CHAPTER 6 ANALYZING THE AUDIENCE

General Goals / Purposes of Public Speaking (page 20)  To Inform  To Persuade  To Entertain  To Motivate  To Mark a Special Occasion

Audience Analysis Audience Analysis - The process of gathering and analyzing information about audience members with the explicit aim of adapting your message to the information you uncover about them.  Let their interests / background guide you!  Don’t abandon your own convictions to reach your audience (pandering)

Identify Audience  Attitudes  Beliefs  Values

Identify listener’s disposition  Topic  Speaker  Incorporate Identification (audience relevance)  Occasion  Graduation?  Class?  Conference?

Demographic Characteristics – Gender (page 94) – There is a difference between sex, gender, and sexual orientation – Avoid gender stereotypes, sexist language – Age (page 92) – The average age of community college students : 29 years old – 39% of students are the first generation to attend college – 27% of full time students work full time

Demographic Characteristics – Socioeconomic factors (page 93) Income Occupation Education Higher level of education is associated with open-mindedness – Group Affiliation (page 93-94) Religion There are more than 2,300 different religious groups in US Ethnicity At least 30% of population belong to racial or ethnic minority Group memberships (Political Affiliation)

Demographic Characteristics  Disability (page 95)  Over 14% of college students are disabled  Knowledge / interest of subject

Cultural differences Communication theorists, such as Hofstede and Lewis, have studied how culture has influenced behavior patterns and attitudes in different cultural groups. A speaker must also consider how the audience member cultural backgrounds influence how each may respond to the message.

Techniques for Analyzing your Audience  Interviews  Surveys or questionnaires  Observation of audience members on basic demographic characteristics  Published sources that have already analyzed large sample populations based on the six demographic characteristics.

Analyze the Speech Setting  Size of audience  Location/physical setting  What equipment will be available?  Time of day  Length of speech  What is the length of your speech? Other time restraints?  Rhetorical situation/context  What is the occasion of the speech?

What Is Your Speech Setting? 1.Where will you give your speech? 2.How many people will be in the audience? 3.How long should the speech be? 4.What technical equipment will you be using? 5.Where will you stand/sit in the room while giving the speech? 6.Will other students be speaking? Is this an individual or group speech? 7.How can you engage or interact with the audience? 8.Are there any special events or circumstances of concern which you should acknowledge?