to why he is speaking on the issue. The visual images that Burns displays tries to make his audience feel sympathetic to what is happening. It makes then question why would anyone want to bully such a sweet and smiling looking kid? The most important reason for the success of Burns’ speech is his form of ethos. Barely able to talk through some of his speech because of the emotion and tears, Burns generated a feeling on sympathy and sadness to his audience. In a part of his speech while trying to hold back his tears Burns said, “I think I’m going to have to hard of a time with the next couple of sentences that I wrote and also I don’t want my mother and father to bare the pain of having to… hear me say them.” By publicly showing his pain this created an emotional proof to his audience that Burns truly meaning what he has to say and he does know what these young GLBT teens are going through.
The next three canons Organization, Style and Memory aren’t as significant to Burns’ speech as the other canons are, but I’ll still discuss them for this criticism. Organization deals with the order in which a speaker presents their speech. Burns used the method of problem solution organization. At the beginning of his speech he states the problem in which he is addressing, which is the problem of bullying and teen suicides. He says in his speech, “teen bullying and suicides has reached an epidemic in our country especially among gay and lesbian youth, those perceived to be gay or kids who are just different.” As Burns continues his speech he discusses the solutions that we can do to stop the bullying and suicides. By telling his personal story of how he was bullied, gay, and how he made it through those adversities gave his audience the solution that things do get better. He uses himself as an example of how it’s possible to overcome the hardships of bullying and how life does get better after high school. “To those of you who are feeling very lonely tonight, please know that I understand how you feel. Things will get easier. Please stick around to make those happy memories for yourself.” Burns also provides the resources, thetrevorproject.org that people can go for support and to help stop the bullying and he also gives his own phone number that people can call for support or help.
Style deals with the form of language a speaker uses. Burns approaches this canon using a personal form of language. Being an openly gay city councilman and sharing his own story and struggles in his speech personalizes his message and lets his audience know that he can personally relate to what they’re going through. Through his tears Burns says, “I have never told this story to anyone before tonight. About my family, about my husband, about anyone, but the numerous suicides in recent days have upset me so much and have torn at my heart.” By making this statement he is showing his audience that he has the strength and courage to tell his story in front of other city councilmen, which distills in his audience that they can have the same strength and courage to talk to someone about their struggles instead of committing suicide. Using a personal approach breaks down the wall of Joel Burns being a city councilman just making a statement on recent events, and allows his audience to see him as someone who went through the same struggles as the teens who recently committed suicide. The canon memory involves how much of the speech the speaker memorizes. This canon doesn’t have that much significance because most speakers today don’t memorize their speeches. As Burns delivered his speech he mostly looked down at his paper and read what he wrote. In an interview he gave with Ellen Degeneres, Burns said that he wrote his speech the night before the council meeting and he didn’t practice once as to what he was going to say. With Burns reading straight from his paper and him saying himself that he didn’t practice what he was going to say gives proof that he didn’t memorize his speech.
What caused Joel Burns’ speech to become a viral success was his form of delivery. The final canon Delivery deals with the methods of how the speaker presents their speech and is the most important canon of Burns’ speech. Constantly moving in his seat, hesitating before making statements, slouching forward in his chair, having a hard time making eye contact, his face turning red, the weakening in his voice and his emotional crying and tears are all substantial reasons as to why Burns’ delivery is what gave him media attention. As a politician I’m sure that you need to have control over your emotions and personal beliefs when it comes to discussing certain issues, but for Burns this wasn’t the case. He even states, “and even though there may be some political repercussions for telling my story. This story is not just for the adults who choose or not choose to support me. This story is for the young people who might be holding that gun tonight, or the rope, or the pill bottle.” Burns was willing to accept the political repercussions just so that he could give his message. By letting everyone see how the recent suicides really pulled at his heart, left his audience with awareness that what he is talking about is an issue that needs to be paid attention too. If Burns’ wouldn’t have delivered his speech with as much emotion as he did I don’t think it would have caused as much up an uproar in the media as it did.
If it weren’t for the massive media coverage on bullying and the recent teen suicides as well as the success of Dan Savage’s video and the It Gets Better Project, Joel Burns probably wouldn’t have the courage or a good reasoning to give such an emotional speech during the city council meeting. Through his moving delivery, methods of invention, and great use of style, organization and memory made his it gets better message a viral sensation. His video created national news for himself landing him interviews on Ellen Degeneres, CNN, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Burns’ video also raised awareness for teen bullying and suicides and also help promote the It Gets Better campaign and other resources out there helping to stop teen bullying.

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