Analyzing the Audience

1. Analyzing the Audience Communications 1020 Instructor: Dave Gagon

2. Audience Analysis • Evaluate • Attitudes • Beliefs • Values

3. Audience Analysis • Evaluate • Attitudes • Beliefs • Values • The topic of your speech • You as the speaker • The speech occasion

4. Gauge Listener’s Feelings Toward you as the Speaker • Speaker credibility • Have a sound grasp of the subject • Display sound reasoning skills • Are honest and unmanipulative • Are genuinely interested in the welfare of their listeners

5. Gauge Listener’s Feelings Toward the Topic • If topic is new to listeners, • Show why it’s relevant • Relate topic to familiar issues and ideas • If listeners know relatively little about your topic • Stick to the basics and include background information

6. Gauge Listener’s Feelings Toward the Topic • If their attitudes about the topic differ from yours • Make points relevant to their attitudes and beliefs rather than to yours • Seek a common ground • Focus on issues of general social concern

7. Gauge Listener’s Feelings Toward the Topic • If your listeners are negatively disposed toward your topic • Consider modifying or changing your topic. • Give them a good reason why their attitudes are unfounded. • Give them a good reason for changing their attitudes.

8. QUICK TIP Appeal to Your Listener’s Concerns As a general rule, people give more interest and attention to topics toward which they have positive attitudes and that are in keeping with their values and beliefs. The less we know about something, the more indifferent we tend to be. Any speaker seeking a change in attitudes or behavior does well to remember this.

9. Gauge Listener’s Feelings Toward the Occasion “ Depending on the speech occasion, people bring different sets of expectations and emotions to it. The speaker who fails to anticipate such attitudes and expectations risks alienating audience members.” Dan O’Hair “A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking,” pg. 36

10. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age

11. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background

12. QUICK TIP Treat Your Listeners with Dignity In any speaking situation, your foremost concern should be to treat your listeners with dignity and to act with integrity. You do this by adhering to certain ethical ground rules, or, in the words of ethicist Michael Josephson, “pillars of character.” These include being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and fair in our presentation. (See section 2)

13. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status

14. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income

15. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income • Occupation

16. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income • Occupation • Education

17. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income • Occupation • Education • Religion

18. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income • Occupation • Education • Religion • Political affiliation

19. Adapt Your Message to Audience Demographics • Age • Ethnic or cultural background • Socioeconomic status • Income • Occupation • Education • Religion • Political affiliation • Gender

20. QUICK TIP Consider Disability When Analyzing an Audience One out of every five people in the United States has some sort of physical or mental disability; thus you must ensure that your speech reflects language that accords persons with disability dignity, respect and fairness.

21. Adapt to Cultural Differences • Individualism versus collectivism • High uncertainty versus low uncertainty • High power distance versus low power distance • Masculine versus feminine

22. CHECKLIST: Reviewing Your Speech in the Light of Audience Demographics • Does your speech acknowledge potential differences in values and beliefs and address them sensitively? • Have you reviewed your topic in light of the age range and generational identity of your listeners? Do you use examples they will recognize and find relevant? • Have you avoided making judgments based on stereotypes? • Are your explanations and examples at a level that is appropriate to the audience’s sophistication and education?

23. CHECKLIST: Reviewing Your Speech in the Light of Audience Demographics • Do you make any unwarranted assumptions about the audience’s political or religious values and beliefs? • Does your topic carry religious or political overtones that are likely to stir your listeners’ emotions in a negative way? • Is your speech free of generalizations based on gender? • Does your language reflect sensitivity toward people with disabilities?

24. Seek Information through Surveys,Interviews and Published Sources

25. Survey Audience Members • Questionnaire • Closed-ended questions • Fixed-alternative questions • Scale questions • Open-ended questions

26. Conduct Interviews • Prepare questions for the interview • Word questions carefully • Create neutral questions • Avoid vague questions • Avoid leading questions

27. Conduct Interviews • Open interview carefully • Explain purpose of information • State a reasonable goal • Acknowledge interviewee • Establish time limit for interview and stick to it

28. Conduct Interviews • Don’t end interview abruptly • Check to see you’ve covered the topic • Offer a brief, positive summary • Offer to send results to interviewee • Send a written thanks

29. Investigate Published Polland Other Sources

30. Assess the Speech Setting • Where will the speech take place? • How long am I expected to speak? • How many people will attend? • Will I need a microphone? • How will any projecting equipment I plan to use in my speech, such as an LCD projector, speech function in the space?

31. Assess the Speech Setting • Where will I stand or sit in relation to the audience? • Will I be able to interact with the listeners? • Who else will be speaking? • Are there special events or circumstances of concern to my audience that I should acknowledge?