TED Talk Analysis - A Human Approach to Child Poverty

Metiria Turei; retrieved from tedxtalks.ted.com

Metiria Turei gave her TED Talk on December 7,2013 at Ted x Homebush Rd Women Conference in Willington, New Zealand. The purpose of the conference is to spread diverse ideas about, for, and from women from different walks of life. Turei is a New Zeland Parliament member and the female co-leader of the Green Party. She advocates for and creates policy for issues including social equity, education, electoral reform, housing, and children. Going into the TED Talk, the audience would expect for her to speak on the same issues and further dive into why she supports a specific topic. On the other hand, I viewed the speech with little knowledge of Turei or her ideas. I simply expected a speech that would address the issue of child poverty outside of the United States.

Turei excelled in certain areas of her speech. The content was appropriate for the audience, and she started off with a personal story to engage the audience. She displayed images that accompanied what she was speaking about. Examples of the images that she showed include a photo of what she perceived her childhood house to look like, and a photo of a playhouse that is similar to what she thought she had growing up. In addition to showing relevant images, Turei was effective in explaining theories that might not be previously known by the audience. She explained the theory of headology by saying that what you believe is real, is real. She further ingrained this idea in the audience by providing examples and metaphors. Finally, I believe that Turei presented her personal beliefs in an effective manner.

Turei started with logical ideas and theories to introduce her line of thinking without bringing up specific policy issues. As a parliament member, she could have easily gone off track and tried to garner political support. Instead, she challenges the audience to look through the eyes of a child to truly understand them. She provides examples such as children blaming themselves for their parents' divorces and being affected by family finances. The opposition was presented when Turei noted that New Zealand IS a great place to grow up as a kid, but not all children have the same positive experience.  In support of her own thoughts, she calls on the ideas other worldwide thinkers such as Roberto Unger's stance on freedom. Her perspective is effectively communicated when she refers back to a specific child (Amber) who wears her grandmother's old shoes. Turei concludes her speech with a powerful line. She says, "If it's what our kids need to be deeply free, then that's good enough for me." While there are many areas of her TED Talk that Turei did well at, there are parts of her delivery and content that could have been improved upon.

Turei uses video clips of speaking puppets to convey New Zealand children's real thoughts.

The visuals incorporated into Turei's TED Talk were relevant to her speech, however, they were used too frequently that they became distracting. She used video clips of speaking puppets as a representation of real children. This was a great idea that allowed her to protect the children's identities, but Turei failed to introduce the clips. Sometimes, they would even cut her off before she finished speaking. Turei could improve the delivery of her speech by varying the pitch and tone of her voice. By failing to add voice variation, she lost my attention throughout her speech. Overall, Turei was able to convey her stance on child poverty in a well organized manner without pushing political policy.

To view Metiria Turei's TED Talk, visit http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/A-Human-Approach-to-Child-Pover