Reference Pew Research Center. Attribution This chapter contains material taken from Chapter 4. Previous: 2. Next: 2. Share This Book Share on Twitter. Politicians usually pay a great deal of attention to demographic factors when they are on the campaign trail. If a politician speaks in Day County, Florida the county with the largest elderly population they will likely discuss the issues that are more relevant to people in that age range — Medicare and Social Security. Communicators must be careful about stereotyping an audience based on demographic information — individuals are always more complicated than a simplistic identity category.
Also, be careful not to pander exclusively to interests based on demographics. For example, the elderly certainly are concerned with political issues beyond social security and Medicare. Using demographic factors to guide speech-making does not mean changing the goal of the speech for every different audience; rather, consider what pieces of information or types of evidence will be most important for members of different demographic groups.
Some of these factors are: the set-up of the room both size and how the audience is arranged , time of day, temperature, external noises lawn mowers, traffic , internal noises babies crying, hacking coughs , and type of space church, schoolroom, outside. Finding out ahead of time the different factors going into the setting will allow a speaker to adapt their speech appropriately. Will there be a stage? Will there be a podium or lectern? What technology aids will be available?
How are the seats arranged? What is the order of speakers? While these issues may appear minor compared to the content of the speech and the make-up of the audience, this foreknowledge will soothe nerves, assist in developing eye contact, and ensure that the appropriate technology, if necessary, is available. Take into account the way that the setting will affect audience attention and participation.
People are usually tired after a meal and late in the day. If scheduled to speak at PM, a speaker may have to make the speech more entertaining through animation or humor, exhibit more enthusiasm, or otherwise involve the audience in order to keep their attention.
There are many misconceptions about most occupations. For instance, many people believe that teachers work an eight-hour day and have summers off. When you ask teachers, however, you might be surprised to find out that they take work home with them for evenings and weekends, and during the summer, they may teach summer school as well as taking courses in order to keep up with new developments in their fields.
If your audience includes doctors and nurses, you know that you are speaking to people with differing but important philosophies of health and illness. Learning about those occupational realities is important in avoiding wrong assumptions and stereotypes. Earlier, we mentioned psychographic information, which includes such things as values, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs. Authors Grice and Skinner present a model in which values are the basis for beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Grice, G.
Mastering public speaking: The handbook 7th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson. Values are the foundation of their pyramid model. Values are usually stated in the form of a word or phrase.
For example, most of us probably share the values of equality, freedom, honesty, fairness, justice, good health, and family. These values compose the principles or standards we use to judge and develop our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. It is important to recognize that, while demographic information as discussed in Section 5. We also acknowledge that people inherit some values from their family upbringing, cultural influences, and life experiences.
The extent to which someone values family loyalty and obedience to parents, thrift, humility, and work may be determined by these influences more than by individual choice. By knowing about such notions ahead of time, you can address them in your speech.
Audiences are likely to have two basic kinds of preexisting notions: those about the topic and those about the speaker.
Many things are a great deal more complex than we realize. Media stereotypes often contribute to our oversimplifications. In speaking to an audience that might have differing definitions, you should take care to define your terms in a clear, honest way.
At the opposite end from oversimplification is the level of sophistication your audience might embody. Your audience analysis should include factors that reveal it. Suppose you are speaking about trends in civil rights in the United States.
You cannot pretend that advancement of civil rights is virtually complete nor can you claim that no progress has been made. It is likely that in a college classroom, the audience will know that although much progress has been made, there are still pockets of prejudice, discrimination, and violence.
When you speak to an audience that is cognitively complex, your strategy must be different from one you would use for an audience that is less educated in the topic.
With a cognitively complex audience, you must acknowledge the overall complexity while stating that your focus will be on only one dimension. You must decide whether it is ethical to represent your topic this way. When you prepare to do your audience analysis, include questions that reveal how much your audience already knows about your topic. Try to ascertain the existence of stereotyped, oversimplified, or prejudiced attitudes about it. This could make a difference in your choice of topic or in your approach to the audience and topic.
People form opinions readily. For instance, we know that students form impressions of teachers the moment they walk into our classrooms on the first day. You get an immediate impression of our age, competence, and attitude simply from our appearance and nonverbal behavior.
In addition, many have heard other students say what they think of us. The same is almost certainly true of you. Sometimes, however, you do know what others think. They might think of you as a jock, a suit-wearing conservative, a nature lover, and so on.
Based on these impressions, your audience might expect a boring speech, a shallow speech, a sermon, and so on. In order to help them be receptive, you address their interests directly, and make sure they get an interesting, ethical speech.
The next type of analysis is called the situational audience analysis Audience analysis that focuses on situational factors such as the size of the audience, the physical setting, and the disposition of the audience toward the topic, the speaker, and the occasion.
The situational audience analysis can be divided into two main questions:. In a typical class, your audience is likely to consist of twenty to thirty listeners. This audience size gives you the latitude to be relatively informal within the bounds of good judgment.
However, you would not become so informal that you allow your carefully prepared speech to lapse into shallow entertainment. You will have to work harder to prepare visual and audio material that reaches the people sitting at the back of the room, including possibly using amplification. There are many occasions for speeches. Awards ceremonies, conventions and conferences, holidays, and other celebrations are some examples. However, there are also less joyful reasons for a speech, such as funerals, disasters, and the delivery of bad news.
As always, there are likely to be mixed reactions. At the same time, it would be needlessly upsetting to launch into a graphic description of injuries suffered by people, animals, and property in neighboring areas not connected to your condomium complex.
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