Presentation Media

Presentation media allows speakers to communicate their ideas without verbally stating them. It is a useful tool that can help audiences connect to the subject and draw from a larger pool of information than that offered by only the speaker. At the same time that it can be useful, however, there are some aspects of presentation media that speakers should be weary of. For example, digital media (i.e. photos and audio clips) can be manipulated and altered in order to present subjects from biased perspectives. It is the speaker's responsibility to research the media that they choose to include. The best way to ensure that your media is unaltered is to extract it from the original source. If the original source is lost in the sea of digital information, critical discretion should be heeded. Does the photo portray the subject in a negative light? Is it an objective portrayal of the subject or is there evidence of bias? It should be fairly simple to determine by asking questions like these, but it isn't a foolproof method. Also remember context and ask yourself questions about it. When using audio clips, for example, be sure to listen to the entire dialogue so as not to misrepresent the person speaking in the clip. If the clip seems to be taken out of context, it is the speaker's ethical responsibility to avoid it and use something that presents their subject in a more objective light.