Chapter 5
ANALYZING YOUR
AUDIENCE
SPEECH110
C.ShoreFall 2015
East San Gabriel Valley, ROP
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Learning Objectives



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5.1: Explain how the success of a speech
depends on the audience.
5.2: Describe how the audience (a)
compositions, (b) culture, and (c)
psychology affect listeners receptiveness
to a speech.
5.3: Identify both formal and informal
methods of audience analysis.
5.4: Indicate how your ethos influences
the audience and how you can improve
your ethos.
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Ethos Analysis

Aristotle’s view
– Character and credibility
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Remember: Identification
– Common bond
– Similarities and differences
– Before identification with audience you
must know yourself

Adjustment and flexibility of beliefs
and values
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5.1: Audience Analysis

3 Levels of audience
1. Composition
2. Respect culture
3. Understand psychology

Stereotyping: assuming that all
members of a demographic category
are alike in all respects
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5.2a: Composition

Basic demographics

– Biological sex
– Gender
– Age
– Economic class
– Race/ethnicity/nationality/culture
– Education level
Heterogeneity
– Audience diversity

Avoid material significant to only some in the
audience, vague generalizations, & platitudes
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5.2a: Composition
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Size
– Large audience
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Greater distance = More formal
Ensures that members will have different values and
assumptions and learning styles.
You need to find examples and appeals that will be
meaningful to all kinds of listeners; or you might
combine appeals that are relevant to different
segments of the audience. (no one focus; focusing
on one section more than another)
– Small audience


Individual connection = Less formal
More likely that its member will have similar
assumptions, values, and ways of thinking.
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5.2a: Composition

Voluntary vs. captive audience
– Voluntary

Are interested and receptive
– Captive audience

May resent attending speech and needs to
be engaged and motivated
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5.2a: Composition

Physically present v. mediated
audience
– Difficult to analyze, but smart choices
can be made
 Make your message stand out
 Make it easy to follow
 Think about the ethos of the site you
are posting on
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5.2b: Cultures

Audience culture
– Subjective factors that characterize a
particular audience and make it situation
distinct

Cultural diversity
–
–
–
–
–
–
Personal cultural predispositions
Gender roles
Who can speak
Appropriate language
Regional differences
Negative Stereotypes
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5.2b: Cultures

Individual listeners (representatives)
– Self-Interest
Personal gain or loss resulting from an
action or policy
 Strategy: Appeal to long term benefits

– Personal interests
What an individual regards as interesting or
important
 Avoid technical language, jargon and
abstractions
 Connect with audience through
anecdotes/narratives & rhetorical questions10
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5.2b: Cultures

Beliefs and values
– Beliefs are statements that listeners
regard as true

BUT they cannot be proven true, much like
faith
– Values are listener’s positive or
negative judgments that listeners apply
to a person, place, object, event, or
idea
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5.2b: Cultures

Prior understanding
– Condescending

Cultural facts
– Common knowledge and experience
– Cultural codes and practices that makes them
specific to that group

Allusions
– Brief references to something with which the
audience is assumed to be familiar

Roles and reference groups
– Roles define social position
– Reference groups identify connections
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5.2c: Psychology

Communication Studies scholars and
speech critics use the following
question to understand audience
psychology:
– How do we (and audiences) choose
which speeches to hear, which
magazines to read, which television
programs to watch, etc?

Psychoanalysis/Psychology: Freud
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5.2: Understanding
Audience Psychology
Selective Exposure
 A tendency to
expose oneself to
messages that are
important personally
and that are
consistent with what
one already believes
Selective Attention
 Conscience or
unconscious choice
about weather or not
to focus intently on a
speech, absorb and
process its contents,
and take it seriously
 “Channel surfing” or
audience wandering
 Focusing on certain
content
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5.2: Understanding Audience
Psychology

Perception--People see. . .
– Experiences as structured, stable, and
meaningful
– Experiences as having causes
– Individuals responsible for their actions
– Others like themselves
– Things like their reference groups
– Messages within familiar framework
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5.3: Strategies for Analyzing
the Audience

Formal methods
– Surveys or focus groups

Informal methods
– Interview moderator
– Understand demographics

Simplifying devices
– Focus on the general public & audience
roles

Critical appraisal
– View listeners as universal audience
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5.4: Analyzing Your Own
Ethos


Audience perceptions of you
Modifying audience perceptions
– Use wording that builds community
– Be careful not to assume your beliefs
are the same as your audience’s
– Consider differences and how they
might impact perception of you by
audience
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Activity

See handout

Ex’s and Oh’s (XOXO)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uLI
6BnVh6w
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Take Away

5.1: Explain how the success of a speech
depends on the audience.
– Must be receptive and feel respected (ethos)

5.2: Describe how the audience (a)
compositions, (b) culture, and (c)
psychology affect listeners receptiveness
to a speech.
– Compositions = Demographics
– Culture = Diverse; listen for self interest and/or
personal interest
– Psychology = Perceptions
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Take Away

5.3: Identify both formal and informal
methods of audience analysis.
– Focus group/stats v. moderators

5.4: Indicate how your ethos influences
the audience and how you can improve
your ethos.
– Every communicative episode has at least 6
people
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Mark v. Mark, Mark v. Jay, Mark v. of Jay v. Mark
Jay v. Jay, Jay v. Mark, Jay v. of Mark v. Jay
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