Professional Documents
Culture Documents
-Identification the process of expressing ideas and beliefs that you and your audience share
-Builds common ground, ensures you wont alienate or offend audience, establish good
relationship
-Doesnt mean simple tell audience what want to hear, instead present a message that audience
will hear (listen to and think about)
-Demographics- traits that describe your population or audience (ie. age, gender, geographic
location, group membership, sexual orientation, ethnicity, occupation, etc.)
-Placing too much emphasis on demographic analysis can lead to stereotyping (at one time
demographic analysis was the primary tool used to assess audience, now know- useful but
cannot solely rely upon)
- If audience feels they are being stereotyped, will likely be negative towards
presentation
Age
-Allows predicting what events a particular cohort has experienced
-ie. Growing up in late 1920s experienced great depression- likely more savers
and are frugal attitude
-Allows predicting basic concerns
ie. College students interested in spring-break vacation spots, group of
professionals probably not
-Beloit college published mindset list listed complied to help professors relate to
students, explain how may view world differently
Geographic location
-Based on where born or raised, individuals often can be characterized by certain traits,
however, dont stereotype!
-ie. People on gulf coast probably concerned about hurricane safety, but
not safe to assume will vote conservative
Group affiliation
-May indicate interests or particular positions on a topic
ie. Veterans organization of those who have served during wartime, probably safe
to assume not support burning American flags, supportive of military, and unlikely
to support antiwar sentiment
Socioeconomic factors
-Factors like occupation, income, education will influence how audience responds
-ie. Occupation- likely to play large role in identity, teacher concerned about how
managed care will effect insurance premiums and level of care, doctors
concerned with how will affect their practice
-ie Income- tax presentation on 35k a year vs 200k a year audience, one probably
interested in tax shelters, the other not
-Psychological factors: why audience members are there, how they think about your topic, how
motivated they are about your material are all important psychological factors
-Ask: what attitudes do the audience member hold in respect to my topic, how favorable or
unfavorable is their reaction to my position, what is their motivation for attending my
presentation?
Audience attitudes
-Important to assess what attitudes audience might hold about topic
-Values- ideals that we hope to achieve and underlie specific attitudes, more global and
abstract than attitudes
-ie. Values such as equality wisdom, democracy, justice can shape attitudes about
affirmative action, assisted suicide, gay marriage
Favorable Audience
-Easiest to face, why even address favorable audience?
-Increase commitment
-Reaffirm their commitment, keep them motivated, and/or
increase commitment (ie. campaign rallies)
-Inoculation
-Protect against counter persuasion, remind strengths of
own position and show weaknesses of other position (also
seen in political campaigns, My opponent will tell youbut
let me tell you.)
-Inoculation theory- advantages to refuting
opposing viewpoints, those exposed to arguments
against counterpoints were less susceptible to
changing minds when hear counterpoints
-Increased involvement
-Maybe agree but not very involved in issues, persuade to
actively engage in issues (ie. make calls, hand out flyers)
Hostile Audiences
-Hostile audiences- unfavorable to you or your position
-Tip- try to disarm (ex. Im not an expert and could learn from my
audience now dont appear as arrogant)
Neutral Audience
-Neutral audience- has yet to form an opinion
Audience Motivation
-Motivation depends on involvement- personal relevance a topic hold for an audience
member
Audience Knowledge
-Dont tell what already know, dont overwhelm with term/idea dont understand
-If unfamiliar explain terms, use analogies and directional transitions, assume bright
and intelligent, check for understanding and modify in necessary
-If familiar more knowledgeable audience can process more complex ideas related to
topic, audience will depend more on quality of argument (less on length, number of
sources, how much like you) to make judgment
Audience Mood
-Consider: Was there a recent tragedy in area? Big layoff at major employer? Good
economic news? Etc.
-Mood can impact presentation ie. research in health communication: bad mood-more
likely to want to hear about prevention, good mood- more likely to want to hear how to
detect something is wrong
-Probably wont know which audience will lean towards, so choose presentation that
appeals to broad range of learning styles (dont be tempted just to suite your own
learning style)
-4 delineated styles
Sensing/intuitive
-Sensing- concrete, practical facts, procedures
-Intuitive- abstract, theoretical, creative
Visual/verbal
-Visual- picture, graphs, diagrams, etc. like films
*most people are visual learners
-Verbal- can prefer narrative, written or verbal message
Active/reflective
-Active- hands on, discussion-oriented, group work
-Reflective- pensive, prefer to work alone
Sequential/global
-Sequential- linear, logical, small steps
-Global- big picture, learn in big chunks
Occasion
-What are audience members expecting and how can those feeling be incorporated into
presentation
-ie. Organizational restructuring can make nervous b/c employees might lose job
Time of day
-ie. Hungry- want to leave, not likely to listen make presentation quick to point
-ie. Right after meal- might be sleepy, not likely to listen make active, engaging
presentation
Order of speakers
-First, between, last?
-Speak at end, more likely audience will be fatigue and less likely to listen
-Try to reinvigorate, be animated, use narrative
-Middle speaker can use previous speakers info to advantage, relate your presentation
to those prior
-Under time audience will feel cheated, even for a well presented presentation
audience may not think about it b/c failed to meet their expectations
Technology
- Understand what technology is available
-Focus groups- group interview facilitated by one leader (usually from 3 to 12 ppl)
-Collect more information in less time
-Direct methods most effective for gathering info about audience but can take a lot of
time and money often arent practical unless stakes are high (ie. corporate takeover,
political presentation)
-Examine organizational web sites, social media (ie. Facebook, Twitter), pamphlets, and
other materials
-Stay tuned to audience and dont be overly engrossed in own presentation fail to react to
audience
-Some adaptation strategies: check for comprehension and explain in needed, cut short, reduce
statistics, add narratives, pick up pace, engage audience by calling on someone taking a hand poll
-Make sure keeping good eye contact and using varied delivery style