Chapter 6, p. 282
3. 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
4. Consider the arrangement of your classroom. Open up the class to discussion and suggestions
as to how the arrangement of the classroom could be improved to benefit audience receptivity
5. Log onto VideoCentral: Public Speaking and choose Chapter 22: Principles of Informative
Speaking. Pick three to five speeches to listen to and then pinpoint whom the intended
audience is that the speaker is trying to reach. Based on the sources of evidence used, the types
of presentation aids used, and the speaker’s body language, appearance, and vocal delivery,
adapted to their perceived intended audiences.
II. GROUP ACTIVITY
The classroom provides an excellent laboratory for practicing audience analysis. Like the larger
world, the classroom contains people from a variety of socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural, and
religious backgrounds. It likely contains both men and women who represent different age groups.
Values, beliefs, and political opinions may also diverge widely. How well do you think you know
the audience demographics of the classroom? To find out, have the students visit with each
1. What is the age range of your class?
What is the average age? _____________________
2. What are most of your classmates?
3. What is the ratio of men to women?
4. What percentage of your classmates anticipates pursuing a graduate degree?
5. What percentage of your class holds a part-time or full-time job?
6. Which religious category do most of your classmates identify as their own?
Chapter 6, p. 284
7. Which political party is most represented in your class?
8. How many students in the class are involved in a campus organization?
9. How many students in the class are involved in sports, either organized or recreational?
10. How many students in the class are members of a Greek organization?
11. List three issues that your classmates say are of great importance to them:
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?
You may want to structure this as a two-part exercise. For the first part, separate the students
into groups and have the students work together to fill out the survey based on what they think the
III. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
QUESTIONS
The following questions may be used by instructors to help illustrate important points in the
chapter and to facilitate students’ learning of the material. These questions can be used as:
• Homework questions
• Quizzes
• In-class work (individually or in groups)
• Topics to generate discussion
• Question-and-answer sessions between instructor and students
1. What is audience analysis?
2. What types of information can you obtain about your audience?
3. Define and give an example of attitudes, beliefs, and values. Which of these do you think can
be changed? Which of these do you think probably cannot be changed?
Chapter 6, p. 286
• Attitudes: predispositions to respond to people, ideas, objects, or events in evaluative ways
• Beliefs: the way in which people perceive reality; conceptions of what is true and what is
false
• Values: people’s most enduring judgments about what is good and bad in life
4. List at least three ways to obtain information about your audience.
5. Which features of the speech setting should be assessed as part of audience analysis?
6. Using the text guidelines for survey questions, generate a four- to five-question survey on a
topic of your choice.
7. Consider the topic you plan to pursue for your next speech. Decide which of the factors
included in your audience-analysis survey are most pertinent to the development of your
8. 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.
ACTIVITIES
Investigating Values
Purpose: To help students learn to identify values.
Instructions: Students get together in groups of three or four. Each student writes down two or
three values. Then the group as a whole compiles a list of values that represent the entire group
(similar concepts may be collapsed into one broad category). Once this is done, one person from
Evaluating Audience Analysis in a Completed Speech
Purpose: To see the result of audience analysis through completion of an entire speech.
Instructions: Assign students to select a speech from television or radio 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 questions.
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?
2. Does the speaker note any relationships between the topic and the audience? Provide
3. Can you identify instances in which the speaker appears to be adjusting the topic to meet
audience expectations?
4. Does the speaker adjust the message to the occasion of the speech?
5. Does the speaker acknowledge any relationship between himself or herself and the
audience?
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. Divide students into five groups,
and give each group a topic. Then have each group develop an audience-analysis questionnaire
appropriate to its topic. Questionnaires should include questions that will uncover demographic
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.)
1. Topic: Welfare to Work Laws: Should Welfare Mothers Be Required to Work?
2. Topic: Should There Be Legislation Limiting What the Media Can Report on Politicians’
Personal Lives?
Speaker: The publisher of the New York Times
Occasion: An appearance before a congressional committee that is also open to the public
• Audience 1: senators and representatives
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?
• How might the speaker shape his or her message to appeal to each audience?
• Why should the occasion be one of the speaker’s key considerations in planning and
delivering the speech?
RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES
The American Freshman: National Norms. Available from the Higher Education Research
Institute, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California at
Los Angeles, 3005 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951251, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1521 (Tel.: 310–
825–1925).
Clevenger, T. (1966). Audience analysis. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
Fuller, L. K. (1994, Summer). Participatory audience analysis: A research technique that teaches
Chapter 6, p. 290
397.
Kerlinger, F. N. (1993). Foundations of behavioral research (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.
McQuail, D. (2007). Audience analysis. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
Menner, P. (1987, July). Audience appreciation: A different story from audience members.
The world almanac and book of facts (2007). Mahwah, NJ: World Almanac Books.
Webster, J. G. (2005). Ratings analysis: The theory and practice of audience research. Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Chapter 6, p. 291
Williams, D. (2006). Teaching co-cultures in the public speaking course. Texas Speech
SUGGESTED WEBSITES
The Gallup polls <www.gallup.com>
Library of Congress <www.loc.gov>
National Center for Health Statistics <www.cdc.gov/nchs/>