Publication Date:
2014
abstract:
This paper investigates the key elements of ethos, pathos and logos linguistic strategies as some
main features of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks, popularizing speeches aiming at
Knowledge Dissemination. Through a comparison between the TED Talk ‘HIV - How to fight an
epidemic of bad laws’, by Shereen El-Feki (2012a), and another speech held by the same author at the
2012 Symposia The Global Commission on HIV and the Law, addressed to specialists, the paper analyses
TED Talks as an innovative tool of popularization, which breaches the typical triangularisation
‘scientist-mediator-audience’, bringing scientists directly into contact with their audiences. Drawing upon
Aristotle’s three pillars of rhetoric, the paper analyses the strategies used to establish the ethos of the speech,
by proposing a topic as morally worth of spreading; pathos, by creating a direct contact with the public; and
logos, investigated through an analysis of the elements used to recontextualise scientific discourses into
popularized speeches. The analysis suggests that TED Talks are a recodification, not a mere translation of texts;
they are a means to disseminate knowledge reducing the asymmetry between audiences and scientists.
main features of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks, popularizing speeches aiming at
Knowledge Dissemination. Through a comparison between the TED Talk ‘HIV - How to fight an
epidemic of bad laws’, by Shereen El-Feki (2012a), and another speech held by the same author at the
2012 Symposia The Global Commission on HIV and the Law, addressed to specialists, the paper analyses
TED Talks as an innovative tool of popularization, which breaches the typical triangularisation
‘scientist-mediator-audience’, bringing scientists directly into contact with their audiences. Drawing upon
Aristotle’s three pillars of rhetoric, the paper analyses the strategies used to establish the ethos of the speech,
by proposing a topic as morally worth of spreading; pathos, by creating a direct contact with the public; and
logos, investigated through an analysis of the elements used to recontextualise scientific discourses into
popularized speeches. The analysis suggests that TED Talks are a recodification, not a mere translation of texts;
they are a means to disseminate knowledge reducing the asymmetry between audiences and scientists.
Iris type:
1.1 Articolo in rivista
Keywords:
Keywords: TED talks, popularization, new media, linguistic strategies, knowledge dissemination.
List of contributors:
Scotto di Carlo, Giuseppina
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