Chapter 3: Analyzing Your Audience

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing concepts and terms from Chapter 3: Analyzing Your Audience.

Audience Analysis

The process of studying an audience before, during, and after a speech, including understanding demographics and avoiding implicit biases.

Audience-Centered Speaker

A speaker who gathers information about their audience, analyzes that information, and ethically adapts to their listeners.

Common Ground

Shared background, values, or interests identified between the speaker and audience to establish a relationship and help the message resonate.

Demographic Audience Analysis

The practice of analyzing audience characteristics such as age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, and race while avoiding ethnocentrism.

Individualistic Cultures

Cultures in which individual achievement is emphasized more than group achievement.

Collectivistic Cultures

Cultures in which group or team achievement is emphasized more than individual achievement.

High-Context Cultures

Cultures that use contextual cues to both interpret meaning and send subtle messages.

Low-Context Cultures

Cultures that use direct language and rely less on situational factors.

Need for Certainty

A cultural characteristic where people want specifics and dislike ambiguity.

Tolerance of Uncertainty

A cultural characteristic where people can accept ambiguity and are not bothered if they do not know all the details.

High-Power Cultures

Cultures in which status and power differences are emphasized, and roles and chains of command are clearly defined.

Low-Power Cultures

Cultures in which status and power differences receive less emphasis, and people strive for equality rather than exalting leadership positions.

Identification

The process of ensuring an audience connects to a speech by bridging a connection, communicating that the speaker likes the audience, and establishing relevance and credibility.

Kenneth Burke

The scholar who pioneered the school of thought surrounding identification in public speaking.

Psychological Audience Analysis

The anticipation of audience feelings and an attempt to organize those feelings in order to change beliefs, attitudes, values, or behaviors.