It’s not what you say that matters, it’s what you don’t
Goodness me, did this young lady put the cat among the pigeons!
To be fair, given the current political landscape, by selecting Yurong Luanna Jiang to give this years’ Commencement speech, Harvard University must have anticipated the potential backlash from within the USA.
But the widespread viciousness of online comments from within China might have been a surprise.
The interesting thing is – it’s not so much what Luanna said that mattered, but rather what she didn’t say.
It’s true that the speech was well structured, starting with a story about a washing machine in Tanzania and referring back to it at the end. It also reflected a key theme of her talk – the deep international makeup of the student body.
However, the story sounded contrived. Her descriptions of how she reacts personally to ‘global challenges’ were so over the top, they lacked any sense of sincerity. Even her body language appeared false and unnatural.
(That said, Luanna is surely not the first speaker in the US to sound contrived and insincere. And nor will she be the last).
But it wasn’t the words that carried this speech around the world. It was the silence.
Luanna spoke for 6.57 minutes.
In contrast, the AI generated version of her speech, reading word for word in sentences, lasts just 2.20 minutes.
Luanna didn’t simply read her speech, as so many do on these occasions, including Steve Jobs at Stanford University twenty years ago.
She engaged the audience. She spoke conversationally in broken sentences and paused throughout, holding silence for a total of 4.37 minutes. This gave her audience time to think, to respond, to remember.
And remembered she will be.
Tales from the Media Room by Rebekah James
Gender Equality in Sports Media
Photo courtesy by JMA Photography on behalf of LEEDS 2023
As an ex-BBC female broadcaster, I'm all too aware of the gender gap and inequality in sports media. That's one of the reasons I took longer than ever to pour over The Sunday Times this week as I was captivated by an article about a BBC Presenter I have the utmost admiration for, a fellow Welshman, Gabby Logan.
Gabby disclosed in the article that when she started broadcasting she was told that she was' too competitive' for a woman and that her TV career would be over by the age of 28.
Read: Gender Equality in Sports Media
Help us Grow our Community!
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues/friends who could benefit from receiving them.
Feedback or ideas for future editions? Feel free to send us a quick message to this email address. We would love to hear from you.
Until next month!
Warmest regards,
The Connect Family
