Audience Responses: Narratives, Speakers, and Platform

As TED grows into a platform and media that is capable of delivering dynamic knowledge outputs in the form of a series of conference videos, curated vlogs, and blogs with user interactivity features, the importance of TED audience analysis increases. While the existing studies have examined the communicative features of TED Talks and their impact on the popularisation of various TED content, what has received lesser attention, however, is the question of what these new narratives evident in TED mean for its audiences. As a major factor in helping us understand TED discourse, the study must clearly capture the range of opinions, identities, and negotiations of various TED audiences. This chapter conducts a qualitative analysis of the responses provided by Muslim and non-Muslim TED audiences to questions about the representation of Islam in TED Talks, with a special focus on their modes of perception and attitude towards Islam. Here, the audience refers only to online viewers of TED Talks. This chapter explains how socio-cultural and demographic features and various other ‘insider/outsider’ identities with regard to Islam play a key role in developing an audience’s opinion about TED’s portrayal of Islam.