Public Speaking Chapter Five Analyzing Your Audience

Gathering Information About Your Audience the simplest way to gather information about your audience informally is to just observe them and ask questions before you speak try to get as much information as possible about your audience before you speak demographics are statistical information about the age, race, gender, sexual orientation, educational level, and religious views of an audience.

Gathering Information About Your Audience you can also choose to gather information about your audience formally a survey allows you to gather both demographic information and information about what audience members: like or dislike believe to be true or false think is good or bad about the issues that you are discussing

Gathering Information About Your Audience open-ended questions allow for unrestricted answers by not limiting answers to choices or alternatives closed-ended questions offer alternatives from which to choose, such a true / false, agree / disagree, or multiple-choice questions

Analyze Information About Your Audience audience analysis is the process of examining information about the listeners who will hear your speech when analyzing the information that you have gathered about your audience, consider: How are audience members similar to one another? How are audience members different from one another? Based on these similarities or differences, how can I establish common ground?

Analyze Information About Your Audience to establish common ground with your audience is to identify ways in which you and your listeners are alike although every person is unique, you are looking for general ways that they are alike or different a relationship is an ongoing connection you have with another person

Adapt to Your Audience audience adaptation is the process of ethically using information you’ve gathered when analyzing your audience to help your audience clearly understand your message and to achieve your speaking objective

Adapt to Your Audience These key questions can help you to formulate an effective approach to your audience: Consider Your Audience To whom am I speaking? What topic would be most suitable for my audience? Consider Your Speech Goal What is my objective?

Adapt to Your Audience Consider Your Speech Content What kind of information should I share with my audience? How should I present the information to them? How can I gain and hold their attention? What kind of examples would work best? What method of organizing information will be most effective? Consider Your Delivery What language differences and expectations do audience members have? What style of delivery will my audience members expect?

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak You can gather and analyze three primary types of information: demographic psychological situational

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak demographic audience analysis is analyzing an audience by examining demographic information so as to develop a clear and effective message age age can suggest the kinds of examples, humor, illustrations, etc. gender a person’s sex is his or her biological status as male or female, based on anatomy and reproductive system

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak a person’s gender is the culturally constructed and psychologically based perception of one’s self as feminine or masculine sexual orientation an audience-centered speaker is sensitive to issues and attitudes about sexual orientation in contemporary society culture, ethnicity, and race culture is a learned system of knowledge, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms shared by a group of people

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak ethnicity is that portion of a person’s cultural background that relates to a national or religious heritage a person’s race is his or her biological heritage (for example, Caucasian or Hispanic) ethnocentrism is an assumption that your own cultural approaches are superior to those of other cultures

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak individualistic and collectivistic cultures individualistic cultures place more value on individual achievement (ex. United States, Canada, Belgium) collectivistic cultures are more likely to value group or team rewards (Asian cultures) high-context and low-context cultures high-context cultures place high importance on factors such as tone of voice, gesture, facial expressions, other nonverbal aspects low-context cultures expect and need more detailed and explicit information

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak tolerance of uncertainty and need for certainty people from cultures from with a greater tolerance of uncertainty are more comfortable with vagueness and are not upset when details are not spelled out an audience with people who have a need for certainty need concrete details and want to know what steps that can take

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak high-power and low-power cultures people from high-power cultures are more likely to perceive people in leadership roles – including public speakers – as credible they are also more comfortable with differences in social classes people from low-power cultures often favor more shared approaches to leadership and governance

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak long-term and short-term orientation to time people with long-term orientation to time often value patience, persistence, and deferred gratification cultures with short-term orientation to time value quick responses to problems

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak Group membership we are social creatures who congregate in groups to gain identities, to help accomplish projects that we support, and to have fun knowing what groups your listeners belong to can help you make inferences about their likes, dislikes, beliefs, and values

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak Different types of groups: religious groups political groups work groups social groups service groups

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak Socioeconomic status socioeconomic status is a person’s perceived importance and influence based on income, occupation, and education level a target audience is a specific segment of an audience that you most want to influence

Analyzing Your Audience Before You Speak Identify common values People in all cultures: have beliefs about death have a childhood fear of strangers have a division of labor by sex experience certain emotions and feelings, such as envy, pain, jealousy, shame, and pride use facial expressions to create emotion have rules for etiquette experience empathy value some degree of collaboration or cooperation experience conflict and seek to manage or mediate conflicts

Psychological Audience Analysis psychological audience analysis explores an audience’s attitudes, beliefs, values, and other psychological information about an audience in order to develop a clear and effective message an attitude is an individual’s likes or dislikes an individual’s perception of what is true or false is a belief a value is an enduring concept of what is right and wrong

Psychological Audience Analysis a captive audience is required to be there a voluntary audience has a choice

Situational Audience Analysis situational audience analysis is an examination of the time and place of a speech, the audience size, and the speaking occasion in order to develop a clear and effective message

Adapting to Your Audience as You Speak identifying nonverbal cues eye contact facial expression movement nonverbal responsiveness verbal responsiveness

Adapting to Your Audience as You Speak responding to nonverbal cues tell a story use personal examples use appropriate humor be redundant use visual aids as someone in the audience to summarize provide additional evidence to support remind your listeners of your credibility offer to provide additional information at a later time

Adapting to Your Audience as You Speak Strategies for customizing your message to your audience appropriately use audience members’ names refer to the town or community refer to a significant event that happened on the date of your speech refer to a recent news event refer to a group or organization relate information directly to your listeners

Analyzing Your Audience After You Speak nonverbal responses is audience clapping politely or is applause enthusiastic facial expressions verbal responses what do audience members say to you about your speech survey responses behavioral responses will the audience ultimately behave as you intended