Speech Chapter 6 First The Composition The Audience May Change Every Audience Different And Even

First, the composition of the audience may change. Every audience is different, and even

slight changes in demographics can warrant a new approach. Second, the attitudes of

Have you ever witnessed a speech in which you felt the speaker was “pandering” to

the audience? If so, describe the speech context and discuss why you felt this way.

Students are likely to describe instances in which political candidates and/or figures

Why would it matter that an audience may be made up of more women than men,

or more Asian Americans than Hispanics, or more people who trust the mainstream

media than people who don’t? How would this information affect the way you

choose to prepare for and deliver a speech?

Point out that the composition of the audience, based on either demographic or

As far as you are concerned, which of the four essential features of a speech

setting—size of the audience, physical setting, time and length of the speech, or the

speech context/rhetorical situation-is most important to consider in preparing a

speech? Why?

What specific steps can you take to conduct an audience analysis of your target

audience in our class?

Students should be able to articulate the methods described in the chapter (interviews,

surveys, and published sources), but this discussion will be more helpful if students are

How might audience analysis help alleviate public speaking anxiety?

The more knowledge a speaker has about the audience, the more likely he or she is to feel

III. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

QUESTIONS

The following questions may help you illustrate important points in the chapter and

facilitate students’ learning of this material. These questions can be used as:



homework questions



quizzes

What is audience analysis?

Audience analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing information about audience

What types of information can you obtain about your audience?



Psychographic data: Attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings toward the topic, feelings

toward the speaker, and feelings toward the occasion

Define and give an example of attitudes, beliefs, and values.

 Attitudes: Our general evaluations of people, ideas, objects, or events

o Example: Not liking politicians who use music to appear cool



Beliefs: The ways in which people perceive reality; conceptions of what is true

and what is false

o

Example: Believing in extraterrestrial life

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.

List at least three ways to obtain information about your audience.



interviews



surveys/questionnaires



published sources

Interviews use several types of questions. Cite them, and give an example of each.

Open-ended questions (unstructured questions): Questions that seek no particular

response and allow respondents to elaborate as much as they wish

Scale questions: A type of closed-ended question that measures the respondent’s level of

agreement or disagreement with specific issues

What sorts of information can you find in published sources?



Missions and goals

What advantages do published sources have over interviews and surveys?

The best method is a combination of methods, but published sources have some benefits

over the others because the speaker can process in-depth information without the

What factors affect the speech setting?



size of audience



physical setting/location



time or length of speech



the speech context/rhetorical situation

ACTIVITIES

Analyzing Your Classroom Audience

Purpose: To give students experience in creating audience-analysis surveys; to allow

students to receive feedback on the surveys they create.

Instructions: Prepare a survey to conduct an audience analysis of your class. Include

both closed-ended and open-ended questions to determine audience members’ age,

gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic or cultural background, religious and political

affiliation, group affiliation, and disability.

Audience Analysis Considerations for Your Topic

Purpose: To encourage students to consider the factors in an audience-analysis survey

that are most relevant to their own intended topics.

Instructions: Consider the topic you plan to pursue for your next speech. Decide which

Have students include this as one of the preparation steps for their next speech

assignment, and ask them to turn in their work so that you can give them feedback. This

is also a good way for the instructor to examine the progress of a student’s speech

assignment in terms of audience analysis.

Interviewing for

Audience

Analysis

Purpose: To allow students the opportunity to develop interview questions for audience

analysis; to give students experience in interviewing and note taking for audience

analysis.

Instructions: Construct a set of interview questions based on your speech topic and

purpose. Select a sample of five members of the class who represent the demographic and

dispositional qualities obtained in your survey analysis. Interview these individuals.

Make notes about which aspects of your topic seem most relevant and interesting to these

people.

Write

Your Own Survey

Purpose: To give students experience in writing survey questions on a topic.

Instructions: Using the text guidelines for survey questions, generate a four- to five-

question survey on a topic of your choice.

Delving Deeper into Demographics

Purpose: To encourage students to analyze how each of the eight demographic

characteristics may be relevant for their chosen speech topics.

This assignment works well for face-to-face classes and online courses. Students must

think critically about how diverse audiences will interpret their speech purpose and topic.

This assignment is most helpful when preparing for persuasive speeches.

Evaluate

Your Classroom Speaking Environment

Purpose: To encourage students to consider the affect the speaking environment will

have on their upcoming speeches in their classroom.

This activity empowers students by giving them an opportunity to control their own

Evaluating Audience

Analysis in a Completed

Speech (also for online

courses)

Purpose: To see the result of audience analysis through completion of an entire speech.

Instructions: Assign students to select a speech from television or the Internet in which

they believe the speaker did a good job of appealing to his or her audience. Have them

prepare a brief analysis of their selected speeches in which they answer the following:

1. Can you identify instances in which the speaker is targeting his or her message to

the audience? What techniques does the speaker use to appeal to the audience?

Uncovering Audience

Psychology: Identifying Feelings about the

Topic, Speaker,

and Occasion

Purpose: To learn to consider information about an audience for audience analysis.

Instructions: Divide the class into two groups.

Assign each group one of the following

hypothetical speech assignments. (Alternatively, you might wish to engage

the class in a

classroom discussion.)

Topic: Welfare to Work Laws: Should Welfare Recipients Undergo Drug Testing?

Speaker: A professor specializing in the history of welfare

Occasion: A lecture at a

university



Audience 1: senior Republican lawmakers



Audience 1: senators and representatives



Audience 2: journalists



Audience 3: lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union

For each of these audiences, how might feelings about the

speaker differ? How might

feelings about the

topic

differ? How might feelings about the

occasion

differ?

Creating Questionnaires

Purpose: To learn to construct effective questionnaires.

Instructions: Either the instructor or the students should generate a list of five

controversial topics. These topics could be potential future persuasive speech topics.

Discussion: Once each group has completed the questionnaires, initiate a classroom

discussion on the appropriateness and relevance of each question. Did students include

fixed alternative questions? Scale questions? Open-ended questions?

What Kind of Audience Member Are You? (also for online courses)

Purpose: To help students think critically about their own demographic characteristics

Instructions: Ask each student to write a brief profile about themselves, using the seven

demographic characteristics described in Chapter 6. Make sure you allow students the

freedom to refrain from discussing anything that they feel uncomfortable sharing with the

entire class. As a general guideline, each demographic characteristic might warrant a two-

IV. GROUP

ACTIVITIES

How

Well Do You Know

Your Classroom

Audience?

Instructions: The classroom provides an excellent laboratory for practicing audience

both men and women who represent different age groups. Values, beliefs, and political

compare your answers with those of your classmates.

1. What is the age range of your class? ______________

2. What is the average age? ______________

3. What are most of your classmates?

4. What is the ratio of men to women?

5. What percentage of your classmates anticipates pursuing a graduate degree?

6. What percentage of your class holds a part-time or full-time job?

7. Which religious category do you think most of your classmates would identify as

their own?

8. Which political party do you think is most heavily represented in your class?

9. List three issues that you consider to be of great importance to your classmates:

________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

How do your answers compare with those of your classmates? In what ways can this

profile of your class be useful in preparing your next speech assignment?

How likely are you to get an accurate profile of an audience without conducting a well–

planned audience analysis?

Students can work individually or in groups when anticipating classmates’ answers to the

Audience

Analysis in a Campaign Speech

Purpose: To illustrate a speech in which audience analysis is critically important; to give

students an opportunity to apply what they have learned about audience analysis to a

political campaign speech.

have students write a detailed critique of the speaker’s audience analysis using the

material taught in Chapter 6.

Students should be encouraged to offer specific (and constructive) feedback, as if they

were a campaign consultant or manager. What advice would they offer this candidate to

improve his/her audience analysis? What methods could be utilized to effectively reach

the target audience? Should the candidate rewrite portions of his/her speech because it

panders to the audience?

Same

Topic, Different Audience

Purpose: To encourage students to consider how the approach to a message must be

adapted based on different audiences.

Instructions: Ask students to form small groups and identify three civic or political

speech topics that are currently being discussed by the media. Students should answer the

following questions for each one of their topic selections.

1. How might audience members of various religious affiliations feel about this

topic?

2. How might audience members of various political affiliations feel about this

topic?

After students have discussed these questions, have them present their topics and answers