Understand What Audience Analysis Is

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This first part of the topic will enlighten you on what is audience analysis and why conducting audience analysis is important in speech-making

 Study the image above, do you think that you can deliver your speech without knowing your audience? Definitely NOT! Hence that is why we need to understand the concept of audience analysis to apprehend more about your audience and to better deliver your speech.

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Audience analysis refers to process of gathering brief information about the audience so that you can understand their background, expectations, beliefs, values, attitudes, and most importantly likely their opinions on the topic you are delivering. Audience analysis is one of the key elements to ensure you reach your full potential in delivering your speech.

Taking an audience analysis approach before any speeches can ensure the speaker’s effectiveness as the speech is created and delivered relevantly or in an appropriate manner towards the audience.

Remember, adapting a speech to an audience is not the same thing as simply telling an audience what they want to hear. Audience analysis does not mean ‘grandstanding’ or ‘kowtowing’ to an audience. Rather, adaptation guides the stylistic and content choices a speaker makes for a speech presentation.

Audience adaptation often involves walking a very fine line between over-adapting and under-adapting – a distinction that can be greater appreciated by understanding the general needs between the speech and audience.

For instance, when preparing a speech for a classroom audience consisting of other students and your professor, you may feel that you know their interests and expectations well. However, public speaking focuses on addressing other audiences where we can impart knowledge or idea. In some cases, your audience might consist of young children who are not ready to accept the fact that a whale is not a fish or that the moon is always round even though it sometimes appears to be a crescent or a half circle. 

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Even in an audience that appears to be homogeneous—composed of people who are very similar to one another—different listeners will understand the same ideas in different ways. Every member of every audience has his or her own frame of reference—the unique set of perspectives, experience, knowledge, and values belonging to every individual. Here is where your analysis of your audience comes handy, where before you are giving out your speech you already general or even specific background of your audience.

Demographic, psychographic, and situational analysis are the three types of audience analysis commonly used in public speaking. We will look into details in the next part of our today’s topic.

But before that, let us do some activities to better grasp the concept of audience analysis.