I don't have the appropriate close up photograph to illustrate this point so you'll have to look at the picture above, take my word for it and use your imagination.
Expectations successfully lowered let's get to the point.
I went for a run the other day and ended up at Speakers Corner. At first I thought it was very quiet. There were quite a few 'speakers' but they only had an audience of 3 or 4. No huge crowds gathered around one brilliant orator like I've seen before and you've seen in the movies.
Speakers Corner in the 70s. Taken from Leonard Bentley's Flickr account.
As I got closer I saw that there were lots of speakers and they all had crowds 3 or 4 but they also all had microphones and cameras on tripod. The tripod was the give away - a proper semi-pro recording set up.
Presumably what they're doing making these speeches for YouTube and just using Speakers Corner as the location. The physical back drop but also for the YouTube title and the SEO. All that. Turn up at the weekend with a few mates, set up the AV kit and make your speech. Why reach hundreds at the real Speakers Corner when you can reach millions at the virtual one. A quick search on YouTube reveals that to be the case. I'm not linking to anything here, you can Google for yourself.
Of course. It's always so obvious isn't it?
A few screengrabs purely to illustrate the point. I'm not endorsing any of the speakers in any way.
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