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Audience Analysis Paper

In: Business and Management

Submitted By schenfanny
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When we are presenting quarterly sales information at an in-person meeting to a group of stakeholders, including managers, salespeople, and customers; we have to must consider the characteristics of the audience: age, gender, ethnicity, race, and cultural background, education, religious and political affiliations, economic status, sexual orientation, family background and group membership. Being aware of the audience, their characteristics, attitudes, interests and beliefs guide each step of the speech preparation process. Using these categories a speaker can sometimes predict the interests of audiences with certain characteristics. One student looked around her class of 23 males and 2 females and decided to give a definition speech on the word “bikini.” With a skimpy little model of a bikini as a visual aid, she had rapt attention from her mostly male audience throughout the speech.
But on another occasion a county extension agent invited to speak to a group of homemakers picked the topic “Alternate Uses of the Coffeemaker.” Unfortunately this was a group of non-coffee drinkers. No one in the room owned a coffeemaker. So this demonstration fell flat on its face.
A demographic analysis of your audience can be a useful guide, but it is not a foolproof method. While looking for similarities and common interests, you must always be aware of the rich diversity that some audiences exhibit. Audiences are still made up of individuals with unique characteristics and interests.
Another component of audience analysis consists of the psychological dimensions of the audience.
A psychological audience analysis looks at:
• Knowledge
• Interests
• Attitudes
• Beliefs
Consider a class speech demonstrating how to cook ramen noodle soup. Since almost every college student is intimately familiar with Match Senator Edward Kennedy’s words to the speaker strategies listed above on adapting to a hostile audience.
“ I have come here to discuss my beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America. I know we begin with certain disagreements, and I strongly suspect at the end of the evening some of our disagreements will remain. But I also hope that tonight and in the months and years ahead, we will always respect the right of others to differ, that we will never lose sight of our own fallibility, and that we will view ourselves with a sense of perspective and a sense of humor. After all, in the New Testament, even the disciples had to be taught to look first to the beam in their own eyes, and only then to the mote in their neighbor’s eyes. I am mindful of that counsel. I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct—or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?

The audience of older, more conservative students would be a challenge. This might be a hostile audience requiring a more subtle approach with a lot of credible and relevant evidence. Your goal might be more towards understanding than persuasion. Your delivery might be more controlled. As you can see, different audiences and topics require different speaker strategies.

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