Mini Essay: Ted Talks
I started watching TEDTalks when I was in high school. Many teachers would show them as an embellishment to a class lecture or project, and we would sometimes watch them in school assemblies. My parents and older brothers also send me talks they find interesting. I always admired the organization and thought that their goal of "spreading great ideas" was a noble one.
At Emory, I have a lot of friends in the TEDxEmory organization, who are very committed to it. They are one of the few student organizations at Emory that produces media in some other form than social media. Newspapers, literary magazines, and acapella groups would be the other exceptions. So as a media-making presence on campus, to what extent do they make media for all of Emory's students? Do they strive to have speakers and members of different cultural, ethnic, and gender backgrounds? Do they work to address the issues of gender and race in their "spreading of great ideas"? Does TEDTalk in general strive to do this?
I have seen many TEDTalks about the gender gap and have been inspired by some of the women giving presentations. I went online to read what the organization said about itself and came across the following sentence, "TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world." I then clicked on a link that said "20 most popular TedTalks" only to find that 19 out of 20 of them were given by white people. This struck me, as these videos surely were not representing people "from every...culture."
So I will turn to the TEDxEmory group with the following questions.Do you see the need to represent people from every culture? Is it something you strive for both with you speakers and your members? Why might diversity be helpful in the spread of great ideas?
At Emory, I have a lot of friends in the TEDxEmory organization, who are very committed to it. They are one of the few student organizations at Emory that produces media in some other form than social media. Newspapers, literary magazines, and acapella groups would be the other exceptions. So as a media-making presence on campus, to what extent do they make media for all of Emory's students? Do they strive to have speakers and members of different cultural, ethnic, and gender backgrounds? Do they work to address the issues of gender and race in their "spreading of great ideas"? Does TEDTalk in general strive to do this?
I have seen many TEDTalks about the gender gap and have been inspired by some of the women giving presentations. I went online to read what the organization said about itself and came across the following sentence, "TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world." I then clicked on a link that said "20 most popular TedTalks" only to find that 19 out of 20 of them were given by white people. This struck me, as these videos surely were not representing people "from every...culture."
So I will turn to the TEDxEmory group with the following questions.Do you see the need to represent people from every culture? Is it something you strive for both with you speakers and your members? Why might diversity be helpful in the spread of great ideas?