2. Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Audience and Situation
Presentation Package Prepared By:
Erin E. Baird
University of Oklahoma
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3. Overview WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND SITUATION?
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE?
WHAT SPECIFIC TRAITS DO YOU NEED TO INVESTIGATE?
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPEAKING SITUATION?
HOW DO YOU ANALYZE THE AUDIENCE AND SITUATION?
HOW CAN YOU ADAPT TO YOUR AUDIENCE AND SITUATION DURING THE SPEECH?

4. Why Do You Need to Know Your Audience and Situation?
Make better speech decisions
Foster audience attention and goodwill
Audience analysis is a systematic investigation of characteristics that make your audience unique.
<<CLICK>> Every decision you make about your speech, from your topic to what you wear the day of your presentation, will be guided by what you know about the audience and situation.
<<CLICK>> It is a necessity and your ethical responsibility as a speaker to appreciate your audience if you want to succeed.
Egocentrism is the tendency for your audience to be interested in things that relate and matter to them. Audience-centered speakers are the most effective.

5. Build Speaking Confidence
Speaking competence
Identity knowledge
Mindfulness
Negotiation skill
<<CLICK>> Speaking competence relates to how well you communicate with others.
<<CLICK>> Identity knowledge means knowing what is distinctive about an audience.
<<CLICK>> Mindfulness means being conscientiously aware of those distinctions.
<<CLICK>> Negotiation skill is the ability to respond to audience differences through sensitivity, politeness, willing adjustment, and collaboration.

6. VALUES: RIGHT AND WRONG, GOOD AND BAD ATTITUDES: LIKES AND DISLIKES
What Do You Need to Know About Your Audience?
VALUES: RIGHT AND WRONG, GOOD AND BAD
ATTITUDES: LIKES AND DISLIKES
BELIEFS: TRUE AND FALSE
What do you need to know about your audience?
<<CLICK>> Attitudes are those things that your audience likes or dislikes.
<<CLICK>> Beliefs are those things that your audience believes to be true or false.
<<CLICK>> Values are those things that your audience feels are good and bad, right and wrong.

7. What Specific Traits Do You Need To Investigate?
Photo Credit: © Flow Images/Age Fotostock

8. BEWARE OF STEREOTYPING!
Personal Traits
GENDER
AGE
DISABILITIES
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
GENDER
INCOME
BEWARE OF STEREOTYPING!
HOUSEHOLD TYPE
OCCUPATION
Personal traits are sometimes referred to as demographics, and help give insight to what your audience cares about.
<<CLICK>> Beware of stereotyping: false or oversimplified generalizing applied to individuals based on group characteristics
EDUCATION

9. Generational Trends
Generational Trends help you understand how age might influence your audience.
Born before 1945: Traditionalists
Born : Baby Boomers
Born : Generation X
Born : Millennials or Generation Y
Table Credit: When Generations Collide by Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman

10. Psychological Traits: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Personal identity, independence, happiness, and potential
Respect from others and ourselves
Belonging with others
Clothing and shelter
Food, water, and air
Psychological traits of your audience pertain to their needs and motivation.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
<<CLICK>> Physiological needs are basic needs for existence like food, water, air.
<<CLICK>> Safety needs are related to clothing and shelter.
<<CLICK>> Social needs relate to the need to belong with others.
<<CLICK>> Self-esteem needs relate to our strong desire for respect from others and to feel good about ourselves.
<<CLICK>> Self-actualization needs relate to personal identity, independence, happiness, and potential.

11. Social Traits Choice Birth Group associations Race Ethnicity Culture
Social traits relate to how your audience is affected by or identifies with other groups of people
<<CLICK>> Social traits by choice:
<<CLICK>> Groups and people you choose to be with.
<<CLICK>> Social traits by birth:
<<CLICK>> Race, ethnicity, culture.

12. U.S. Population Diversity
<<CLICK>> By 2050, our population will be considerably more diverse. As a speaker, you must be aware of, and sensitive to diverse points of view.

13. Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture
Cultural Tendencies
Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture
High Power vs. Low Power
Individualist vs. Collectivist
Competitive vs. Nurturing
Hofstede's Value Dimension model offers a helpful way to look at cultural tendencies and might help you adapt appropriately to a culture (or cultures).
<<CLICK>> High power vs. low power: refers to a culture's lines of authority and responsibility
<<CLICK>> Individualist vs. Collectivist: refers to a culture's self vs. group orientation
<<CLICK>> Competitive vs. Nurturing: refers to levels of assertiveness and competitiveness versus stressing relationships and quality of life
<<CLICK>> High-uncertainty Avoidance vs. Low-uncertainty Avoidance: refers to comfortableness with differing levels of ambiguity
<<CLICK>> Long-term Orientation vs. Short-term Orientation: refers to present vs. future thinking and planning.
High-uncertainty Avoidance vs. Low-uncertainty Avoidance
Long-term Orientation vs. Short-term Orientation

14. What Do You Need To Know About The Speaking Situation?
Photo Credit: © Walter Zeria/Age Fotostock

15. The Speaking Situation
PLACE AND AUDIENCE SIZE: WHERE AND HOW MANY
TIME: WHEN AND HOW LONG?
<<CLICK>> Where you will be and the number of people to whome you will be speaking to may create needs for technology and other equipment.
<<CLICK>> Time of day, day of the week, rotation of the speakers, events before the speaking event, length of speaking time, length of research time, and your relationship with the audience are all important factors to consider.
<<CLICK>> Why is your audience gathered? Celebration? Classroom? Business setting? The appropriate mood will be necessary.
OCCASION: WHY IS YOUR AUDIENCE GATHERED?

16. How Do You Analyze the Audience and Speaking Situation?
Photo Credit: © Jeff Greenberg/Age Fotostock

17. How do you locate audience and situation information?
STOP. THINK. BRAINSTORM.
How do you locate audience and situation information?
Consider what you already know and what the audience knows

18. Basic Interview Guidelines
Open-ended questions
Closed-ended questions
Open-ended questions require an answer beyond yes or no
<<CLICK>> Closed-ended questions require a simple yes or no

19. Surveys Use familiar language Ask demographic questions
Avoid assumptions about respondents
Avoid biased or leading in questions
Use neutral responses
Ask only one thing per question
Use a clean, consistent format
Written surveys or questionnaires are helpful for gathering information from a larger group of people. Tips for developing a survey.

20. Research Credible websites Brochures Newspapers Magazines
Opinion polls
Government documents
Books
Encyclopedias
The Internet, brochures, magazine articles, government archives, and historical societies might be great places to start looking for more information about your speech topic
Photo Credits: © USA.gov, © World Almanac

21. How Can You Adapt to Your Audience During the Speech?
Adapt to External Noise:
Environmental barriers
Linguistic barriers
Adapt to Internal Noise:
Physiological barriers
Psychological barriers
No matter how much you know about your audience, unpredictable things can happen.
<<CLICK>>
External noise is outside of the mind or body.
Environmental barriers can be sound, movement, temperature, etc.
Linguistic barriers can be misundestandings or slang.
Internal noise originates in the mind or body.
Physiological barriers come from the body and can be hunger or tiredness.
Psychological barriers can be negative thoughts about the topic or distraction.

22. Speech: Benefits of Carpooling
Topics of discussion: speaker's audience adaptation, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Click on the screenshot to view a video on the benefits of carpooling.

23. Which of these values is part of an audience's identity?
What Do You Think?
Truths
Values
Attitudes
<<CLICK>> To reveal answers: Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs
Dreams
Beliefs

24. Why do you need to know your audience?
What Do You Think?
Why do you need to know your audience?
Foster their attention and goodwill
Help you feel more confident
Help you make better speech decisions
Open-ended Question:
<<CLICK>> for possible answers

25. "Do you smoke?" is an example of a _____.
What Do You Think?
Closed-ended question
<<CLICK>> for answer: Closed-ended question because it requires a yes/no answer.
Follow up: Is this type of question best suited for a survey or interview? 25