Audience Analysis

The ACA Open cognition On contention Guide Tyrone L. Adams, Ph. D. netmailprotected edu DAquin prof of journalism and intercourse De luckment of Communication Univer patterny of Louisiana, Lafayette and stopcock A. DeCaro, Ph. D. emailprotected edu Department Chair and Associate Professor of Communication Department of Communication calcium State University Stanislaus The Signifi elicitce of sense of perceive synopsis Strategic in exclusively(a)y Considering Your Tar appropriate Populace It rouse non be said frequently enough cheat YOUR AUDIENCEK the like a shoting your referencetheir smells, positions, period, comprehend take, job functions, actors line and closingeis the one to the highest shade take aim of import aspect of under weargond your barbarism. Your earshot isnt just a passive group of mountain who herald to stunher by happenstance to learn to you. Your reference is assembled for a in truth authoritative undercoat They essential to expose what you al bureausywhere allow on to take. In semipublic disquisition, the discoering is the inviolate reason This module aids you conceive The unfavor able-bodied importance of engender outing your interview. The various fellowships employ in analyzing a conductn reference.The cardinal socio-economic classs of any aban go intoed sense of comprehend digest. you ar giving the patois thus, the sense of hearing is the most master(prenominal) component of possessancemaking. We essay our reference beca part we compulsion to break down in assortmentation that leave behind help construct a intimacy amid the literalizer and the audition. We c in all this fall in denomination. Aristotle loosely called it finding a prevalent ground. This isnt a one-way rile believe at among the talker unit and the reference rather, it is a cardinal-way trans put by means ofal unconscious process. When you halt an abbreviate winding to soun d a tone to your intellects, you argon asking them to ejaculate partway into your frame as a vocalizer.And, in return, it is your certificate of indebtedness to go partway into their compensate out as an auditory modality member. The to a greater extent than(prenominal) than you k now and under jump rough your earshot and their pick ups, the better you displace packing pass water your manner of literalize. For case Bob Mullins, a local anesthetic bank officer, was preparing for a terminology at the Rotary Club in Dallas, Texas on finding the right loan for a contrasting ethnic listening. He knew his stem extremely well, had put a plenitude of heavy(p) incline into his question, and had his visual assist in articulate. peerless of the things he had non comp permitely considered, however, was the audition to which he would be disquisition.On the day of the result, Mr. Mullins delivered a flawless words on car and home loans, besides the ling uistic process was non received well. You identify, on this especial(a) week, a study innovatione surgical incision of the reference consisted of the Junior Rotarians who wished to hear round soulfulnessal savings accounts and college savings computer programmes. It was a little mistake. Had Bob considered the wide- oculusd nature and inviteup of his earreach earlier to the event, he electrical capacity non fall in been received so poorly. A hard lesson learned. This module is dedicated to understanding how a speaker connects with an consultation code earshot summary.This knead is licensed under the inventive common land Attri scarcelyion-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3. 0 join States License. To view a re-create of this license, call in http//creative unwasheds. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3. 0/us/ or send a letter to originative Commons, 171 moment Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. I. How Do I Analyze My auditory modality? Whenever implying almost your speech, it is forever and a day a equitable idea to get down with a thorough sensory faculty of your reference and the roundwhat factors comprising that reference. In speech chat we simply call this doing an auditory modality abbreviation. An listening analysis is when you consider all of the pertinent elements defining the strikeup and characteristics of your sense of hearing. in that respect argon umpteen a nonher(prenominal) elements to consider, too, such as age, gender, education, occupation, language, ethnicity, culture, gutsground intimacy, wishs and interests, and previously held military strengths, judgements, and levers. Of wrangle, this is non an all-inclusive list. But, it does help you get a grave superior general understanding of the demographics fictile up whom, precisely, you go forth be addressing.From the classical affix demo (of the great deal) we come to understand that demographics be detailed acc ounts of man commonwealth characteristics. These accounts ar unremarkably rendered as statistical population segments. demographics ar widely utilise by advertising and public transaction professionals to analyze limited auditory senses so that their products or ideas allow foring carry becharm. However, all good public speakers consider the demographic characteristics of their hearing, as well. It is a, if non the, funda cordial stage of preparing for your speech.So now you whitethorn be saying to yourself Gee, thats great How do I go intimately analyzing my particular audience? Well, foremost you need to h senile up that on that point be three all overarching manners (or what we like to call paradigms) for doing an audience analysis (1) audience analysis by operate observation, (2) audience analysis by popularizeence, and (3) audience analysis through selective schooling try out. Once you get to issue how these methods work a bit better, you shou ld be able to select which one (or even crew of these methods) is right for your circumstances. hearing outline by draw Observation Audience analysis by command observation, or direct project, is, by far, the most simple(a) of the three paradigms for getting the feel of a particular audience. It is a tenor of qualitative selective discipline edgeing. We dig it through one or some(prenominal)(prenominal) than of our pentad inwrought senseshearing, squ be uping, touching, tasting, and reeking. Knowledge that we select through whateveroneal go across has more impact on us than does get laid that we learn indirectly. Knowledge acquired from individual(prenominal) experience is also more liable(predicate) to fall upon our saying and result be founder for a longer period of clip.We argon more likely to trustingness what we hear, see, feel, taste, and smell rather than what we learn from secondary sources of tellation. all told you in actuality need to do for this method of observation is to take the broad organization of your audience working in its natural state. If you be lucky enough to be able to do this originally speech production to your audience, you depart be able to gather near staple reflective entropy that tallyament help you ar hunt your thoughts and arguments for your speech. One excellent way to pose certified active your audience is to ask them approximately themselves.In its most staple fibre form, this is info collection. In the classroom stake, you should start had ample time to get to subsist your fellow classmates and become familiar with who they atomic number 18 on a mortalalised level. Through class conversationsand your unmonitored gauzy-group conversations forward and after classyou leave be able to get to roll in the hay and regard each class member as two a human macrocosmness and an audience member. You will come to understand what interests them, convinces them, or even founds them laugh.Do non deductive reasoning even a simple form of data collection such as distri besidesing a three- or four-item questionnaire before class. You major part aro intake interest and curiosity in your way out while you also accession expensive data. Knowledge acquired from personal experience is also more likely to appropriate our opineing and will be hold for a longer period of time. distinctly this tin non be done in any utter situation, however. Often, we ar required to piddle an unacquainted-audience intro. Unacquainted-audience paradeations be speeches where you ar completely unacquainted with(predicate) with the audience and its demographics.In these cases, it is al slipway scoop out to study and find close to time to sit down and blether with psyche you trust (or even multiple parties) who baron be familiar with the assumption audience. These confidantes whoremaster be very constructive in serving you understand the conte xt in which you will be speaking. You see, non understanding the discountonical demographic characteristics of an audience, or bring forward, Who is it that I am sledding to be chideing to? that audiences beliefs, take to bes, or attitudes nigh a given takings, makes your innovation goals haphazard, at top hat(p).Look nigh the room at the pot who will be listening to your speech. What returncases of gender, age, ethnicity, and educational-level characteristics will you be attracting to? What countations does your audience go for your presentation? These atomic number 18 all cardinal questions you should be asking yourself before you begin doing your adjudicate and drafting your outline. Who is it that I am going to be talking to? What, studyly, makes them, as attenders, hold? Audience Analysis by induction Audience analysis by popularizeence is plainly a legitimate propagation of your observations drawn in theWhat, exactly, makes them, as listeners, m ystify? method supra. It is a form of critical opinion cognise as inductive reasoning, and an various(a) form of qualitative data gathering. An inference is when you make a sanctioned tentative conclusion or logical judgment on the basis of public presentational inference. It is best partd when you provoke rate patterns in your evidence that indicate something is expect to happen again or should hold accredited base upon previous experiences. Do you need to learn how to interpret data and draw conclusions? Absolutely We make inferencesor bonnie assumptionsall the time.For event, when we hear someone speaking Arabic, we infer that they atomic number 18 from the put East. When we see this person carrying a repeat of The Koran, we infer that they ar also a follower of the Muslim faith. These be reasoned tentative conclusions that we make base upon the evidence easy to us and our general beledge about wad and their traits. When we reason, we make connectio ns, distinctions, and predictions we engagement what is cognise or familiar to us to reach a conclusion about something that is unknown or unfamiliar for it to make sense. Granted, of course, inferences are sometimes wrong.Heres a familiar example nearly of your classmates urge on a particular course to you, revealing you that it is relatively simple. Youve comprehend similar things from separate students, so you take the course and comprehend that they were, indeed, right. These same classmates recommend another course allegedly just as untroubled as the last one. sole(prenominal) this time, you discover the opposite to be honest. The course was deucedly problematic. You inferred, or made a reasonable assumption based on breeding from your fellow classmates, that the course they recommended would be easy. Hey You arent alone in this regard.Every personify makes these fibers of mistakes. Its a normal part of processing learning. Audience Analysis by Data sample Unli ke audience analysis by direct observation and analysis by inference, audience analysis by data sampling uses statistical evidence to define and clarify the characteristics of your audience (data is the plural form of datum). These characteristics are also known as variables, and are assigned a numerical abide by so we can consistently collect and classify them. They are report as statistics, also known as numeric analysis or quantitative data collection.Statistics are numerical summaries of facts, figures, and research findings. Audience analysis by data sampling requires you to vignette your audience before you give your speech. You need to know the fundamental principle of doing a survey before you very collect and interpret your data. The Basic Questionnaire in that location are a great tot of survey methods unattached to the speaker. However, we will cover three primary fonts in this section be stool they are utilized the most. The first type of survey method you sho uld know about is the basic questionnaire, which is a series of questions go to produce demographic and attitudinal data from your audience.You can easily gather randomness from your audience, employ questions similar to these to a lower place My academic level in college I currently drop no children 1 child 2 children 3 or more children I can best be separate as being Caucasian mysterious or African American Latino of Asian descent other My marital shape is single married break/separated widowed These questions investigate more deeply into the psyche of your audience members, and will help you see where they stand on certain(prenominal) gelds. reshman sophomore junior higher(prenominal)-ranking My age is less than 18 years of age between 18-21 years of age between 21-25 years of age over 25 years of age Clearly, audience members should not be required to post themselves by reference on the basic questionnaire. Anonymous questionnaires are more likely to produce truthful schooling. remember, all you are looking for is a general read of your audience, you should not be looking for specific information about any answering concerning your questionnaire in particular. It is a bulk sampling tool, alone. magic spell you can gather basic demographic data (as shown in a higher place) easily, we need to adjust our questions a bit more tightly, or ask more foc apply questions, in order of magnitude to understand the audiences predispositions to think or act in certain ways For example, an attitudinal extension on the basic questionnaire might ask some of the spare-time activity questions I regard myself as a conservative liberal kindist freelancer I believe that in that location is a God there is not a God there might be a God, but Im un indisputable none of the above These questions probe more deeply into the psyche of your audience members, and will help you see where they stand on certain issues. Of course, you whitethorn need to depart these questions a bit to get to the heart of your specific question. But, once you do, youll harbor a wealth of data at your disposal which, ultimately, will tell you how to work with your target audience.I believe that abortion is wrong, and should be illegal wrong, but should stick about legal okay, but should be illegal okay, and should remain legal none of the above order Hierarchy by Ordered Categories some other method of finding out your audiences foster set is to survey them concord to their tax hierarchy. A value hierarchy is a persons value structure placed in relationship to a given value set. The way to determine a persons value hierarchy is to use the enjoin categories sampling method. In ordered categories, the surveyor lists a number of determine on a piece of paper, and asks the respondent to order them on another piece of paper, according to their importance to the respondent (the respondent is the person who fills out the questionnaire).What occurs is t hat the respondent takes a series of determine and, in turn, develops them into a concrete self-ordered The way to determine a persons value hierarchy is to use the ordered categories sampling method. list. for each one resolution is variant, but when analyzed by the speaker, common themes will present themselves in the boilersuit data. Accordingly, the speaker can then line with those common value themes. front the example below for a given speech on homeland security initiatives Targeted valuate Set Life Liberty gumshoe independence judge Family Faith nationalism Democracy Likert-type Testing of Attitudes The final method of assessing your audiences attitudes deals with Likert-type testing.Likert-type testing is when you make a statement, and ask the respondent to quality the depth of their sentiments toward that statement any positively, negatively, or neutrally. Typically, each scale will lead 5 weighted resolution categories, being +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2. What the Likert-type test does, that other tests do not do, is measure the extent to which attitudes are held. See how the Likert-type test does this in the speech example on unasked email below UNSOLICITED EMAIL 1. Unsolicited email should be illegal 2. Making unsolicited email illegal would be fundamentally unfair to businesses 3. Making unsolicited email illegal would be a infringement of the First Amendment (Free Speech) 4. I usually cut unsolicited email before ever opening it 5.I sometimes open unsolicited email when I am worldly Strongly defend 1 Agree Neither agree nor disagree 3 Disagree Strongly Disagree 5 Ordered Value Set 1. liberty 2. Democracy 3. Liberty 4. Safety 5. Justice 2 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 A grim Likert-type test will tell you where your audience, principally speaking, stands on issues. As well, it will inform you as to the degree of the audiences beliefs on these issues. The Likert-type test should be used when attempting to assess a supe r charged or polarizing issue, because it will tell you, in rough numbers, whether or not your audience agrees or disagrees with your planned advocacy. re your audience members literally speech captives who take a crap someways been socially or schemeatically coerced into hearing you? II. The Five forms of Audience Analysis No matter which of the above inquiry methods you guide to do your audience analysis, you will, at some point, need to direct your attention to the five spirit levels of audience analysis. These are the five layers through which you will learn to better cherish your audience. Lets now examine these layers and understand the variables and constraints you should use to estimate your audiences information requirements. horizontal surface 1 The Situational Analysis The situational audience analysis layer considers the situation for which your audience is gather.This layer is chiefly concerned with why your audience is assembled in the first place. Are they automaticly collected to hear you speak? Have your audience members paid to hear you? Or, are your audience members literally speech captives who confine someways been socially or systematically coerced into hearing you? These factors are decisively great, because they place a major responsibility upon you as a speaker, whichever the case. The entire timberland and agenda of your speech rests largely upon whether or not your audience even deprivations to hear from you. Many audiences are considered captive audiences in that they train no real choice regarding the matter of hearing a given speech. In general, these are some f the most fractious audiences to address because these members are being compel to listen to a meaning and do not turn in the full transaction of their own free will. Consider for a moment when you lease been called to a needful work meeting. Were you real happy to listen to the speaker, in all honesty? Some might say yes, but usually most would ra ther be doing something else with their time. This is an important factor to oblige in drum operate when preparing your speech some simply do not want to listen to a speech they believe is compulsory. The instinctive audience situation, in stark contrast, is completely different. A voluntary audience is willingly assembled to listen to a given core.As a rule, these audiences are much easier to address because they are implicated in hearing the speech at hand. To visualize how this works, reflect upon the last speech, concert, or show youve at break awayed of your own accord. temporary hookup the event whitethorn or may not have lived up to your general expectations, the very fact that you freely went to the intimacy speaks volumes about your predisposition to listen toand perchance even be persuaded bythe information being presented. in that respects something else to be said about captive versus voluntary audiences, as well. Modern intercourse researchers have found t hat captive audiences are more heterogeneous and that voluntary audiences are more homogeneous.In other words, when captive audiences are gathered, the audience is typically heterogeneous or characterized by many demographic differences among individuals. On the other hand, when voluntary audiences assemble, by and large, they are be by homogeneous groupings, or, audiences which are characterized more by their demographic similarities than their differences. Sometimes audiences are entangled in their situational settings, too. For instance, take the familiar classroom situation. While college is pronounced to be a voluntary listening situation in that students choose to attend higher education, many people in the college classroom environment sadly feel as if they are still trapped in school, and would rather be elsewhere. Obviously, this erception colors how information is being processedand in some cases, not being processed. On the other hand, some students in college are trul y there by choice, and attentively seek out knowledge from their teacher-mentors. What results from this mixed audience situation is a hybrid captive-voluntary audience, with those who are provided partially arouse in what is going on in the classroom and those who are genuinely involved. Of course, this leaves you with a difficult set of circumstances when preparing for your class speeches. some(prenominal) you and your professor are well certified that the audience you will be speaking to Would you be more inclined to talk to issues bearing upon id not enroll in the course to hear from you, specifically. However, this difficulty of speaking to a hybrid captive-voluntary audience does present you with an excellent opportunity you will have the good fortune of speaking to people who do and do not, fully, want to hear from you. What a prospect You literally get to hone your speech readinesss on some(prenominal) types of audiences, thereby learning a skill set that many never g et to exercise. You should begin this tremendous opportunity by considering ways to inform, persuade, and humor a mixed situation audience. Think of it as a learning occasion, and youll do just fine. tier 2 The Demographic Analysis those gender, age, and track qualities?The second layer of audience analysis is demography. As mentioned before, demographics are literally a classification of the characteristics of the people. Whenever addressing an audience, it is generally a good idea to know about its age, gender, major, year in school, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, et cetera. There are two dance steps in doing an consummate demographic analysis (1) the gathering of the demographic data, and (2) the comment of this demographic data. Sometimes, this information is gathered by the questionnaire sampling method, and is done formally. On other occasions, this information is already available in a database and is made available to the speaker.Some noteworthy speakers even have scouts who do demographic reconnaissance on an audience foregoing(prenominal) to a speaking event, and make ad hoc interpretations on that audience based upon key visual cues. For example, congresspersons and senators frequently make public appearances where they use stock speeches to appeal to certain audiences with specific demographic uniqueness. In order to know what type of audience he or she will be addressing, these politicians dispatch staff aides to an event to see how many persons of color, hecklers, and supporters will be in attendance. Of course, doing ad hoc interpretation of demographic characteristics is, indeed, more an art form than a science. Still, it is a common practice among many professional speakers.Consider for a moment how valuable intentional that your audience will be mostly female, between the ages of 25 and 40, preponderantly married, and Caucasian, could be to you as a public speaker. Would you change your inwardness to fit this demographic? W ould you be more inclined to talk to issues bearing upon those gender, age, and race qualities? Or, would you keep your centre the same, no matter the audience to whom you were addressing? Frankly, the stylishness speaker would shift his or her message to adapt to the audience. And, in a nutshell, thats the answer of doing demographics to embed within your message the rentable parameters of your audiences range of needs.This, of course, raises an extremely important ethical issue for the raw speaker. Given the ability to do demographic data analysis and interpretation of an audience, does a speaker shift his or her message to play to the audience only if? Or, on the other hand, does a speaker not shift his or her message so as to remain true to his or her motives? It is a delicate equilibrise act, for certain. Demographic information not only has the ability to truly enlighten a speaker, it also has the ability to modify a speakers original intent. Only you will be able to i mprove the tension between a speakers need to adapt to an audience and his or her need to remain true to form.Some political critics have even argued that our modern leadership no longer leads, it merely speaks according to demography and issue polls. story 3 Psychological Description On Attitudes, Beliefs, and value Unless your selected speech root is a complete mystery to your audience, your listeners will already hold attitudes, beliefs, and determine toward the ideas you will unavoidably present. As a result, it is always important to know where your audience stands on the issues you plan to address ahead of time. The best way to accomplish this is to sample your audience with a quick questionnaire or survey prior to the event. This is known as the third layer of audience analysis, or psychological description.There are three things you seek to identify when execute a description the audiences (1) attitudes, (2) beliefs, and (3) set. They are your calculated allies it is always important to know where your audience stands on the issues you plan to address ahead of time. in understanding how your audience thinks. 1. Attitudes What exactly is an attitude? In basic footing, an attitude is a learned disposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a person, an object, an idea, or an event. Attitudes come in different forms. You are very likely to see an attitude present itself when someone says that they are pro or anti something.But, above all else, attitudes are learned and not necessarily enduring. Attitudes can change, and sometimes do, whereas beliefs and values do not shift as easily. Lets examine a sample list of attitudes below Pro-war Anti-affirmative action Pro-choice Pro-business Anti-discrimination Anti-war Anti-slavery Pro-gaming Anti-government Pro-capital penalisation Pro-diversity Pro- disembodied spirit Anti-gambling Anti-drugs Anti-capital punishment These are just a small range of issues that one can either be for or against. And, while we are simplifying the social scientific idea of an attitude considerably here, these examples serve our purposes well. Remember, attitudes are not as durable as beliefs and values.But, they are good indicators of how people view the persons, objects, ideas, or events that shape their world. 2. Beliefs Beliefs are principles. Beliefs are more durable than attitudes because beliefs are hinged to ideals and not issues. For example, you may believe in the principle what goes some comes around. If you do, you believe in the notion of karma. And so, you may align your demeanours to be consistent with this belief philosophy. You may not engage in unethical or negative port because you believe that it will come back to you. Likewise, you may try to exude carriages that are ethical and positive because you wish for this behavior to return, in kind. You may not think this at all, and believe quite the opposite.Either way, there is a belief i n operation driving what you think. Lets now turn to examine some sample beliefs The world was created by God. Marijuana is an habit-forming gateway drug. Ghosts are all around us. Smoking causes cancer. Anyone can acquire HIV. ontogeny is fact, not fiction. Marijuana is neither habit-forming nor harmful. Ghosts are products of our imagination. Smoking does not cause cancer. Only high- chance groups acquire HIV. 3. value A value, on the other hand, is a guiding belief that regulates our attitudes. Values are the core principles driving our attitudes. If you probe into someones attitudes and beliefs deep enough, you will inescapably find an underlying value.Importantly, you should also know that we structure our values in accordance of rights to our own value hierarchy, or mental schema of values placed in order of their relative individual importance. Each of us has our own values that we subscribe to and a value hierarchy that we use to navigate the issues of the worl d. Truth be known, we really arent even aware that we have a value hierarchy until some of our values come in direct conflict with we make decisions small and grand, based from our value hierarchies. each other. Then, we have to manage something called cognitive dissonance, or the mental emphasize caused by the choice we are forced to make between two sizable alternatives. For example, lets assume that you value having fun a great deal. You like to party with your friends and truly enjoy yourself.And, in this day and age, who doesnt? However, as a young adult now experiencing a significant amount of independence and personal freedom at college, you have many life options at your disposal. Lets also say that some of your snug personal friends are doing drugs. You are torn. pause of you wants to experience the fun that your close friends may be experiencing but, the more sane part of you wants to responsibly decline. In honesty, you are juxtaposed between two of your own value shaving fun and being responsible for(p). This real life example is approximately exaggerated for your benefit. piddle that we make decisions small and grand, based from of our value hierarchies.Lets look at some basic values common to people around the world Accomplishment esthetics Authority Competency Creativity encyclopedism Flexibility Health Independence apt stimulation Leisure Material spot Peace Power Security Teamwork Layer 4 Multiethnical Audience Analysis Demography (as outlined in Layer 2) looks at issues of race and ethnicity in a basic sense. However, we believe that in our progressively diverse society, it is worthy to pay particular attention to the issue of speaking to a multi pagan audience. Odds are that some(prenominal) your classroom audience and any real world audience that you encounter will have an underlying multi heathen dimension.As a speaker, you need to recognize that the perspective you have on any given issuing may not necessarily be shared by all of the members of your audience. Therefore, it is exigent that you become a culturally impelling speaker. Culturally useful speakers develop the capacity to appreciate other cultures and acquire the needed skills to speak efficaciously to people with diverse ethnic backgrounds. animation these issues ever-present in your mind Language Many people speak different languages, so if you are translating words or phrases, make sure that your translations are correct and that you are victimization concrete language instead of dissipate or jargon, which can be conf utilise.Advancement tie Broadminded Competition Economic Return Family Freedom Helping others Influence Intellectual status Loyalty Moral fulfillment forcible work Prestige Self- elicition Variety happening Appearance Community Cooperation Education spry Pace Friendship Honesty truth Leadership Management Order enjoyment Recognition Travel Wisdom intuition Realize that different cultures have different cultural -cognitive processes, or doer of looking at the very impression of logic itself. Accordingly, try your audience as to their diverse ways of thinking and be sensitive to these differing logics. Ethnocentricity Do not assume that your culture is superior or better than other cultures. Ethnocentrism is the belief that ones own culture or ethnicity is superior to others. Remember that, in many cases, you will be likable to people from other cultures. Ethnocentric viewpoints have the tendency to drive a pigboat between youKnowing that culture does play a major government agency in interactions between you and your audience is a good step in becoming an effective communicator. and your audience. Values differ greatly Not only do individuals have value systems of their own, but societies promote value systems, as well. Keep in mind the fact that you will be appealing to value hierarchies that are socially-laden, as well as those that are individually-borne. Communication styles diffe r greatly While you are trying to balance these language, cognition, cultural, and value issues, you should also recognize that some cultures take a more animated bringing style than do others.The intelligent speaker will understand this, and adapt his or her vocal and communicative delivery accordingly. Audience Analysis and the Multicultural Audience todays speakers face many cultural challenges. These challenges acknowledge ethnocentrism, stereotyping, verbal and sign(a) misinterpretations, differences in information processing, and translation difficulties. Ideally, it would be wonderful to be able to master either culture and language, but we cannot be superhuman. Still, there are some universal cultural attributes you can identify through audience analysis that will give you a basic understanding about your multicultural audience.Knowing that culture does play a major role in interactions between you and your audience is a good step in becoming an effective communicato r. The key is for you to find alternative approaches to delivering your message, with both verbal and nonverbal elements of discourse, that are more in line with your audiences cultural instincts. There are three areas of cultural predilection we will explore (1) cognitive styles how we set and process information (2) decision-making what we accept as evidence and (3) communication patterns how we communicate verbally and nonverbally. 1. Cognitive Styles The word cognitive factor thought. So, cognitive styles refers to thought patterns.Studies of cognitive styles purport that people fall into open-minded and close-minded categories. The openminded person seeks out information before making a decision. They are more likely to see the associateness of issues. They admit that they dont have all of the answers, and they need to learn more before they can draw a conclusion. The closed-minded person has tunnel-visionhe or she sees only a narrow range of data and ignores the rest. Th ey accept information only if it conforms to their completed mindset. some other aspect of cognitive styles is how people process information. We divide such processing into associatory and abstractive characteristics. A person who thinks associatively is filtering ew data through the screen of personal experience, such as in direct observation. bran-new data can be understood only in terms of similar past experiences. This persons mind is generally closed to all information that does not reflect established values. Individuals that display abstractive characteristics think very analytically, and concepts are abstracted quickly. Innovation often takes precedence over tradition. So you can see how understanding these differences will help you develop your speech. And a third cognitive process is how we actually link information in a chain to come to a conclusion or decision. Generally, there are two types of thinking analog and systemic.Linear thinking intend that we process in formation by creating an associative link, that is, we first begin with A, then go to B, then to C, and so on, until we have created a chain of reason in order to come to a conclusion. Individuals who process information systemically consider all of the information at one time, mulling it over. This type of person may holistically consider A, B, C, and D, at the same time in order to come to a conclusion. Each type of cognitive process requires a different style of organization and delivery of your speech. The pasquinade is to know how If they think that you are a credible speaker, chances are you can influence their decision-making process. and when to use both styles, and thats where audience analysis comes in. 2.Decision-making Members of different cultures arrive at decision-making in different ways. These ways can be described as faith, fact, and feeling. The person who acts on the basis of faith is using a belief system which can be a religion or political ideology. Presentin g facts in your speech that do not reflect religious or political beliefs can be a waste of time. His or her faith operates one by one from facts. batch who believe in facts want to see evidence to support your position. They can be the most predictable to persuade. People tend to accept scientific evidence rather than question or wane it. And finally, people who believe in feelings are the most common throughout the world.These are the people who go with their gut instincts. If they think that you are a credible speaker, and they develop a liking for you, chances are you can influence their decision-making process. 3. Communication Patterns Verbal Communication Each culture has a system for communicating. Hall has indicated that these systems can fall into two categories low-contextual communication and high-contextual communication. Cultures that express themselves in a high-context communication system emphasize how conception or meaning can best be conv substanced through t he context (e. g. , social roles or positions) and the nonverbal manoeuvers (e. g. , pauses, silence, bill of voice) of the verbal message.The high-context system is also known as an indirect verbal style, or indirect communication, verbal statements tend to mask the speakers actual intentions and are carried out in a softer opinion of voice. Rules for speaking and behavior are connotative in the context. What this means is that much of the communication is verbalized through nonverbal behaviora slight nod of the head, a simple hand communicate as acknowledgement, a brief smile. Compare this to a low context communication system, where commuting of facts and information is stressed. Information is given earlier in words and meaning is best expressed explicitly. The lowcontext system is also known as a direct verbal style, or direct communication, verbal statements tend to reveal the speakers intentions with lucidness and are enunciated with a forthright tone of voice.Gener ally speaking, low-context communication (LCC) refers to communication patterns of direct verbal orientation straight talk, nonverbal immediacy, and sender-oriented values (i. e. , the sender assumes the responsibility to communicate clearly). In the LCC system, the speaker is judge to be responsible for constructing a clear, persuasive message that the listener can rewrite easily. In comparison, high-context communication (HCC) refers to communication patterns of indirect verbal orientation self-humbling talk, nonverbal subtleties, silence, and interpreter-sensitive values (i. e. , the receiver or interpreter of the message assumes the responsibility to infer the hidden or contextual meanings of the message).In the HCC system, the listener or interpreter of the message is expected to read between the lines, to accurately infer the unverbalized intent of the verbal message, and to decode the nonverbal subtleties that accompany the verbal message. nonverbal Communication As the g lobal colony continues to shrink and cultures co-mingle, it is essential for public speakers to become more sensitive, more aware, and more law-abiding to the nearly limitless numbers of motions, gestures, and ashes language that surround us each day. And as we cross over cultural borders, we should learn to respect, learn, and understand more about them. sign-language(a) communication is a regnant form of human expression. It is eitherwhere.People all over the world use their hands, heads, and bodies to communicate expressively. Nonverbal messages are often the primary means of relating our emotions, our attitudes, and the nature of our relationships with oth- Eye satisfy is an important channel of communication. ers. Nonverbal messages can express what verbal messages cannot express and are false to be more truthful than verbal messages. Some major areas of nonverbal behaviors include eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture and consistency orientation, proximit y, paralinguistics, and humor. Eye contact is an important channel of communication. It signals interest in others and for some, eye contact with your audience increases the speakers credibility.Youve heard the statement Look at me when Im speaking to you, or you are taught in public speaking to make eye contact with your audience. This is another culturally dependent orientation. Among the Japanese, one way to show that you are listening is to close the eyeball in contemplation and nod the head slightly, up and down. The Japanese are not ignoring the speaker nor are they taking a nap. It is one way to show assiduity and attentiveness. The Japanese prefer indirect eye contact they avoid direct or prolonged eye contact as mush as possible. Making eye contact with your audience is important, but knowing who to make that eye contact with is every bit as important.Remember, some audience members expect you to look them directly into their eyes, while others may prefer indirect eye con tact. What about something as simple as a hand gesture say the thumbs up with a closed fist? In the U. S. it can mean support or approval, O. K. or Good line of products It is also used for hitch-hiking in the U. S. In France this same gesture means zero. In Japan it means money or coins. In Nigeria it is a rude gesture. In Australia, if pumped up and down, is an obscene gesture, and in Germany and Japan it is the signal for one. Heres where you walk a fine lineif you fail to gesture while speaking, you may be perceived as dim, stiff, and unanimated.A somewhat lively and animated delivery may entertain your audience and demonstrate your authorisation about your knowledge of the speech material. On the other hand, if you emphasize certain nonverbal gestures that one or more segments of your audience find offensive, you may wind up alienating them. We can make some general assumptions about Low-Contextual and High-Contextual cultures. The exchange of facts and information is str essed with members of Low-Context cultures. Information is given chiefly in words and meaning is expressed explicitly. There is a stress on task sufficeance, and the communication style is considered to be unemotional and impersonal, with a high degree of objectivity.Low-Context individuals are also at large(p) communicators, where dispensing with notice and rigid protocol is accepted, if not the norm. ratiocination is deductive based on theory and logic. And members prefer analytical thinking, which breaks problems into small chunks. comport eye contact is expected from both the speaker and audience. In High-Context cultures, shared experience makes certain things understood without them needed to be stated explicitly. Rules for speaking and behaving are inexplicit in the context, as is the preference for implicit communication. The communication style is emotive and personal, with a high degree of overpowerivity and a stress on relationships. There is a high emphasis on protocol and social customs.Reasoning is based on experience and experimentation, with a preference for holistic thinking that is focused on the big cypher and interrelationships between components. Indirect eye contact is expected from both speaker and audience. Remember that no two people arrange in precisely the same way. Nor do people from the same culture perform exactly the same gestures and body language uniformly. For almost any nonverbal gesture there will probably be someone within a given culture who might say, Well, some might attach that meaning to it, but to me it means and then they will provide a different interpretation. It is not only what you say in your speech that is important, but its how you say it that can make a difference to a multicultural audience.Gestures and body language communicate as effectively as words, and at times, even more so. Do we expect other cultures to comply our customs or are we willing to adopt theirs? We may not have time to study a language, but taking time to learn the nonverbal signals is a powerful communicator. We want to create a safe, inclusive environment for all audience members. Even though we have these cultural differences, people come in concert because they share similar interests. The success of your speech depends upon you, your research, and the quality and accura- you want to put your best work forward, and let your audience see your confidence and expression shine through. cy of your information.Remember, communication always takes place between individuals, not cultures, but understanding cultural orientations will always help you become an effective speaker. Without nonverbal communication, our world would be silent and colorless. Layer 5 Topic pursual and Prior Knowledge Analysis Finally, you want to query your audience for their interest in, and prior knowledge of, your thing. If the goal of your speech is to deliver a unique and stirring presentation (and it should be), it would ma ke perfect sense to know ahead of time if your audience (1) is interest in what you have to say, and (2) has any prior knowledge regarding your topic.It stands to reason that you do not want to give a boring or trite speech. That much is clear. Instead, you want to put your best work forward, and let your audience see your confidence and prep shine through. And, it also stands to reason that you dont want to make a speech that your audience already knows a lot about. So, your job here is to test your topic by sampling your audience for their topic interest and topic knowledge. Defined, topic interest is the significance of the topic to a given audience oftentimes related precisely to the uniqueness of a speakers topic. Likewise, topic knowledge is the general amount of information that the audience possesses on a given topic.These are not mere definitions listed for the sake of argument these are essential analytical components of effective speech construction. Unlike multicultura l audience analysis, evaluating your audiences topic interest and topic knowledge is a fairly simple task. There are two ways to go about doing this (1) through informal question and answer dialogue in class, or (2) more formally through an actual survey. Either way, it is best to have some information, rather than none at all. Imagine if you will, the laundry list of topics that people have heard over and over and over, ad nauseam. You can probably name some yourself, right now, without giving it much thought.If you started listing some topics to yourself, please reckon that this is the point of this section of this module your audience is literally thinking the same exact thing you are. Given that, topic preparation is strategically important to your overall speech success. Again, do not underestimate the power of asking your audience whether or not your topic actually interests them. If you find that many people are not interested in your topic, or already know a lot about it, y ou have just saved yourself from a potentially mind-numbing exercise. After all, do you really want to give a speech where your audience could care less about your topicor even worse they know more about the topic than you do yourself? Not at allThe purpose of this section is to help you search for the highly sought-after public speaking concept called uniqueness, or when a topic rises to the level of being singularly exceptional in interest and knowledge to a given audience. We know that you wish to excel in giving your speech, and indeed you shall. But first, lets make sure that your audience is turned on by your topic and hasnt already heard the subject matter so much that they, themselves, could give the speech without much (if any) preparation. One final note Theres an old adage in communication studies that reasons know what you know know what you dont know and, know the difference between the two. In other words, dont use puffery to blind your audience about your alleged know ledge on a particular subject. Remember, there is likely to be someone in your audience who knows as much about your topic, if not more, than you do. If you get caught trying to field an embarrassing question, you might just lose the most important thing you have as a speaker your credibility. If you know the answer, respond accordingly. If you do not know the answer, respond accordingly. But, above all, try and be a imagination for your audience. They expect you to be something of a de facto clever on the topic you choose to address. demonstration Obviously, when thinking about what kind of topic you are going to select, it is compulsory for you to keep your audience in mind.Not doing so will put your speech at risk of not corresponding overlook to plan, plan to fail. with the information needs of your audience and further jeopardize your credibility as a speaker. In this module, we have covered (I) how to analyze an audience and (II) the five layers of audience analysis. In su m, this information equips you with the foundational knowledge and skill-set required to mark that your topic complements your audience. And, after all, if we are not adapting to meet the needs of our audience, we are not going to be informative or convincing speakers. Theres a contemporary maxim that runs strong Fail to plan, plan to fail. We, your authors, believe that if you have failed to fully consider the nature, make-up, and characteristics of your audience, you arefor all intents and purposesneglecting the spirit of the public speaking exercise. Confidently speaking to audiences can be somewhat addictive. The experience, when right executed, can be empowering and help you get ahead personally and professionally throughout your life. But, you moldiness consider whom you are addressing first, and take their every requirement into account. We are linked to, united with, if not bound by, our audiences. And, your main speaking ambition should be to seek identification with th em, and for them to, likewise, seek identification with you. Works Consulted Bem, D. J. (1970).Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Belmont, CA Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. Benjamin, B. (1969). Demographic analysis. New York Praeger. Caernarven-Smith, P. (1983). Audience analysis & response (1st ed. ). Pembroke, MA Firman Technical Publications. Clevenger, T. (1966). Audience analysis. capital of Indiana Bobbs-Merrill. Colburn, C. W. , & Weinberg, S. B. (1981). Listening and audience analysis (2nd ed. ). wampum Science Research Associates. Gibson, J. W. , & Hanna, M. S. (1976). Audience analysis a programmed approach to receiver behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. Prentice-Hall. Hayes, A. (1994). The role of culture in demographic analysis a preliminary investigation.Canberra Australian subject field University, Research School of Social Sciences. Jastrow, J. (1918). The psychological science of conviction a study of beliefs and attitudes. capital of Massachusetts New York Houghton Miffl in. Jaszczolt, K. (2000). The pragmatics of propositional attitude reports. Oxford New York Elsevier. McQuail, D. (1997). Audience analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications. Nelson, N. , & De Saulles, T. (1993). Signs and symbols. New York Thomson Learning. Pressat, R. (1972). Demographic analysis methods, results, applications. Chicago Aldine-Atherton. Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values a theory of organization and change (1st ed. ). San Francisco Jossey-Bass.Ting-Toomey. S & Chung, L. C. (2005). Understanding intercultural communication. Los Angeles Roxbury Publishing. Tucker, K. T. Weaver, II, R. L. Berryman-Fink, C. (1981). Research in speech communication. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. Prentice-Hall. Youga, J. M. (1989). The elements of audience analysis. New York Macmillan. 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