This article throws light upon the six aspects of analyzing the audience. The aspects are: 1. Age of Your Listeners 2. Sex of Your Listeners 3. Occupation of Your Listeners 4. Intelligence and Educational Level of Your Listeners 5. Social, Professional, and Religious Groups Your Listeners Belong to 6. Influence of Geographical Experiences.
How to Analyze the Audience?
- Age of Your Listeners
- Sex of Your Listeners
- Occupation of Your Listeners
- Intelligence and Educational Level of Your Listeners
- Social, Professional, and Religious Groups Your Listeners Belong to
- Influence of Geographical Experiences
Aspect # 1. Age of Your Listeners:
Countless experimental studies have revealed the impact age has on interests, learning, opinion change, and the like. These research projects have tried to document the influence of age on communication. Their findings reveal a number of interesting conclusions.
For example, because older people have had a larger variety of experiences, they are inclined to become more entrenched in their opinions and hence much harder to persuade. At the same time, studies suggest that young adults are very susceptible to persuasion.
Research also seems to indicate that as we get older, social sensitivity and empathy tend to increase. A group of old people will differ in attitude and experiences from a group of young people. This simple realization will greatly aid the speaker in selecting materials to accomplish his purpose.
Aspect # 2. Sex of Your Listeners:
Is it a mixed audience? The answer to this question may govern everything from your choice of subject to the examples you decide to place in your speech.
Aspect # 3. Occupation of Your Listeners:
What people do for a living is often a guide to their values, attitudes, and even their sense of humor. A school teacher may see things differently than a small shop owner, for example. Ask yourself, “is the occupation of my audience relevant to my topic?”
Aspect # 4. Intelligence and Educational Level of Your Listeners:
In order for communication to take place it is necessary that the audience be able to understand what you say. You must be very careful not to overestimate or underestimate the intelligence of your listeners. In either case, the cycle of communication can be broken if there is a lack of understanding.
You should remember that formal education as well as education acquired through practical experience will help determine what your audience thinks and how it will react.
Aspect # 5. Social, Professional, and Religious Groups Your Listeners Belong to:
Group membership suggests, in a general way, types of people, their points of view, interests, and attitudes. Religious affiliation, for example, influences people’s thinking in many ways. If you can learn the group membership of a large part of your audience, you would have gained a valuable clue to your listeners’ attitudes and wants.
Aspect # 6. Influence of Geographical Experiences:
Try to understand the geographical orientation of your listeners. A person from north India, for example, is likely to have a very different attitude toward the language problem than a person from the south. A person from a rural area would have a very different attitude toward education as compared to a person brought up in the city.
In addition to exploring the backgrounds of your listeners, you will find a number of other questions useful once you have established a profile of your audience:
a. What does the audience already know about me?
b. What is the audience’s attitude toward me?
c. What does the audience know about the subject?
d. What is the audience’s opinion of my subject?
e. What brings the audience together?
The answer to each of these questions will make possible a more complete understanding of the entire speaking situation. Once you are able to see and to feel as the audience does, you are in a position to put into words those ideas that will elicit maximum agreement and understanding.