Imagine you are a professional presenter for a nonprofit organization that educates a variety of groups and organizations about how to manage their personal finances. During one busy week, you present to three different groups: a roomful of local high school students who are enrolled in a business club, assembly-line workers at a manufacturing plant and a large gathering of state agency employees
Your audiences may vary considerably in age, educational background, ethnicity, job, and income, but the basic information that you communicate to each audience is the same. When you plan a speech, learn as much about your audience as you can. Knowing your audience enables you to prepare your words so that the audience listens and understands your message.
For this week's Discussion, you will view a speech and apply the information you read about audience analysis in the week’s resources to think like an audience member.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Readings
Media
By Day 3
You will begin the process of developing and writing an informative speech. Your first task is to understand your audience's needs and interests. Write 200-300 words addressing the following:
Watch: Select one of the videos included in this week's Learning Resources.
Discuss: Imagine the type of audience who may be present listening to the speech in your chosen video.
Answer the questions below fully explaining your answers:
- Write a brief description of an imaginary audience member you think may be in attendance at this speech using at least four of the 11 demographic characteristics found in section 2.2 of our textbook AND at least two of the Psychographic characteristics found in section 2.3.
- Describe how this imaginary audience member’s demographic and psychographic characteristics influenced what the speaker said and how they said it. Find specific examples in the speech to show how the speaker designed their message for this particular audience.
- Audience needs/interests: Based on your description of the audience member what specific information or insights do you think the audience was hoping to gain from this speech? What challenges might the audience have faced in fully understanding or appreciating the speech?