Page 168 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 6 Adapting to Your Audience 135

In some situations you will be able to choose the audience for your speech. But
in many cases, including your public speaking class, you will have no choice.
Short of changing class sections, you will not be able to select another audience.
Once you leave the classroom, however, you are likely to have some degree of
choice about which audiences to address.
When you choose an audience, think about two important questions. First,
what do they think of my goals? If an audience is likely to support your goals,
then your task is quite different than if they are indifferent or dramatically op-
posed. Managers of political campaigns nearly always stage audiences by fi lling
them with people who agree with the goals represented by their politicians. The
last thing a campaign manager wants is an audience full of unpredictable “wild-
cards” who may or may not share the politician’s goals.
Second, ask if and how your audience can help you achieve your goals. We’ve
heard speeches in a classroom that urged the approval of an international treaty
to reduce global warming. This is a noble goal, but aside from writing a letter to
public offi cials there is very little class members can do to help achieve this goal.
On the other hand, college students can personally do their part to fi ght global
warming: take public transportation, ride their bikes, and purchase cars with
good gas mileage. The best public speakers not only ask whether their audience
supports their goals but also how the audience members can realistically help
them achieve those goals.
In addition to your choice of audiences, you need to consider the audience’s
ability to choose whether to hear you speak. Audiences can be broadly defi ned
as voluntary or captive. A voluntary audience is one that chooses to hear a
voluntary audience
speaker. A captive audience is one that has no choice about hearing a speech.
Listeners that choose to
Whether audience members are present voluntarily can make a big difference in
hear a speaker.
their response to a speech. For example, when controversial fi lmmaker Michael
Moore came to our campus in the fall of 2003, a standing-room-only audience captive audience
paid to see him. Although some audience members clearly came to heckle him, Listeners that have no
the vast majority was there to cheer him on. Compare this to the response of the choice about hearing a
captive audience who booed him when he used his Academy Award acceptance speech.
speech earlier in 2003 to denounce the war in Iraq. Academy members and
guests were not there to hear Michael Moore’s political views but to celebrate
their industry.
When speaking to your classmates, it is important to remember that they are
in the room not as volunteers but because they are required to be there. We
regularly discourage students from selecting topics that might be offensive or
hurtful to their classmates. Instead, we encourage them to select topics on which
their classmates can be infl uenced and have some power to act.
However you arrive at your audience—whether you choose them or they
choose you—it is crucial that you learn as much as you can about them, begin-
ning with an understanding of their diversity—culturally, demographically, and
individually.

Audience Diversity audience diversity
The cultural, demo-
graphic, and individual
Audience analysis begins with recognition and acceptance of the fact that to-
characteristics that
day’s audience is more diverse than ever. Audience diversity represents the
vary among audience
cultural, demographic, and individual characteristics that vary among audi-
members.
ence members. According to an analysis of the most recent U.S. Census by USA