VISUAL CULTURE: EVALUATING TED TALKS PRESENTERS
(Student’ Name)
Abstract
Visual culture facilitates and influences communication on a daily basis regardless of our literacy levels. The use of images to create an identity or influence our perception of ideologies, products, cultures and people stems from our hunger for knowledge and the need to have a better understanding of the world. However, we rarely stop and analyze what we consume. We assume that the media representations of race, gender and identity are true at face value and father adopt this mentality in our thinking. This study seeks to understand the frameworks used in reading visual images and gain a degree of visual literacy to evaluate how the visual culture is part of our social and cultural systems (Mamur, 2012). We will try to gain an appreciation of how global influences and local histories can alter the visual perceptions of images, icons and symbols associated with socio- political identities.
Key Words
Visual culture, visual design, visual literacy, communication, education
Introduction
The proliferation of technology contributes greatly to satisfying the demand for knowledge via mainstream media, the internet and affiliate smartphone applications. Mamur (2012) notes that visual media predominates other forms of communication due to the allure photography, television and cinema. Combine this with an over-reliance on the internet leads to the growth of the visual culture. Thus, our common culture is a product of what we see. Over the last 40 years, electronic and computer images have overrun other forms of communication such as print and audio (Glenn, 2009). Images are now part of communication, creating a society that is re-inventing its culture and perception based on sight. The visual culture is a product of synthesizing what we are shown and what we see. Images have meanings based on the context and culture i.e. their immediate meaning at time of production and the meaning they acquire over time. For us to quantify visual culture we need to understand that its elements are indicators of society’s beliefs. This is the link between enlightenment, association and overlapping. Production and consumption of images serve as an avenue for transfer of information such as expressing emotion, mobilization for social change and teaching values of a people (Chaplin et al, 1997). Another interpretation of visual culture is in understanding how it increases cultural appreciation and experiences for people as well as it being an area of study in the contemporary education setting.
Thesis Statement & Justification
One outstanding contribution of the internet and television is towards the growth of the visual culture phenomenon (Glenn, 2009). In this study, we seek to evaluate the impact of visual media on education, specifically on the popularization of science among ordinary people. Traditionally the sciences are an elitist discipline, a reserve for the cream de la cream of the education system. We evaluate data from a collection of conference presentations that garner interest in the sciences to analyze its impact on the general population.
Criteria
Scientific communication that was limited to traditional media outlets is diversifying to online outlets to keep up with changing technology. Scientific communication is associated to increased public participation (policymaking), democracy and an informed civil discourse. In 1984, the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference was borne as a pro-active initiative to engage in discussions relating to these scientific and technical fields. Its popularity saw it grow and reach a global audience and in 2006, TED Talks developed as a series of video conference presentations hosted online on its website and YouTube channel. Six years later, the talks surpassed the one billion online views mark demonstrating the success of the initiative and the increasing popularity of science. Today, military leaders rival America’s confidence in science. This shows an above average interest in science and technology by a large percentile of its population (Sugimoto et al, 2013).
Scope of the study
Given the popularity of the TED Talks as a reliable disseminator of scientific information, we seek to evaluate its impact as a visual culture tool on the perception of science. We analyses the characteristic of its presenters (academic and non-academic). We evaluate the presence of a relationship between the presenter’s characteristics and the popularity of his/ her video. Lastly, we look at how giving a TED Talk influences the perceptions of academics in the court of public opinion.
Method
We use data from existing analysis of impact metrics available on both the TED website and YouTube from a 2012 survey (Sugimoto, 2013). A sample of about 1,200 videos are used. The YouTube API is the source of data for its video statistics while data from videos on the TED website is from its video home pages.
Presenter grouping is according to the following criteria: gender, academic qualifications, type of presentation (individual, groups, fictional and animal presentation). Data on gender coding is to either male or female. Academic qualification splits into two general categories. The first sets presenters according to their current level of literacy, those who had earned their doctorates and have affiliations to an academic institution, and those who have not yet attained their doctorates are non-academics. A distinction between academics and researchers is set. Information about academics comes from biographical sources, curriculum vitae, university websites and their online presence
Results
The results correspond to the sections under investigation by the study. Presenter demographics show that out of the 998 individual presenters, based on gender 27% were female and based on academic qualification and 21% were academics. Further coding shows that there is no statistical significance between the genders in terms of academic status. The ratio is 158 male to 48 female academics and 572 male to 220 female non-academics. While majority of the academics received their doctoral degrees in the 90s, male presenters tend to be older than their female counterparts are. In addition, most of the academics are professors (134 out of the 18 sampled). In terms of online presence, younger academics tend to have personal webpages and a strong online presence (social media) with a natural bias toward female academics compared to their older counterparts. 77% of the academics have an impact score while 74% of those affiliated to the top universities suggest that their talks have a high impact.
Analysis
A bulk of the academics were male (73%) while 79% of all presenters are non-academic. This shows that academics on the TED Talks tend to be successful science communicators with their videos receiving more likes and comments. Despite the presence of youthful female presenters, the men seem to dominate the popularity of video reactions. However, the university affiliations have little impact on the audience; people respond more to academics who are published online. Most of the academic presenters have an online presence thus making the web video channel an easy forum for them to interact with fellow scholars and increase their participation in the visual culture. Positive affirmation is an incentive for scholars to engage with the online community and raises the profile of the subject matter concerning the presenters.
Conclusion
However, given the fact that the older generation’s uptake of technology is slower than the young generation, the impact of TED Talks is largely limited to the persons who have been through graduate school (Sugimoto et al, 2013). This leaves out a huge part of the population that needs to engage in the socio-political affairs which influence their quality of life. There is need for us to rethink how we consume scientific information and the role of knowledge in shaping our perceptions. The study also negates the idea that the media promotes science as a discipline detached from the mass consumption. The data shows that the audience prefers academics and gains positive perceptions on the need to have a biter understanding of science and technology.
References
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Sugimoto, C. R., Thelwall, M., Larivière, V., Tsou, A., Mongeon, P., Macaluso, B., et al. (2013). Scientists Popularizing Science: Characteristics and Impact of TED Talk Presenters. PLoS ONE, 8(4), e62403.
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