Chapter Four: Your Audience and Speaking Environment
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Chapter Goals
Chapter 4 introduces students to the elements involved in adapting their speeches to diverse audiences.
Students will also understand the different components that comprise the speaking environment. At the
end of the chapter, students should understand the following:
• To analyze the various components of an audience
Chapter Outline
I. When you give a speech, you add your voice to the public dialogue (pg. 59).
a. Dialogue-Interaction, connection, and exchange of ideas and opinions with others.
b. Audience-centered-Acknowledging your audience by considering and listening to the
unique, diverse, and common perspectives of its members before, during, and after your
speech. (pg. 60)
i. This does not mean that speakers say only what the audience agrees with or
II. Considering an audience as a group of diverse people (pg. 60).
• People are unique because of a combination of culture, upbringing, experiences, personality,
and genetics.
• Public speakers must take into consideration an audience’s conflicting differences and
similarities, and understand how our complex identities intersect and influence who we are.
a. Master Statuses (pgs. 60-61).
i. Master statuses-Significant positions occupied by a person within society that
affect that person’s identity in almost all social situations.
ii. A person’s master status might include race or ethnicity, sex or gender, physical
higher than darker skin color, homosexuality, and femininity.
viii. The first three statuses are considered more valuable; therefore, they are
b. Standpoints, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values (pg. 62).
i. Standpoint is the perspective from which a person views and evaluates society.
2. Audience members will have different master statuses and thus different
experiences.
3. Although master statuses can have a powerful influence on a person’s
1. Attitudes reflect our likes and dislikes, our approval or disapproval of
events, people, or ideas.
iii. A belief is a person’s idea of what is real, not real, true or not true.
1. Beliefs are more conceptual than attitudes and reflect what we think we
know about the world.
iv. A value is a person’s idea of what is good, worthy, or important.
v. Ethnocentrism is the belief that our own cultural perspectives, norms, and ways
of organizing society are superior to others.
1. Speakers must avoid ethnocentric views to prevent alienating audience
members.
c. Demographic audience analysis (pgs. 62-64).
i. A demographic audience analysis is an analysis that identifies the particular
population traits of an audience.
1. Demographic characteristics include age, country of origin, ethnicity and
2. Demographic information may be gathered by personal interviews,
through surveys, or by researching the Internet.
ii. An open-ended question allows respondents to answer in an unrestricted way.
1. An example of an open-ended question might be “What are your
iii. A closed-ended question requires respondents to choose an answer from two or
more alternatives.
1. Examples of closed-ended questions might be, “Do you support the
iv. Surveys are good ways to gather information about an audience’s beliefs,
attitudes, and values.
1. Guidelines for surveys (pg. 64).
v. A stereotype is a broad generalization about an entire group based on limited
knowledge or exposure to only certain members of that group.
III. Considering an audience as a community (pgs. 64-66).
a. Voluntary audiences find something significant enough to listen to.
i. There are several examples of voluntary audiences, including the delegates who
attend the Democratic and Republican national conferences every four years,
b. Involuntary audiences are people who sometimes form an audience because they must.
i. Examples of involuntary audiences include students in public speaking courses and
employees in mandatory business meetings.
1. Some involuntary audiences have little or no interest in your topic.
a. Before giving your speech, discover why your audience is
required to attend.
IV. Considering your speaking environment (pg. 67).
Speaking environment–Time and place in which a speaker will speak.
a. Size and physical arrangement.
b. Technology refers to the tools speakers use to help them deliver their message.
i. Technologies for speakers (Table 4.1, pg. 68).
ii. Drawbacks include unavailable technology and equipment failure.
c. Temporal factors (pg. 69).
i. Time of day.
1. Different energies and moods at different times of day.
ii. Speaking order.
V. Adapting to audience expectations (pg. 71).
a. Expectations about the speaker.
i. Audiences expect the speaker to be competent and credible.
ii. Acknowledge your own master statuses as a speaker to help your audience
understand your perspective.
b. Expectations about the form of a speech (pg. 73).
i. Form is the creation of an appetite in the minds of an audience and the adequate
satisfying of that appetite.
c. Expectations about discussions (pg. 74).
i. Speakers are often expected to make time for question-and-answer sessions at the
end of a speech or to manage brainstorming sessions and discussions.
1. To help you do this, consider why people ask questions.
a. They want to clarify points.
2. People participate in discussions for many of the same reasons they ask
3. In adjusting to audience expectations about discussions, it is helpful to
recognize what motivates an audience to attack or challenge a speaker.
a. When an audience attacks or challenges a speaker, it is usually
End of Chapter Activities and Discussion Questions
The following questions can be found at the end of Chapter 4.
Review Questions and Activities
1. Identify the following statements as true or false:
__________ A dialogue is simply taking turns in a conversation.
__________ When preparing my speech, I need to think more about what I want to say than
the background and experiences of my audience.
Each of these statements is false. Can you explain why?
Discuss with students each of these questions and the reasons they are false. These questions help
students realize that listening to their audience and having an awareness of factors such as culture,
2. Consider the times that as an audience member you held a very different standpoint from the other
audience members. Consider the times you held a very similar standpoint to other audience members.
How did these situations affect your experience? Did the speaker address these differences or
similarities? What was the effect of the speaker’s actions?
3. Discuss with your classmates the differences between voluntary and involuntary audiences. In your
public speaking class, you will speak to involuntary audiences. What strategies will you use as a speaker
to communicate an audience-centered perspective to your audience?
4. Imagine you are giving a speech to introduce your audience to rock climbing and to encourage them to
take up the sport. Describe how your speech might change for each of the following audiences:
• Thirty sixth graders, voluntarily present
• Thirty corporate executives, asked to attend by their bosses
5. Consider the room in which your public speaking class is held. Describe the physical setting, options
for the placement of speakers, time constraints, and other temporal factors. How is your audience
limited or enhanced by these environmental factors? How are you limited or enhanced? Identify specific
strategies you can use to enhance this environment so your audience is more open to your message and
better understands it.
This question can be addressed with the class as a whole after lecturing about the speaking
environment. Have students as a group look around the room and generate some ideas. For instance,
6. Do discussions and question-and-answer sessions make you feel nervous? If so, what are your biggest
fears regarding these speech elements? Using this chapter as your guide, identify three ways you might
ease some of your fears.
If you are incorporating question-and-answer sessions in all speech assignments, have students
Web Activities
1. Learning About Your Audiences
Purpose: To learn how to design a survey to give to students in your public speaking class.
advice for creating surveys you might give an audience. Read the first three chapters and create a survey
for your class. What did the survey tell you about your class? How will this information influence how
you create your speech?
2. U.S. Census
information. What information on this site might you use in your speech? Of what value is this
information to the U.S. government?
3. Identifying Audiences
Purpose: To isolate characteristics of an audience and assess how well speakers adapt to these
audiences.
Directions: Locate two speeches of your choice. Compare and contrast the audiences for the speeches
you locate. How are the audiences similar and how are they different? To what degree does each speaker
adjust to the audience?
You can assign this as a homework assignment or as an assignment in class with a partner. Students
Advanced Public Speaking Institute
about room setup and public speaking. Which of the advice offered in this article is audience centered?
Is there any advice in the article that is not audience centered?
Encourage students to access this website as they practice for their next speech. Some students will be
Additional Exercises and Resources
1. Cultural Heritage Exercise
In class, give students about 10 minutes to begin preparing a brief speech about their cultural heritage.
Place them into groups of 3-4 and have them take 2-3 minutes each delivering their speech. If you have
2. Master Statuses and Public Speaking
Have students respond to the following questions related to the scenarios offered below: What is the
role that master statuses play in these scenarios? How might these speakers’ master status affect their
audience’s expectations? What could these speakers do to address an audience’s assumptions and help
the audience move past them to focus on the content of their speeches? What are the implications here
for public speaking? How might students strategize to make these situations effective public speaking
situations, while also remaining audience centered?
a. Gifty is a 42-year-old, Ghanaian born, citizen of the United States. She holds both a law
degree and a Masters of Public Health. When she gives presentations, people often doubt
c. Ghalib is a 40-year-old, Muslim male from Palestine, and a U.S. citizen. He has a Ph.D. in
Political Science, focusing on international policy. He has been in the United States since
3. My Own Master Status
Students sometimes are challenged by the idea of master statuses and the role master statuses can play
in their own lives. They may even have trouble identifying their own master statuses and how those
affect their standpoints. On the board, write the following:
Sex:
4. Survey Form
True/False Quiz
Identify the following statements as true or false:
_____ A dialogue is simply taking turns in a conversation.
_____ When preparing my speech, I need to think more about what I want to say than the
background and experiences of my audience.
General Class Survey/Demographic Audience Analysis
Please fill out the following information. Extra space is provided at the end of the survey for additional
information you would like me to know.
1) Are you male or female?
2) How old are you?
3) What is your major?
4) Are you single or married?
Additional comments:
Supplemental Bibliography
Arliss, Laurie P., and Borisoff, Deborah J., Women and Men Communicating: Challenges and Changes,
2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL.: Waveland Press, 2001.
Bower, Bruce. “Signs and Sounds of High Blood Pressure.” Science News, 129 (Feb 22, 1986): 116.
Bower offers an interesting article about how the size of the audience, the setting, and the status of
audience members can have real physical effects on a speaker, such as elevated blood pressure and
heart rate.
Gudykunst, William B., and Kim, Young Yun. Communicating with Strangers: An Approach to
Intercultural Communication, 3rd ed. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Porter, James. Audience and Rhetoric: An Archaeological Composition of the Discourse Community.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992.
This resource explores the concept of audience, its meaning, its significance to speaking, and who
Zemke, Ron, Claire Raines, and Filipczak, Bob. Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans,
Boomers, Xers and Nexters in Your Workplace. New York: American Management Association,
2000.
For help in your discussion about how differences in the age and experience of your audience can