Sender, receiver and medium

Speaker

The speaker of the TED talk “A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided” is Anand Giridharadas, an American of Indian descent who was born in Ohio in 1981. He studied politics and history and has worked as a global management consultant in India. He now works as a journalist and TV commentator and is the author of three books. Much of his work has centered on India and the developing world. He lives in New York.

Although Giridharadas’ talk is not about his personal story, he does bring in his own life when relevant. He explains his decision to go to India right after his graduation as “the ultimate rebellion against my parents, moving to the country they had fought so damn hard to get out of.” (ll. 23-24). He ended up staying in India for six years and became fascinated with the feeling of optimism which was sweeping through the so-called Third World.

However, when he returned to the US, he realized that the same optimism - which is typically referred to as the American Dream - is no longer thriving in America. This sparked an interest in the current state of American society and the growing division between what he calls “the flourishing America” and “the wilting America” (l. 123). Having the point of view of two cultures and countries enables him to see the big picture, just as having immigrant parents gives him personal experience with the topics of immigration and making a new life for yourself

Anand Giridharadas generally comes across as a confident speaker, which becomes clear when you watch the video of the talk. However, his work background as well as his ethnic background also boost his ethos and make him seem reliable and knowledgeable. It also makes him seem reliable when he refers to one of his own books, The True American, which outlines the story of the two men in his TED talk and was published in 2014. That fact that he has written a book about this means that he can act as an expert here.

You can read more about the speaker’s ethos in this section.

Audience

The direct audience of this talk is the people present at the TED event. There is no way of knowing their exact backgrounds, but we can make a couple of qualified guesses. Firstly, this is likely to be people with an interest in immigration and...