{"id":468,"date":"2025-05-26T16:57:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T16:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=468"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:55:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:55:32","slug":"knowing-your-audience","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/chapter\/knowing-your-audience\/","title":{"raw":"Knowing Your Audience","rendered":"Knowing Your Audience"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Chapter Objectives<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<p class=\"import-pf\">Students will:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Differentiate between types of public speaking audiences.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Analyze an audience according to three factors.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image95.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"165.333333333333px\" height=\"165.333333333333px\" \/>If asked to draw the act of public speaking, what would you sketch? A person\u2014maybe a stick figure\u2014standing on a stage? Perhaps the figure would be holding a microphone or have a speech bubble? Or would they be sitting at a computer screen or talking into a phone? More importantly for this chapter, would you draw an audience? If so, how would you feature them? When we ask our students to visually depict public speaking, or rhetoric, they rarely think to include an audience. When they do, students typically draw an audience much smaller than, or positioned lower than, the speaker. Such depictions imply that public speaking is really an exercise of power over an audience by talking \u201cat\u201d them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Today we know that model of public speaking is old-fashioned even if it still is a common first reaction. It simply doesn\u2019t respect the integral and powerful role audiences play in public speaking. Discourse is not the sole creation or property of a speaker. Public speech only has meaning in its relationship to an audience that listens and responds to it. Recall that in chapter 1, we claimed that the listener has a role of equal, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">if not greater<\/em><\/span>, importance than the speaker in providing rhetoric with meaning. As we stated there, meaning is ultimately negotiated between a rhetor and an audience, often over an extended period and in many different forms. In short, audiences are central to public speaking.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Consequently, this chapter focuses your attention on your audience. It comes relatively early in the textbook because good speakers take their specific audience into consideration at every stage of the speech process, including research, organization, outlining, and delivery. We begin with the importance of audience analysis and then consider the types of audiences to analyze, factors to consider, and the limitations of audience analysis in public speaking.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">The Importance of Audience Analysis<\/h1>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_133\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"400\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-133\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96.png\" alt=\"Audience members listening\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/scobleizer\/6293322182\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Audience listens<\/a> by Robert Scoble via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Valuing your audience is critical not just to being more successful but also to inspiring audience members to work together to improve your communal life. When we value the audience for our speech, a host of questions must be answered. Who is my audience, and what is their reason for gathering or listening? What do I know about them, and what might they expect or need from my speech? To help answer these questions, we employ audience analysis. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Audience analysis<\/strong><\/span> is the practice of assessing factors that are likely to influence an audience\u2019s reception of a message.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Box 10.1 The Ancient Roots of Audience Analysis<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_45\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"256\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-45\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10.png\" alt=\"Bust of Aristotle\" width=\"256\" height=\"326\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Aristotle_transparent.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aristotle<\/a>\u00a0by Alvaro Marques Hijazo via Wikimedia Commons,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Domain<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWe find references to audience analysis by ancient Greek philosophers and teachers such as Plato and Aristotle. In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Phaedrus<\/em><\/span>, Plato defined oratory as \u201cthe art of enchanting the soul\u201d and encouraged speakers to \u201clearn the difference among human souls\u201d so speakers can alter their speeches accordingly.[footnote]Plato, <em>Phaedrus<\/em>, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg, 2013), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1636\/1636-h\/1636-h.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1636\/1636-h\/1636-h.htm<\/a>.[\/footnote] Several decades later, Aristotle gave the first description of audience types based largely on age, including their tendencies and likely beliefs, values, and motivations. Aristotle instructed speakers to analyze their listeners and select appeals that will best speak to their experiences, knowledge, and desires.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">You experience audience analysis in your daily life, although perhaps not always with full awareness. If you read <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">ESPN<\/em><\/span> online, for instance, you are likely exposed to ads for athletic gear, sports betting, and technology. Peruse <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Glamour<\/em><\/span> online, and you\u2019ll more likely find ads for food (especially sweet treats), medication, and stores like Target. The products reflect the presumed interests of the magazines\u2019 target audiences. Increasingly, ads on the internet are individually tailored to you. If you have recently shopped for a pair of Converse shoes online, for example, then you might suddenly find them advertised on another website you visit. We don\u2019t find this surprising because audience-targeted advertising (audience analysis and adaptation) makes intuitive sense. It also makes our lives easier, since we don\u2019t have to endure (as many) advertisements for products we don\u2019t want.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Similarly, as a speaker you should critically assess your audience. However, we add a significant note of caution: Capitalist consumerism (like the advertisements we mentioned) and civic engagement begin from very different premises and can be at odds with one another. A speech is more than selling a product; ideally, it is about contributing to the public good. Just because something is effective, be it a marketing ploy or a persuasive message, does not guarantee that it is ethical. This differentiation influences our investigation of audience analysis, beginning with the multiple types of audiences you should consider.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Types of Audiences<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">We\u2019ve referenced \u201cthe audience,\u201d but who, exactly, do we mean? Who should you analyze? The answer is more complicated than it may seem! To illustrate, we will make three types of distinctions: direct and targeted audiences, discrete and dispersed audiences, and implied and implicated audiences.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Direct and Target Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">direct audience<\/strong><\/span> refers to the people who are exposed to and <img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image98.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"127.066666666667px\" height=\"127.066666666667px\" \/>attend to your speech. If you speak in person, that may be easy to determine. It is everyone at the location who can hear you and is paying attention.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Of course, a direct audience won\u2019t always be preassembled and ready to listen to you. If you\u2019re lucky, a civic organization will invite you to address its members, or fellow community members will quickly respond to a recorded speech you upload. Much of the time, however, you may have to find or even build a direct audience to hear your message. Your efforts can range from requesting speaking time at a local meeting, to creating a public event and making publicity efforts to draw an audience, to even convincing others to help you pressure leaders to meet with and hear from you.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Once you have found or arranged a direct audience, it can be composed of people with diverse experiences and opinions. Thus, you might choose to focus on specific members who are more likely to be influenced by your appeals and\/or more likely to act on them. We call them <img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image99.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"140.4px\" height=\"140.4px\" \/>your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">target audience<\/strong><\/span>. If you are trying to convince your classmates to support a national ban on assault weapons, you might focus on\u2014or target\u2014those who adopt a more expansive or looser interpretation of the US Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Discrete and Dispersed Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">A second useful distinction is between discrete and dispersed audiences.[footnote]This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 14, \u201cOnline Public Speaking,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, <em>Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/<\/a>. Author information:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes<\/a>. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/<\/a>.[\/footnote] In traditional, face-to-face public speaking, the audience is often limited to those individuals who show up for the event at a particular day and time\u2014the audience is <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">discrete<\/strong><\/span>. In other words, only the people who attended can see and hear the speech. Those who did not attend lose out on the opportunity.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image100.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"135.066666666667px\" height=\"135.066666666667px\" \/>When speaking online, however, your audience may be <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">dispersed<\/strong><\/span>, unlimited by location or, perhaps, time if it\u2019s recorded. A dispersed audience is more difficult to determine. If you become passionate about a local policy, for example, and upload a speech to YouTube and make it publicly available, the audience is dispersed because it\u2019s unclear who will click the link. Geographically, people from your hometown as well as folks across the nation or even around the globe could watch it. In terms of time, viewers could click the link as soon as it\u2019s available, and people could continue to find the speech as long as it remains a live, public link. With a dispersed audience, then, it can be difficult to make specific or timely references or calls to action because geographic locations and time differences may alter what individuals are able to do.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Reflecting on types of audiences can help you decide exactly who you should analyze and make adaptations for. If your direct audience is dispersed, for instance, identify whom you might target or even attempt to draw to your speech. If your direct audience is discrete, consider how you analyze the group while keeping in mind the subgroup(s) you particularly want to target.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Implied and Implicated Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">A third important distinction is the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\">implied and implicated audiences<\/span>.[footnote]This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 2, \u201cCentering Audiences,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, <em>Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/<\/a>. Author information:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes<\/a>. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/<\/a>.[\/footnote]<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"> An <strong class=\"import-b\">implied audience<\/strong><\/span> is a group that is represented in your message, and an <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicated audience<\/strong><\/span> is affected by your message if it succeeds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_138\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-138\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101.png\" alt=\"A man sits at a wooden table facing a panel of five people sitting at a wooden desk\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nrcgov\/52091937265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NMSS Director John Lubinski at Congressional Field Hearing<\/a> by Nuclear Regulatory Commission via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Let\u2019s use a state congressional hearing as an example. Imagine a group of congressional representatives and experts meeting to deliberate a bill that decreases environmental protections for a city in that state. An expert advocates passionately for the bill\u2019s passage, noting that reducing the environmental protections would allow more businesses in the area to flourish. The speaker crafts an argument they think their target audience\u2014the congressional representatives who are present\u2014will find compelling.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">However, there are also the<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">i<\/em><em class=\"import-i\">mplied audience<\/em><\/span> of the business owners who are being spoken for, or represented in, the speech; and<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">i<\/em><em class=\"import-i\">mplicated audiences<\/em><\/span>, those affected if the speaker is successful, including not only those business owners but also people who work for them or are looking for employment as well as residents who live in the area and local environmentalists. These audiences are important because they are impacted by the results of the speech but might not be part of the direct or target audiences.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Box 10.2 Determining Your Implied and Implicated Audiences<\/strong>\r\n\r\nTo determine your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implied audience<\/strong><\/span>(s), ask, Who are you speaking about or advocating for? Against? What are you saying about them or for them? How are you characterizing (explicitly or implicitly) a culture, group, or individual?\r\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">To determine your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicated audience<\/strong><\/span>(s), ask, If your goal of informing or persuading your target audience(s) is successful, what culture, group, or individual will be affected? If you are <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">un<\/em><\/span>successful, who might be impacted?<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">These two types of audiences are not mutually exclusive!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">It may seem odd to consider audiences who may not be physically or digitally present for your speech. After all, isn\u2019t the target audience who you\u2019re trying to inform or persuade? Yes, your target audience is important, whether they are discrete or dispersed. But the way you represent or depict groups, cultures, or individuals has lasting impacts, even outside your speech event. Similarly, the purposes you seek to fulfill, whether to inform or persuade the target audience, will affect individuals, groups, or cultures, especially if you successfully fulfill your purpose. Whomever your audience, we recommend you use the following guidance to analyze them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Audience Analysis Factors<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">We\u2019ve established that many types of audiences exist for any given speech. From this point on, we will refer again to \u201cthe audience\u201d for the sake of simplicity. But when we do, you can substitute any of the types explored in the previous section. Paying attention to and learning about every audience will aid your speaking efforts.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">So what should speakers learn about their audience to help adapt their messages? Audience analysis includes demographic, psychological, and environmental factors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Demographic Factors<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_139\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-139\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102.png\" alt=\"An older white man and a younger black man look at a computer together\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/113325057@N03\/33725785688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Showing on Computer<\/a> by Lauren Proffitt via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Demographic factors<\/strong><\/span> are personal characteristics that are likely to shape the audience\u2019s views and perspectives on a topic. Audience demographics are useful in providing a sort of shorthand for audience interests and beliefs.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">The <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">age<\/em><\/span> of an audience, for example, is a proxy for their experiences in life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>If you attend a residential liberal arts college, the typical age of your classroom audience (eighteen to twenty-two years) means that few in your class likely have children or own their home. So if you want to address tax deductions, focusing on the child tax credit or mortgage deduction would probably be less relevant to this audience than examining deductions available for college tuition and school expenses. Likewise, a traditional college audience (ages eighteen to twenty-three) has a different range of experiences with the social world than more mature audiences.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>People in their sixties are more likely to be familiar with using pay phones or going to the library to access research sources. However, they are less likely to be familiar with TikTok, YouTube celebrities, or the most recent album by Harry Styles.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe point is that age is often a demographic signifier for a range of information about an audience, including experiences, personal concerns and interests, and cultural knowledge or awareness.\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Box 10.3 Audience Demographic Factors<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAs a speaker, it is valuable to consider the demographic characteristics of your audience as you plan your message. Relevant demographic factors may include the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>age<\/li>\r\n \t<li>gender<\/li>\r\n \t<li>race and ethnicity<\/li>\r\n \t<li>socioeconomic status<\/li>\r\n \t<li>culture\u2014values and customs<\/li>\r\n \t<li>geography\u2014where the audience is from and where you are speaking<\/li>\r\n \t<li>education<\/li>\r\n \t<li>occupation<\/li>\r\n \t<li>group memberships\u2014religious and political affiliations, civic clubs, and so on<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">In using such information, ask yourself how the particular factor potentially affects<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>the relevance of the topic to my audience,<\/li>\r\n \t<li>my audience\u2019s interest in the topic,<\/li>\r\n \t<li>my audience\u2019s knowledge of or exposure to the topic, and<\/li>\r\n \t<li>my audience\u2019s likely perspective on and reaction to the topic.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Other demographic characteristics can similarly be useful in thinking about how to approach a speech. For example, if you shared the results of a study you conducted on narcissism, you would approach it differently for a classroom of public speaking students as opposed to a room full of psychology professors at a national conference. The difference in their <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">education<\/em><\/span> would guide you toward altered language use (employing or avoiding specialized, scientific vocabulary terms) and level of detail (including or excluding supporting literature or an explanation of your methodology). The contrast in their education would give you hints about their likely interest in specific content and ability to understand concepts or terms.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Box 10.4 Who Is My Audience?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhen you do not know a great deal about your audience, there are several ways you can learn about their demographics and attitudes. Some of the most useful techniques are addressed in chapters 8 and 9 on research.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Internet research:<\/strong><\/span> Do online research on the organization, location, membership, or event to gain more understanding of your likely audience.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Q<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">uestions:<\/strong><\/span> If you are giving an invited talk, ask questions of whoever extended the invitation to learn more about the speaking situation and audience.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Observ<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">ation<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">:<\/strong><\/span> If you will be speaking to a particular group or at a particular location, try to observe a meeting or speaker at the location prior to your presentation.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Interviews:<\/strong><\/span> Conduct interviews of group leaders or members to gain the perspectives of the likely audience. Also, interview several members of your implied and implicated audiences to get to know them better.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Nontraditional sources (social media posts, blogs, etc.):<\/strong><\/span> Search new media sources to find locations that feature the voices and perspectives of your implied and implicated audiences.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Always remember that one person\u2019s perspective cannot be generalized as indicative of the entire group that shares their demographic features.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Regardless of your topic, the questions to ask about your audience remain remarkably similar: What are the likely demographics of my audience? How might those demographic factors be important to their awareness, interest, needs, and predispositions on my topic? How can I use this demographic information to better relate to my audience, make my presentation more relevant and accurate, and encourage them to understand my perspective?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Limitations to Using Demographic Factors<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image86-1.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"135.2px\" height=\"135.2px\" \/>There are some limitations in demographics-based audience analysis. A key concern is how much you can reasonably generalize before you create stereotypes about the audience. A <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">stereotype<\/strong><\/span> is a generic categorization of individuals and groups based on the inaccurate conclusion that people sharing a particular characteristic will automatically possess similar qualities and beliefs. Remember that people\u2014regardless of similarities such as age, gender, and race\u2014are individuals. Thus, while there is some evidence that allows us to generalize possible views based on these sorts of demographic factors, any individual can defy that generalized pattern.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image68-2.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"117\" height=\"117\" \/>Also, each of us has multiple demographic features that intersect in ways that influence our standpoint. In chapter 7, we introduced standpoint theory, which suggests that our social identities influence how we are treated and our knowledge of the world. We also introduced intersectionality, or the notion that our identities consist of multiple features that combine in meaningful ways to create intersecting forms of privilege and oppression\u2014and sometimes in seemingly contradictory ways that defy stereotypes. A Hispanic woman is likely to experience a combination of racism and sexism, but significant wealth may give her access to resources\u2014and thus experiences\u2014others with a similar background do not share. Reducing an audience to one demographic quality and making subsequent assumptions about them is overly simplistic.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Overly relying on demographic factors can also invite <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicit biases<\/strong><\/span>, unreflective beliefs about a group of people based on your background, personal experiences, and social stereotypes. Don\u2019t assume, for example, that a group of women is interested in hearing about makeup rather than sports. Not only does that assumption rely on a stereotype of women, but it is also likely informed by implicit biases about them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">When you rely on stereotypes or implicit biases to analyze your audience, you risk drawing faulty conclusions, harming your relationship with the audience, passing along misinformation about them, and hurting your speaking effectiveness. These concerns are especially true for your implied and implicated audiences, who may not be present to correct or add to your representation of them and their interests.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Additionally, demographics generally encourage you to concentrate on the majority views of your direct or target audience. This means you risk overlooking or marginalizing audience members who are exceptions to the predominant factors found in the audience. You might occasionally decide to not target audience outliers, but it is often beneficial to include appeals that might connect with those in the audience beyond the demographic norm. Similarly, the ability to account for audience demographics is complicated when the audience is dispersed. One example is a videorecorded speech uploaded to YouTube, which will remain accessible to future, unknown audiences. In such a case, with changing contexts, circumstances, and listeners, our ability to analyze our audience effectively is necessarily limited.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Box 10.5 Analyzing Your Audience<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Demographic <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Personal characteristics such as age, ethnicity, geographic background, religious affiliation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Psychological <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Interest and personal stakes in the topic, expectations of the speaker, knowledge about the topic, assumptions about the occasion<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Environmental <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Time of day, audience size, physical layout of the venue or affordances of the digital medium<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Psychological Factors<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image68-3.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"108.466666666667px\" height=\"108.466666666667px\" \/>Like audience demographics, speakers should consider how psychological factors may influence reception of their message. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Psychological factors<\/strong><\/span> are an audience\u2019s predispositions related to their mental state, attitude, personal stakes, and interest in and experience with the topic, occasion, and speaker. Many of these predispositions relate to demographics. If we think in terms of standpoint theory, we know that an audience\u2019s social identities (demographic factors) influence their experiences and thus their knowledge and views about the world (psychological factors).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Psychological factors such as audience interest in the topic and personal stakes can influence how an audience reacts to a message. For example, we generally assume audience members who attend voluntarily have more genuine interest in a topic. In contrast, when you address a largely <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">captive audience<\/strong><\/span>\u2014an audience that is required to be in attendance (such as your classmates)\u2014it becomes more important to engage them and make the presentation relevant.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">An audience\u2019s interest level is related to their <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">personal stakes<\/strong><\/span>\u2014each individual\u2019s financial, material, and\/or psychological investments that could be improved or worsened based on how a topic is addressed. People who attend a speech voluntarily likely come with a sense of their own personal stakes. That is, they probably already perceive themselves as part of the implicated audience. Speakers can tailor their speeches accordingly. A captive audience, however, may not automatically perceive the speech as meaningfully affecting their lives and be more inclined to disengage as a result. Consequently, you might explicitly identify how your topic and its outcome affect them personally. Explain how they are an implicated audience.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Another psychological factor subject to audience analysis is the audience\u2019s familiarity with the speaker and topic. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Familiarity<\/strong><\/span> is the degree to which an audience already knows or is ignorant about the speaker and topic. Positive familiarity can be a source of goodwill between a speaker and audience, which the speaker can capitalize on to build credibility. In contrast, if a speaker has developed a poor speaking reputation or is unfamiliar to the audience, they will need to work harder to build a positive relationship. Relatedly, speakers may need to spend time giving extensive background information to audiences who are ignorant about a topic but can save that time when audiences are already knowledgeable.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Finally, it is important that the speaker consider the occasion or purpose of the speech when shaping it for a particular audience. This includes factors such as the expected formality of the event, its tone or mood, and its importance. As a speaker, you want your presentation to reflect the demands of the situation, and you should adapt accordingly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Environmental Factors<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_143\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"375\"]<img class=\"wp-image-143\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103.png\" alt=\"People sitting around a table, looking at a screen, while one woman stands and talks\" width=\"375\" height=\"250\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/rectangular-brown-wooden-table-I9meM8YQ9DM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image<\/a> by Claire Nakkachi via Unsplash, <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash License<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">As a speaker, you should also consider how environmental factors impact your message. <strong>Environmental factors<\/strong> refer to elements of the speaking situation such as time of day, size of audience, and communication medium. These factors can influence how the audience receives the message.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">For instance, the time of day a speech is given\u2014early, late, near mealtime\u2014can affect the audience\u2019s attitudes and reactions. Anyone who has taken an 8:00 a.m. class understands that audience alertness is often lower at that time of morning! Similarly, an audience\u2019s size can influence their expectations. We typically anticipate speakers will talk more casually to a very small group and more formally to a large gathering. The communication medium impacts expectations as well.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">We might think of the medium in terms of whether it is in person or presented through a screen (what we will call a \u201ctelevisual delivery\u201d in chapter 18). Even among televisual media, an audience\u2019s expectations may differ. We may be content with slides during a live Zoom presentation but anticipate much more polished and highly edited visual aids in a YouTube video. In each case, you want to change your speaking plans due to such factors\u2014how long you speak, the sorts of supporting media you use, your use of humor or seriousness, and so on.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">To assist in doing so, try to learn as much as possible about your speaking environment. If speaking in person, visit the location in advance to stand in the speaking space, test equipment, and so forth. If speaking televisually, play around with the electronic platform you will use to better learn the opportunities and constraints it poses. Learn what expectations audiences may have for your specific communication medium. Being flexible and adjusting to the environmentally influenced needs of the audience will allow you to speak more effectively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Summary<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">This chapter stressed the importance of audience to your success in inspiring audience members to work together to improve your communal life. Public speaking actively involves both a speaker and an audience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Audience analysis, the practice of assessing audience factors that are likely to influence an audience\u2019s reception of a message, is an important resource for public speakers when developing their message.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Audience can be conceptualized in many helpful ways. The direct audience consists of the people who are exposed to and attend to your speech, whereas the target audience are specific members you focus on because they are more likely to be influenced by your appeals and\/or more likely to act on them.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A discrete audience includes a finite amount of people, typically limited to those individuals who show up for a speaking event at a particular day and time. A dispersed audience is unlimited by location, or perhaps time, if it\u2019s recorded.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>An implied audience is a group that is represented in your advocacy. An implicated audience refers to a group that will be impacted by the results of your speech.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Audience analysis functions by considering three kinds of factors: demographic factors, psychological factors, and environmental factors.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Audience demographic factors are personal characteristics of the audience that are likely to shape their views and perspectives on a topic. Common demographic factors include age, gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, geography, education, occupation, and group memberships.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Psychological factors include the audience\u2019s mental state, attitude, personal stakes, and interest in the topic, occasion, and speaker.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Environmental factors include elements of the speaking situation such as time of day, location, size of audience, and communication medium.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Despite its utility, audience analysis is also subject to important limitations, including how well we can know our audience, how accurately demographic factors will predict predispositions, and what audience analysis means for audience members who fall outside the audience majority. To generalize about an audience too broadly risks stereotyping individuals and groups and\/or relying on implicit biases about them.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Key Terms<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\naudience analysis\r\ncaptive audience\r\ndemographic factors\r\ndirect audience\r\ndiscrete audience\r\ndispersed audience\r\nenvironmental factors\r\nfamiliarity\r\nimplicated audience\r\nimplicit bias\r\nimplied audience\r\npersonal stakes\r\npsychological factors\r\nstereotype\r\ntarget audience\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Review Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Why is it important to analyze your audience?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What is the difference between a direct audience and a target audience? What about between a discrete audience and a dispersed audience?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Why should you reflect on your implied and implicated audiences?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>As a speaker, how might you learn more about the demographics and attitudes of your audience in advance of a public speech?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What are the risks and limitations to using demographic factors to analyze an audience?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Discussion Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Recall a recent speaker on your campus who did a particularly good or poor job of adapting to their audience. What demographic, psychological, and environmental factors did they account for or overlook?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Thinking of the same recent speaker or someone different, how might you distinguish their audiences? Who were their direct and target audiences? Were they discrete or disparate? Who was included in their implicated and impacted audiences? How do you know?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>How do social media change our understanding of audience? How might our efforts to analyze audiences for social media compare or contrast with more traditional public speaking?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Chapter Objectives<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p class=\"import-pf\">Students will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Differentiate between types of public speaking audiences.<\/li>\n<li>Analyze an audience according to three factors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image95.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"165.333333333333px\" height=\"165.333333333333px\" \/>If asked to draw the act of public speaking, what would you sketch? A person\u2014maybe a stick figure\u2014standing on a stage? Perhaps the figure would be holding a microphone or have a speech bubble? Or would they be sitting at a computer screen or talking into a phone? More importantly for this chapter, would you draw an audience? If so, how would you feature them? When we ask our students to visually depict public speaking, or rhetoric, they rarely think to include an audience. When they do, students typically draw an audience much smaller than, or positioned lower than, the speaker. Such depictions imply that public speaking is really an exercise of power over an audience by talking \u201cat\u201d them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Today we know that model of public speaking is old-fashioned even if it still is a common first reaction. It simply doesn\u2019t respect the integral and powerful role audiences play in public speaking. Discourse is not the sole creation or property of a speaker. Public speech only has meaning in its relationship to an audience that listens and responds to it. Recall that in chapter 1, we claimed that the listener has a role of equal, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">if not greater<\/em><\/span>, importance than the speaker in providing rhetoric with meaning. As we stated there, meaning is ultimately negotiated between a rhetor and an audience, often over an extended period and in many different forms. In short, audiences are central to public speaking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Consequently, this chapter focuses your attention on your audience. It comes relatively early in the textbook because good speakers take their specific audience into consideration at every stage of the speech process, including research, organization, outlining, and delivery. We begin with the importance of audience analysis and then consider the types of audiences to analyze, factors to consider, and the limitations of audience analysis in public speaking.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">The Importance of Audience Analysis<\/h1>\n<figure id=\"attachment_133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-133\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-133\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96.png\" alt=\"Audience members listening\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96.png 400w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96-65x43.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96-225x150.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image96-350x234.png 350w\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/scobleizer\/6293322182\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Audience listens<\/a> by Robert Scoble via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Valuing your audience is critical not just to being more successful but also to inspiring audience members to work together to improve your communal life. When we value the audience for our speech, a host of questions must be answered. Who is my audience, and what is their reason for gathering or listening? What do I know about them, and what might they expect or need from my speech? To help answer these questions, we employ audience analysis. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Audience analysis<\/strong><\/span> is the practice of assessing factors that are likely to influence an audience\u2019s reception of a message.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p><strong>Box 10.1 The Ancient Roots of Audience Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_45\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-45\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10.png\" alt=\"Bust of Aristotle\" width=\"256\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10.png 256w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10-236x300.png 236w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10-65x83.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image10-225x287.png 225w\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Aristotle_transparent.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aristotle<\/a>\u00a0by Alvaro Marques Hijazo via Wikimedia Commons,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Domain<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We find references to audience analysis by ancient Greek philosophers and teachers such as Plato and Aristotle. In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Phaedrus<\/em><\/span>, Plato defined oratory as \u201cthe art of enchanting the soul\u201d and encouraged speakers to \u201clearn the difference among human souls\u201d so speakers can alter their speeches accordingly.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg, 2013), https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1636\/1636-h\/1636-h.htm.\" id=\"return-footnote-468-1\" href=\"#footnote-468-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a> Several decades later, Aristotle gave the first description of audience types based largely on age, including their tendencies and likely beliefs, values, and motivations. Aristotle instructed speakers to analyze their listeners and select appeals that will best speak to their experiences, knowledge, and desires.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">You experience audience analysis in your daily life, although perhaps not always with full awareness. If you read <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">ESPN<\/em><\/span> online, for instance, you are likely exposed to ads for athletic gear, sports betting, and technology. Peruse <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Glamour<\/em><\/span> online, and you\u2019ll more likely find ads for food (especially sweet treats), medication, and stores like Target. The products reflect the presumed interests of the magazines\u2019 target audiences. Increasingly, ads on the internet are individually tailored to you. If you have recently shopped for a pair of Converse shoes online, for example, then you might suddenly find them advertised on another website you visit. We don\u2019t find this surprising because audience-targeted advertising (audience analysis and adaptation) makes intuitive sense. It also makes our lives easier, since we don\u2019t have to endure (as many) advertisements for products we don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Similarly, as a speaker you should critically assess your audience. However, we add a significant note of caution: Capitalist consumerism (like the advertisements we mentioned) and civic engagement begin from very different premises and can be at odds with one another. A speech is more than selling a product; ideally, it is about contributing to the public good. Just because something is effective, be it a marketing ploy or a persuasive message, does not guarantee that it is ethical. This differentiation influences our investigation of audience analysis, beginning with the multiple types of audiences you should consider.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Types of Audiences<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">We\u2019ve referenced \u201cthe audience,\u201d but who, exactly, do we mean? Who should you analyze? The answer is more complicated than it may seem! To illustrate, we will make three types of distinctions: direct and targeted audiences, discrete and dispersed audiences, and implied and implicated audiences.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Direct and Target Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">direct audience<\/strong><\/span> refers to the people who are exposed to and <img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image98.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"127.066666666667px\" height=\"127.066666666667px\" \/>attend to your speech. If you speak in person, that may be easy to determine. It is everyone at the location who can hear you and is paying attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Of course, a direct audience won\u2019t always be preassembled and ready to listen to you. If you\u2019re lucky, a civic organization will invite you to address its members, or fellow community members will quickly respond to a recorded speech you upload. Much of the time, however, you may have to find or even build a direct audience to hear your message. Your efforts can range from requesting speaking time at a local meeting, to creating a public event and making publicity efforts to draw an audience, to even convincing others to help you pressure leaders to meet with and hear from you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Once you have found or arranged a direct audience, it can be composed of people with diverse experiences and opinions. Thus, you might choose to focus on specific members who are more likely to be influenced by your appeals and\/or more likely to act on them. We call them <img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image99.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"140.4px\" height=\"140.4px\" \/>your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">target audience<\/strong><\/span>. If you are trying to convince your classmates to support a national ban on assault weapons, you might focus on\u2014or target\u2014those who adopt a more expansive or looser interpretation of the US Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Discrete and Dispersed Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">A second useful distinction is between discrete and dispersed audiences.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 14, \u201cOnline Public Speaking,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/. Author information:\u00a0https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/.\" id=\"return-footnote-468-2\" href=\"#footnote-468-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> In traditional, face-to-face public speaking, the audience is often limited to those individuals who show up for the event at a particular day and time\u2014the audience is <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">discrete<\/strong><\/span>. In other words, only the people who attended can see and hear the speech. Those who did not attend lose out on the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image100.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"135.066666666667px\" height=\"135.066666666667px\" \/>When speaking online, however, your audience may be <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">dispersed<\/strong><\/span>, unlimited by location or, perhaps, time if it\u2019s recorded. A dispersed audience is more difficult to determine. If you become passionate about a local policy, for example, and upload a speech to YouTube and make it publicly available, the audience is dispersed because it\u2019s unclear who will click the link. Geographically, people from your hometown as well as folks across the nation or even around the globe could watch it. In terms of time, viewers could click the link as soon as it\u2019s available, and people could continue to find the speech as long as it remains a live, public link. With a dispersed audience, then, it can be difficult to make specific or timely references or calls to action because geographic locations and time differences may alter what individuals are able to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Reflecting on types of audiences can help you decide exactly who you should analyze and make adaptations for. If your direct audience is dispersed, for instance, identify whom you might target or even attempt to draw to your speech. If your direct audience is discrete, consider how you analyze the group while keeping in mind the subgroup(s) you particularly want to target.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Implied and Implicated Audiences<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">A third important distinction is the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\">implied and implicated audiences<\/span>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 2, \u201cCentering Audiences,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/. Author information:\u00a0https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/.\" id=\"return-footnote-468-3\" href=\"#footnote-468-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"> An <strong class=\"import-b\">implied audience<\/strong><\/span> is a group that is represented in your message, and an <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicated audience<\/strong><\/span> is affected by your message if it succeeds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_138\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-138\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-138\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101.png\" alt=\"A man sits at a wooden table facing a panel of five people sitting at a wooden desk\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101.png 400w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101-65x43.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101-225x150.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image101-350x234.png 350w\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-138\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nrcgov\/52091937265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NMSS Director John Lubinski at Congressional Field Hearing<\/a> by Nuclear Regulatory Commission via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Let\u2019s use a state congressional hearing as an example. Imagine a group of congressional representatives and experts meeting to deliberate a bill that decreases environmental protections for a city in that state. An expert advocates passionately for the bill\u2019s passage, noting that reducing the environmental protections would allow more businesses in the area to flourish. The speaker crafts an argument they think their target audience\u2014the congressional representatives who are present\u2014will find compelling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">However, there are also the<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">i<\/em><em class=\"import-i\">mplied audience<\/em><\/span> of the business owners who are being spoken for, or represented in, the speech; and<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">i<\/em><em class=\"import-i\">mplicated audiences<\/em><\/span>, those affected if the speaker is successful, including not only those business owners but also people who work for them or are looking for employment as well as residents who live in the area and local environmentalists. These audiences are important because they are impacted by the results of the speech but might not be part of the direct or target audiences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p><strong>Box 10.2 Determining Your Implied and Implicated Audiences<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To determine your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implied audience<\/strong><\/span>(s), ask, Who are you speaking about or advocating for? Against? What are you saying about them or for them? How are you characterizing (explicitly or implicitly) a culture, group, or individual?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">To determine your <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicated audience<\/strong><\/span>(s), ask, If your goal of informing or persuading your target audience(s) is successful, what culture, group, or individual will be affected? If you are <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">un<\/em><\/span>successful, who might be impacted?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">These two types of audiences are not mutually exclusive!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">It may seem odd to consider audiences who may not be physically or digitally present for your speech. After all, isn\u2019t the target audience who you\u2019re trying to inform or persuade? Yes, your target audience is important, whether they are discrete or dispersed. But the way you represent or depict groups, cultures, or individuals has lasting impacts, even outside your speech event. Similarly, the purposes you seek to fulfill, whether to inform or persuade the target audience, will affect individuals, groups, or cultures, especially if you successfully fulfill your purpose. Whomever your audience, we recommend you use the following guidance to analyze them.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Audience Analysis Factors<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">We\u2019ve established that many types of audiences exist for any given speech. From this point on, we will refer again to \u201cthe audience\u201d for the sake of simplicity. But when we do, you can substitute any of the types explored in the previous section. Paying attention to and learning about every audience will aid your speaking efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">So what should speakers learn about their audience to help adapt their messages? Audience analysis includes demographic, psychological, and environmental factors.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Demographic Factors<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_139\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-139\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-139\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102.png\" alt=\"An older white man and a younger black man look at a computer together\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102.png 400w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102-65x43.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102-225x150.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image102-350x234.png 350w\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/113325057@N03\/33725785688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Showing on Computer<\/a> by Lauren Proffitt via Flickr, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Demographic factors<\/strong><\/span> are personal characteristics that are likely to shape the audience\u2019s views and perspectives on a topic. Audience demographics are useful in providing a sort of shorthand for audience interests and beliefs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">The <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">age<\/em><\/span> of an audience, for example, is a proxy for their experiences in life.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you attend a residential liberal arts college, the typical age of your classroom audience (eighteen to twenty-two years) means that few in your class likely have children or own their home. So if you want to address tax deductions, focusing on the child tax credit or mortgage deduction would probably be less relevant to this audience than examining deductions available for college tuition and school expenses. Likewise, a traditional college audience (ages eighteen to twenty-three) has a different range of experiences with the social world than more mature audiences.<\/li>\n<li>People in their sixties are more likely to be familiar with using pay phones or going to the library to access research sources. However, they are less likely to be familiar with TikTok, YouTube celebrities, or the most recent album by Harry Styles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The point is that age is often a demographic signifier for a range of information about an audience, including experiences, personal concerns and interests, and cultural knowledge or awareness.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p><strong>Box 10.3 Audience Demographic Factors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a speaker, it is valuable to consider the demographic characteristics of your audience as you plan your message. Relevant demographic factors may include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>age<\/li>\n<li>gender<\/li>\n<li>race and ethnicity<\/li>\n<li>socioeconomic status<\/li>\n<li>culture\u2014values and customs<\/li>\n<li>geography\u2014where the audience is from and where you are speaking<\/li>\n<li>education<\/li>\n<li>occupation<\/li>\n<li>group memberships\u2014religious and political affiliations, civic clubs, and so on<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">In using such information, ask yourself how the particular factor potentially affects<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the relevance of the topic to my audience,<\/li>\n<li>my audience\u2019s interest in the topic,<\/li>\n<li>my audience\u2019s knowledge of or exposure to the topic, and<\/li>\n<li>my audience\u2019s likely perspective on and reaction to the topic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Other demographic characteristics can similarly be useful in thinking about how to approach a speech. For example, if you shared the results of a study you conducted on narcissism, you would approach it differently for a classroom of public speaking students as opposed to a room full of psychology professors at a national conference. The difference in their <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">education<\/em><\/span> would guide you toward altered language use (employing or avoiding specialized, scientific vocabulary terms) and level of detail (including or excluding supporting literature or an explanation of your methodology). The contrast in their education would give you hints about their likely interest in specific content and ability to understand concepts or terms.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p><strong>Box 10.4 Who Is My Audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you do not know a great deal about your audience, there are several ways you can learn about their demographics and attitudes. Some of the most useful techniques are addressed in chapters 8 and 9 on research.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Internet research:<\/strong><\/span> Do online research on the organization, location, membership, or event to gain more understanding of your likely audience.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Q<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">uestions:<\/strong><\/span> If you are giving an invited talk, ask questions of whoever extended the invitation to learn more about the speaking situation and audience.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Observ<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">ation<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">:<\/strong><\/span> If you will be speaking to a particular group or at a particular location, try to observe a meeting or speaker at the location prior to your presentation.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Interviews:<\/strong><\/span> Conduct interviews of group leaders or members to gain the perspectives of the likely audience. Also, interview several members of your implied and implicated audiences to get to know them better.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Nontraditional sources (social media posts, blogs, etc.):<\/strong><\/span> Search new media sources to find locations that feature the voices and perspectives of your implied and implicated audiences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Always remember that one person\u2019s perspective cannot be generalized as indicative of the entire group that shares their demographic features.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Regardless of your topic, the questions to ask about your audience remain remarkably similar: What are the likely demographics of my audience? How might those demographic factors be important to their awareness, interest, needs, and predispositions on my topic? How can I use this demographic information to better relate to my audience, make my presentation more relevant and accurate, and encourage them to understand my perspective?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Limitations to Using Demographic Factors<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image86-1.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"135.2px\" height=\"135.2px\" \/>There are some limitations in demographics-based audience analysis. A key concern is how much you can reasonably generalize before you create stereotypes about the audience. A <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">stereotype<\/strong><\/span> is a generic categorization of individuals and groups based on the inaccurate conclusion that people sharing a particular characteristic will automatically possess similar qualities and beliefs. Remember that people\u2014regardless of similarities such as age, gender, and race\u2014are individuals. Thus, while there is some evidence that allows us to generalize possible views based on these sorts of demographic factors, any individual can defy that generalized pattern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image68-2.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"117\" height=\"117\" \/>Also, each of us has multiple demographic features that intersect in ways that influence our standpoint. In chapter 7, we introduced standpoint theory, which suggests that our social identities influence how we are treated and our knowledge of the world. We also introduced intersectionality, or the notion that our identities consist of multiple features that combine in meaningful ways to create intersecting forms of privilege and oppression\u2014and sometimes in seemingly contradictory ways that defy stereotypes. A Hispanic woman is likely to experience a combination of racism and sexism, but significant wealth may give her access to resources\u2014and thus experiences\u2014others with a similar background do not share. Reducing an audience to one demographic quality and making subsequent assumptions about them is overly simplistic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Overly relying on demographic factors can also invite <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">implicit biases<\/strong><\/span>, unreflective beliefs about a group of people based on your background, personal experiences, and social stereotypes. Don\u2019t assume, for example, that a group of women is interested in hearing about makeup rather than sports. Not only does that assumption rely on a stereotype of women, but it is also likely informed by implicit biases about them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">When you rely on stereotypes or implicit biases to analyze your audience, you risk drawing faulty conclusions, harming your relationship with the audience, passing along misinformation about them, and hurting your speaking effectiveness. These concerns are especially true for your implied and implicated audiences, who may not be present to correct or add to your representation of them and their interests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Additionally, demographics generally encourage you to concentrate on the majority views of your direct or target audience. This means you risk overlooking or marginalizing audience members who are exceptions to the predominant factors found in the audience. You might occasionally decide to not target audience outliers, but it is often beneficial to include appeals that might connect with those in the audience beyond the demographic norm. Similarly, the ability to account for audience demographics is complicated when the audience is dispersed. One example is a videorecorded speech uploaded to YouTube, which will remain accessible to future, unknown audiences. In such a case, with changing contexts, circumstances, and listeners, our ability to analyze our audience effectively is necessarily limited.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p><strong>Box 10.5 Analyzing Your Audience<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Demographic <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Personal characteristics such as age, ethnicity, geographic background, religious affiliation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Psychological <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Interest and personal stakes in the topic, expectations of the speaker, knowledge about the topic, assumptions about the occasion<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Environmental <\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">f<\/strong><strong class=\"import-b\">actors:<\/strong><\/span> Time of day, audience size, physical layout of the venue or affordances of the digital medium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Psychological Factors<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-paft\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image68-3.png\" alt=\"image\" width=\"108.466666666667px\" height=\"108.466666666667px\" \/>Like audience demographics, speakers should consider how psychological factors may influence reception of their message. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Psychological factors<\/strong><\/span> are an audience\u2019s predispositions related to their mental state, attitude, personal stakes, and interest in and experience with the topic, occasion, and speaker. Many of these predispositions relate to demographics. If we think in terms of standpoint theory, we know that an audience\u2019s social identities (demographic factors) influence their experiences and thus their knowledge and views about the world (psychological factors).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Psychological factors such as audience interest in the topic and personal stakes can influence how an audience reacts to a message. For example, we generally assume audience members who attend voluntarily have more genuine interest in a topic. In contrast, when you address a largely <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">captive audience<\/strong><\/span>\u2014an audience that is required to be in attendance (such as your classmates)\u2014it becomes more important to engage them and make the presentation relevant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">An audience\u2019s interest level is related to their <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">personal stakes<\/strong><\/span>\u2014each individual\u2019s financial, material, and\/or psychological investments that could be improved or worsened based on how a topic is addressed. People who attend a speech voluntarily likely come with a sense of their own personal stakes. That is, they probably already perceive themselves as part of the implicated audience. Speakers can tailor their speeches accordingly. A captive audience, however, may not automatically perceive the speech as meaningfully affecting their lives and be more inclined to disengage as a result. Consequently, you might explicitly identify how your topic and its outcome affect them personally. Explain how they are an implicated audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Another psychological factor subject to audience analysis is the audience\u2019s familiarity with the speaker and topic. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><strong class=\"import-b\">Familiarity<\/strong><\/span> is the degree to which an audience already knows or is ignorant about the speaker and topic. Positive familiarity can be a source of goodwill between a speaker and audience, which the speaker can capitalize on to build credibility. In contrast, if a speaker has developed a poor speaking reputation or is unfamiliar to the audience, they will need to work harder to build a positive relationship. Relatedly, speakers may need to spend time giving extensive background information to audiences who are ignorant about a topic but can save that time when audiences are already knowledgeable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Finally, it is important that the speaker consider the occasion or purpose of the speech when shaping it for a particular audience. This includes factors such as the expected formality of the event, its tone or mood, and its importance. As a speaker, you want your presentation to reflect the demands of the situation, and you should adapt accordingly.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"import-bh\"><em>Environmental Factors<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_143\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-143\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img class=\"wp-image-143\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103.png\" alt=\"People sitting around a table, looking at a screen, while one woman stands and talks\" width=\"375\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103.png 640w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103-65x43.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103-225x150.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2025\/05\/image103-350x234.png 350w\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/rectangular-brown-wooden-table-I9meM8YQ9DM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image<\/a> by Claire Nakkachi via Unsplash, <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash License<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">As a speaker, you should also consider how environmental factors impact your message. <strong>Environmental factors<\/strong> refer to elements of the speaking situation such as time of day, size of audience, and communication medium. These factors can influence how the audience receives the message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">For instance, the time of day a speech is given\u2014early, late, near mealtime\u2014can affect the audience\u2019s attitudes and reactions. Anyone who has taken an 8:00 a.m. class understands that audience alertness is often lower at that time of morning! Similarly, an audience\u2019s size can influence their expectations. We typically anticipate speakers will talk more casually to a very small group and more formally to a large gathering. The communication medium impacts expectations as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">We might think of the medium in terms of whether it is in person or presented through a screen (what we will call a \u201ctelevisual delivery\u201d in chapter 18). Even among televisual media, an audience\u2019s expectations may differ. We may be content with slides during a live Zoom presentation but anticipate much more polished and highly edited visual aids in a YouTube video. In each case, you want to change your speaking plans due to such factors\u2014how long you speak, the sorts of supporting media you use, your use of humor or seriousness, and so on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p0\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">To assist in doing so, try to learn as much as possible about your speaking environment. If speaking in person, visit the location in advance to stand in the speaking space, test equipment, and so forth. If speaking televisually, play around with the electronic platform you will use to better learn the opportunities and constraints it poses. Learn what expectations audiences may have for your specific communication medium. Being flexible and adjusting to the environmentally influenced needs of the audience will allow you to speak more effectively.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Summary<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p class=\"import-paft\">This chapter stressed the importance of audience to your success in inspiring audience members to work together to improve your communal life. Public speaking actively involves both a speaker and an audience.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Audience analysis, the practice of assessing audience factors that are likely to influence an audience\u2019s reception of a message, is an important resource for public speakers when developing their message.<\/li>\n<li>Audience can be conceptualized in many helpful ways. The direct audience consists of the people who are exposed to and attend to your speech, whereas the target audience are specific members you focus on because they are more likely to be influenced by your appeals and\/or more likely to act on them.<\/li>\n<li>A discrete audience includes a finite amount of people, typically limited to those individuals who show up for a speaking event at a particular day and time. A dispersed audience is unlimited by location, or perhaps time, if it\u2019s recorded.<\/li>\n<li>An implied audience is a group that is represented in your advocacy. An implicated audience refers to a group that will be impacted by the results of your speech.<\/li>\n<li>Audience analysis functions by considering three kinds of factors: demographic factors, psychological factors, and environmental factors.<\/li>\n<li>Audience demographic factors are personal characteristics of the audience that are likely to shape their views and perspectives on a topic. Common demographic factors include age, gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, geography, education, occupation, and group memberships.<\/li>\n<li>Psychological factors include the audience\u2019s mental state, attitude, personal stakes, and interest in the topic, occasion, and speaker.<\/li>\n<li>Environmental factors include elements of the speaking situation such as time of day, location, size of audience, and communication medium.<\/li>\n<li>Despite its utility, audience analysis is also subject to important limitations, including how well we can know our audience, how accurately demographic factors will predict predispositions, and what audience analysis means for audience members who fall outside the audience majority. To generalize about an audience too broadly risks stereotyping individuals and groups and\/or relying on implicit biases about them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Key Terms<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>audience analysis<br \/>\ncaptive audience<br \/>\ndemographic factors<br \/>\ndirect audience<br \/>\ndiscrete audience<br \/>\ndispersed audience<br \/>\nenvironmental factors<br \/>\nfamiliarity<br \/>\nimplicated audience<br \/>\nimplicit bias<br \/>\nimplied audience<br \/>\npersonal stakes<br \/>\npsychological factors<br \/>\nstereotype<br \/>\ntarget audience<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Review Questions<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<ol>\n<li>Why is it important to analyze your audience?<\/li>\n<li>What is the difference between a direct audience and a target audience? What about between a discrete audience and a dispersed audience?<\/li>\n<li>Why should you reflect on your implied and implicated audiences?<\/li>\n<li>As a speaker, how might you learn more about the demographics and attitudes of your audience in advance of a public speech?<\/li>\n<li>What are the risks and limitations to using demographic factors to analyze an audience?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Discussion Questions<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<ol>\n<li>Recall a recent speaker on your campus who did a particularly good or poor job of adapting to their audience. What demographic, psychological, and environmental factors did they account for or overlook?<\/li>\n<li>Thinking of the same recent speaker or someone different, how might you distinguish their audiences? Who were their direct and target audiences? Were they discrete or disparate? Who was included in their implicated and impacted audiences? How do you know?<\/li>\n<li>How do social media change our understanding of audience? How might our efforts to analyze audiences for social media compare or contrast with more traditional public speaking?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-468-1\">Plato, <em>Phaedrus<\/em>, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg, 2013), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1636\/1636-h\/1636-h.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1636\/1636-h\/1636-h.htm<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-468-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-468-2\">This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 14, \u201cOnline Public Speaking,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, <em>Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/<\/a>. Author information:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes<\/a>. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-468-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-468-3\">This section is adapted from an excerpt of the original chapter 2, \u201cCentering Audiences,\u201d in Meggie Mapes, <em>Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/opentext.ku.edu\/speakupcallin\/<\/a>. Author information:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/coms.ku.edu\/people\/meggie-mapes<\/a>. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cclicenses\/<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-468-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3297,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/468\/revisions\/3297"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/468\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/publicspeakinganddemocraticparticipation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}