It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.
Interpretation
Authenticity in narration builds trust; misrepresenting messages can damage credibility.
In this quote, David Attenborough emphasizes the importance of authenticity in storytelling and the impact of being a credible narrator. He suggests that if he were to endorse something insincere, such as equating margarine to the concept of motherhood, it would undermine his integrity and lead to distrust among his audience. This reflects a broader theme in communication about the necessity of truthfulness and the responsibility of narrators to maintain their credibility.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of trust in media, this quote can exemplify the need for authenticity.
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature.
...the case for individual freedom rests largely on the recognition of the inevitable and universal ignorance of all of us concerning a great many of the factors on which the achievements of our ends and welfare depend.
Many have become chess masters - no one has become the master of chess.
At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.
Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.
Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology.
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look behind From where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.