6
Analyzing the Audience
<A> OBJECTIVES
To learn about your audience and adapt your message accordingly.
To investigate audience psychology.
To gauge listeners’ feelings toward the topic.
To gauge listeners’ feelings toward you as the speaker.
To gauge listeners’ feelings toward the occasion.
To adapt the message to audience demographics.
To appeal to your target audience.
To address the age range of your audience.
To consider cultural background.
To consider the socioeconomic status of your audience.
To consider religious and political affiliations.
To avoid judgments based on gender stereotypes and avoid sexist language.
To consider how disability may affect audience members.
To adapt to cultural values.
To gather information about your audience from a variety of sources.
To investigate the logistics of the speech setting.
<A> CHAPTER CONTENT OUTLINE
I. Assuming an audience-centered perspective
A. Audience analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing information about
audience members’ attributes and motivations with the explicit aim of preparing
your speech in ways that will be meaningful to them.
a. Maintaining an audience-centered perspective will help speakers prepare a
presentation that the audience will want to hear.
1. However, speakers must avoid abandoning their own principles in
this process, as to avoid pandering to the audience. Pandering,
abandoning one’s own convictions to please an audience, can
undermine a speaker’s credibility.
B. Speakers investigate elements of psychographics and demographics to analyze an
audience.
a. Psychographics include opinions and aspirations plus attitudes, beliefs,
and values.
b. Demographics are the statistical characteristics of a given population.
C. Speakers should appeal to audience members’ attitudes, beliefs, and values.
1. Attitudes are the general evaluations of other people, ideas, objects, or
events. Attitudes are based on beliefs.
2. Beliefs refer to our level of confidence about the very existence or validity
of something. Beliefs are the ways in which people perceive reality; they
are our conceptions of what is true and what is false.
3. Both attitudes and beliefs are shaped by values, people’s most enduring
judgments about what is good and bad in life, as shaped by our culture and
our unique experiences within it.
D. Speakers can make their speeches more relevant and motivating by evoking some
combination of their audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, and values.
E. Regardless of the goal of the speech, it’s important to gauge the audience’s
feelings toward the topic, the speaker, and the speech occasion.
a. In terms of listeners’ attitudes toward the topic, people generally give
more interest and attention to topics toward which they have a positive
attitude.
i. Determining an audience’s attitudes and familiarity with a topic is
of great importance when attempting to create a speech that will
resonate with the audience.
b. Speakers can employ different tactics to tailor their speeches to audiences,
dependent on their attitudes, once they know:
i. If the topic is new to their listeners.
ii. If their listeners know relatively little about the topic.
iii. If their listeners are negatively disposed toward the topic.
iv. If their listeners hold a positive attitude toward the topic.
v. If their listeners are part of a captive audience.
F. An audience’s attitude toward the speaker has considerable bearing on its
attentiveness and responsiveness to the message.
a. Speakers who are well-liked can gain at least an initial hearing by an
audience. We trust people we like, and vice versa.
b. Even the most important or interesting message will be disregarded by an
audience that holds negative attitudes toward the speaker.
c. Generally, you can inspire positive attitudes by being a credible speaker
(e.g., knowing the subject, showing goodwill toward the audience, and
displaying integrity of character in your words and actions).
d. Speakers should attempt to enhance identification with their audience by
focusing on areas of agreement. This can be accomplished by sharing a
personal story, emphasizing shared roles, or dressing or using mannerisms
similar to audience members.
G. Listener’s attitudes toward the occasion occur because people bring different sets
of expectations and emotions to a speech event, depending on the circumstances
that precipitated the event.
a. Speakers who fail to identify their audience’s expectations can risk
alienating their audience.
b. Members of a captive audience, who are required to hear the speaker, may
be less positively disposed to the occasion than members of a voluntary
audience.
II. Adapt your message to audience demographics
A. Demographics are statistical characteristics of a given population or group.
1. Seven characteristics are typically considered in the analysis of a speech
B. Knowing the audience demographics can help determine the target audience,
those individuals within the audience whom the speaker is most likely to
C. Being aware of the audience’s age range and of generational identity, in which
people associate with a given stage of life, allows the speaker to develop points
D. The more public speakers are aware of ethnic and cultural variations in the
audience, the more effective their speeches will be. Some audience members will
belong to co-cultures.
E. Socioeconomic status (SES) includes an individual’s income, occupation, and
education.
1. Income is a pervasive influence in people’s lives and often determines
their exposure to certain experiences and environments.
2. Occupation is closely related to a person’s identification, interests,
attitudes, beliefs, and goals.
F. Being aware of an audience’s general religious orientation can be especially
G. A speaker should never make unwarranted assumptions about an audience’s
H. Consideration of gender, the social and psychological sense of ourselves as males
or females, is important both in developing a topic’s key points and in the manner
in which the speech is presented.
I. The various group affiliations of an audience—social, civic, work-related,
religious, or political—can provide insight into what they care about, and should
be considered when crafting a speech.
III.Adapt to diverse audiences
1. More than 13 percent of the population is foreign-born, with 21 percent
speaking a language other than English in their homes.
B. Speakers should be aware of different cultural perspectives in the audience when
crafting speeches, noting the different styles of communication that may exist.
C. It is crucial that speakers treat ethnically and culturally diverse audiences with
dignity by espousing trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and fairness.
IV. Adapt to cross-cultural values
1. Speakers should prepare to speak in front of ethnically and culturally diverse
audiences, becoming familiar with differences, as well as similarities, in values.
2. Geert Hofstede’s values dimensions model provides us with six major value
dimensions that are significant across all cultures.
2. High-uncertainty avoidance cultures structure life more rigidly and
3. Power distance, the extent to which a culture values social equality versus
distance cultures tend to emphasize rigid hierarchical lines and authority.
Low power distance cultures tend to emphasize social equality.
4. Masculine versus feminine traits are viewed on a continuum on which
cultures value certain behaviors associated with each sex.
5. Time orientation refers to the degree to which a culture values behavior
that is directed toward future rewards (long-term orientation) versus
behavior that is directed toward short-term gains (short-term orientation).
6. The indulgence versus restraint dimension refers to the degree to which a
culture supports activities that lead to the enjoyment of life versus
restraining those activities.
3. It is also important to focus on universal values that almost all audience members
will share, or at least aspire to, including love, truthfulness, fairness, unity,
tolerance, responsibility, and respect for life.
V. Techniques for learning about your audience
A. An interview is a concurrent communication for the purpose of gathering
information.
1. Interviews can be conducted one-on-one, in a group, by telephone, or by
2. Instead of interviewing large portions of your audience, a speaker can
3. An interview should contain both open-ended and closed-ended questions.
B. As with the interview, survey methods of audience analysis allow a mix of open–
and closed-ended questions, but surveys and questionnaires allow you to gather
information from a larger pool of respondents.
2. Fixed alternative questions present respondents with a limited choice of
answers.
4. Open-ended questions seek no particular response and allow the
respondents to elaborate as much as they wish.
C. Various published sources can help speakers learn about their audiences.
1. Published sources include brochures, newspaper articles, organizational
2. Published opinion polls can also be helpful.
VI. Analyze the speech setting and context
A. The size of the audience and the physical setting in which a speech occurs can
have a significant effect on the speech outcome.
1. Some settings are more formal than others; larger audiences make
B. The scheduled time and length of the speech should be considered during
preparation.
1. The disrespecting of state or expected time constraints can erode an
audience’s respect for the speaker.
C. The context of the speech, or rhetorical situation, may present potential
<A> KEY TERMS
audience analysis the process of gathering and analyzing demographic and
psychological information about audience members.
audience-centered perspective an approach to speech preparation in which each phase
of the speech preparation process—from selection and treatment of the speech topic to
psychographics the study and analysis of audience members’ attitudes, beliefs, and
values as they relate to the topic under investigation.
beliefs the ways in which people perceive reality or determine the very existence or
validity of something.
captive audience
an audience required to attend the speech event. See
also
voluntary
audience.
target audience
those individuals within the broader audience who are most likely to be
influenced in the direction the speaker seeks.
audience segmentation
dividing a
general audience into smaller groups, called target
audiences, with similar characteristics, wants, and needs.
socioeconomic status (SES) a cluster of demographic characteristics of audience
members, including income, occupation, and education.
gender stereotypes a stereotype based on
oversimplified and often severely distorted
ideas about the innate nature of what it means to be male or female.
individualistic culture
a culture that tends to emphasize personal identity
and the needs
of the individual rather than those of the
group, upholding such values as individual
achievement and decision making. See
also collectivist culture.
uncertainty avoidance
the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguity.
low-uncertainty avoidance culture
one of five “value dimensions” or major cultural
patterns that are significant across all cultures to varying degrees; identified by Geert
Hofstede. See
also high-uncertainty avoidance
culture.
interview a type of communication conducted for the purpose of gathering information.
Interviews can be conducted one on one or in a group.
closed-ended question a question designed to elicit a small range of specific answers
supplied by the interviewer. See also open-ended question.
fixed-alternative question a closed-ended question that contains a limited choice of
answers, such as “Yes,” “ No,” or “Sometimes.”
2010 Census results. http://2010.census.gov
CHAPTER STUDY GUIDE
I.
SUMMARY QUESTIONS
What is audience analysis?
Audience analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing information about audience
members’ attributes and motivations with the explicit aim of preparing your speech in
What factors are important to know about an audience?
To analyze an audience, speakers investigate both psychological and demographic
factors. Psychographics include the opinions and aspirations that so interest advertisers
and, critically for public speakers, audience members’ attitudes, beliefs, and values
What are audience psychographics, and why are they important?
Psychographics are audience attitudes, beliefs, and values. Attitudes are our general
evaluations of people, ideas, objects, or events. Attitudes are based on beliefs—the
ways in which people perceive reality or their conceptions about what is true or what is
false. Both attitudes and beliefs are shaped by values-our most enduring judgments
What are audience demographics, and what can they reveal about an audience?
Demographics are statistical characteristics of a given population. Audience
demographics focus on roughly eight such characteristics: age, ethnic and cultural
background, socioeconomic status (including income, occupation, and education),
religious affiliations, political affiliations, gender, group affiliations, and disability. Other
A speaker should know as much as possible about the audience’s feelings toward
what three things?
What is a target audience?
A target audience includes those individuals within the broader audience whom you are
most likely to influence in the direction you seek. Audience segmentation, the process
What are the six major value dimensions in Hofstede’s Value-Dimensions Model?
According to Hofstede, the six major value dimensions are individualism versus
What are some methods of audience analysis?
This chapter describes three methods by which a speaker can analyze an audience:
interviews, surveys/questionnaires, and published sources. Interviews and surveys are
most useful when it is possible for representative members of the audience to answer
Which features of the speech setting and context should be assessed as part of
audience analysis?
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Why is it important to always conduct a thorough audience analysis, even when a
speaker will be giving a speech that he or she has given several times before?