Comprehensive Notes on Ethics, Audience Analysis, and Speech Preparation
Ethics in Communication
- Ethics is the study of moral conduct, addressing responsibilities in influencing others.
- It involves discerning positive/negative or right/wrong actions.
- Key aspects: Competence and character.
- Ethics (ethos): Derived from the Greek word for character.
- Source credibility:
- Trust stems from a grasp of the subject, honesty, straightforwardness, and respect.
Values and Ethical Speaking
- Values reflect our sense of right and wrong.
- Values: Enduring judgments of what's good/bad.
- Audience's values must be considered in ethical speech preparation.
- Ethical speaking contributes positively to public discourse.
- Public discourse: Speech on issues of importance to the community (e.g., race relations, immigration).
- Ethical speech appeals to the greater good and avoids invective/personal attacks.
- Avoid arguments targeting individuals instead of issues.
Freedom of Expression
- Responsibly use free speech rights.
- Freedom of expression: Right to express beliefs without censorship.
- Protected by the First Amendment.
- Offensive speech is protected, but unethical.
- Hate speech: Offensive communication against various groups.
- Based on: race, ethnicity, origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation.
- Illegal speech:
- Fighting words: Incite violence.
- Speech expressing falsehoods and perjury.
- Harmful speech: Slander affecting reputation.
Defamation and Ethical Speech
- Liability for defamation requires reckless disregard for truth.
- Speaking knowing falsehoods.
- Ethical speech rests on dignity and integrity.
- Dignity: Respectful behavior to oneself and others.
- Integrity: Avoiding truth compromise for personal gain.
Qualities of Integrity
- Trustworthiness: Honesty, dependability.
- Respect: Treating audience with civility, avoiding ethnocentrism and stereotyping.
- Responsibility: Being accountable for words.
- Fairness: Genuinely considering all sides and acknowledging needed information.
- Civic mindedness: Caring about the community shown in speeches and deeds.
Avoiding Plagiarism
- Plagiarism: Using others' ideas/words without acknowledgment.
- Unethical.
- Orally acknowledge sources with direct quotations, fair paraphrasing, or a summary.
Copyright and Fair Use
- Copyright: Legal protection for artistic works.
- Permission is needed for copyrighted materials.
- Public domain: Materials free for reproduction.
- Fair use: Limited use of copyrighted works without permission for scholarship, criticism, news, teaching, research.
- Creative Commons: Search for suitable materials.
Audience Analysis
- Audience analysis: Gathering information about audience attributes/motivations.
- Aim: Meaningful speech preparation for audience.
- Audience-centered perspective is crucial.
- Investigate psychological and demographic factors.
- Psychographics: Attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings, and opinions.
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values
- Attitudes: General evaluations about people/ideas.
- Based on beliefs.
- Beliefs: Perceptions of reality.
- Values shape attitudes and beliefs.
- Values: Enduring judgments shaped by culture/experience.
- Assess listener feelings toward topic.
- Establish commonality/identification by including them with eye contact and body movements.
Captive vs. Voluntary Audiences
- Captive audience: Required attendance, potentially less receptive.
- Voluntary audience: Attends by choice.
Demographic Factors
- Demographics: Statistical characteristics of a population.
- Analyze audience age, ethnic/cultural background, socioeconomic status, religion, political affiliation, gender/sexual orientation, group affiliations, and disability.
- Identify target audience: Individuals most likely to be influenced.
Generational Identity and Co-culture
- Awareness of generational identity for relevant points.
- Co-culture: Social community with differing values/communication styles.
- Socioeconomic status: Income, occupation, education.
Gender and Group Associations
- Gender: Social/physical sense of sexual identity.
- Avoid assumptions.
- Consider group associations and disabilities.
Adapting to Diverse Audiences
- Identify listener values to avoid ethnocentrism and deliver culturally sensitive messages.
- Consider cultural values related to personal relationships, religion, and occupation.
- Focus on universal values.
- Conduct interviews.
- Survey the audience (questionnaires, closed/open-ended questions).
- Consult published sources.
Analyzing Speech Setting and Context
- Location, time, audience size.
- Length of speech, rhetorical situation.
Selecting a Topic and Purpose
- Topic selection, speech purpose, narrowing topic, specific purpose, thesis.
- Identify personal interests and consider concurrent events/controversial issues.
- Engage with the community and avoid overused/trivial topics.
Brainstorming Techniques
- Generate ideas by writing down topics and related thoughts.
- Mind mapping: Diagram of category relationships.
- Use Internet tools.
Refining and Adapting Your Topic
- Adapt topic to general speech purpose.
- General speech purpose answers the question, objective in speaking.
- Informative speech: Increase awareness/understanding, define, describe, explain, or demonstrate knowledge.
- Persuasive speech: Affect attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
- Special occasion speech: Entertain, celebrate, commemorate, inspire, set a social agenda.
- Includes Speeches of introduction, acceptance, and presentation.
- Narrow down topic and specific speech purpose.
- Specific speech purpose: Action form you want to achieve with the speech.
- Thesis statement: Concisely identifies what the speech is about.
Supporting Material
- Good speeches: Relevant, motivating, audience-centered support.
- Examples, stories, testimony, facts, and statistics.
- Example: Typical instance.
- Brief examples: Single illustration.
- Extended examples: Detailed illustration.
- Hypothetical example: Believed outcome.
Sharing Stories and Testimonies
- Story: Chain of events/narrative.
- Creates emotional connection.
- Anecdotes: Brief, humorous incidents with moral lessons.
- Testimony: Firsthand account and opinions.
- Expert testimony: Information from trained professionals.
- Lay testimony: Supplied by nonexperts.
Facts and Statistics
- Facts: Represented, documented occurrences.
- Statistics: Quantified evidence that summarizes, compares, and predicts.
- Put statistics into perspective and interpret ethically.
- Avoid cherry picking statistics.
Finding Credible Sources
- Assess research needs.
- Recognize propaganda and misinformation.
- Information: Data in understandable context.
- Propaganda: Information provokes desired response.
- Misinformation: Untrue information.
- Disinformation: Falsified information.
Primary and Secondary Sources
- Primary sources: Firsthand accounts or direct evidence.
- Secondary sources: Analysis/commentary about indirectly observed or created content.
- Explore primary sources, personal knowledge, government information, digital collections, blogs, conduct interviews, distribute surveys, etc.
Citing Sources
- Do not credit sources for common knowledge.
- Oral citation: Credits source.
- Alert audience: Author, type of source, title, date, etc.
- Establish source's trustworthiness.
- Source credibility: Trust in source's credentials/accuracy.
Oral Citation Delivery
- Avoid mechanical delivery, vary wording/order (natural delivery).
- Types of sources: Books, reference works, articles, journals, newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, TV/radio, online videos, testimonies, interviews.