COMM 130 Final

The Responsibilities of Audience Members

1. Exert sufficient effort to listen well. 2. Seek out personally relevant information. 3. Give the speaker a fair hearing. 4. Do not overreact to what is being said or how it is communicated. 5. Help the speaker be successful by looking responsive and receptive.

The Responsibilities of Speakers

1. Have a firm grasp of the content of the speech before trying talk about it. 2. Select the tone and style of presentation most appropriate for the message. 3. Ensure that the presentation is appropriate for the context. 4. Ensure that the message is tailored to a particular, targeted audience. 5. Consider the consequences of what is said.

Adapting to Your Audience

Audience adaptation refers to the process of adjusting one's topic, purpose, language, and communication style in order to avoid offending or alienating members of the audience and to increase the likelihood of achieving the goals of making the speech

Analyzing Your Audience

Audience analysis is the systematic gathering of information about an audience in an effort to learn everything possible about it that is relevant to the topic.

Audience Psychographics

Audience psychographics seek to determine what kinds of attitudes, beliefs, and opinions people share. A psychographic audience analysis includes the audience's motives for being in the audience; its interests in and knowledge of the speaker's topic; and the audience members' personal feelings.

Audience Demographics

Demographic makeup refers to the social characteristics of the audience. Analysis by social categories (e.g., gender, age, and religion) can reveal beliefs and orientations that audience members are likely to share and that are likely to affect how they will respond to a particular topic, an approach to that topic, and a particular speaking style.

Co-cultural differences

Disparate beliefs between the speaker and the audience interfere with the ability to listen.

Questioners

Each question should be briefly and respectfully responded to before returning to the presentation.

animated style

Energy, enthusiasm, and excitement are the central characteristics. exaggerate their nonverbal behaviors by gesturing broadly, smiling frequently, pacing purposefully, nodding knowingly, and raising or lowering eyebrows. show every emotion felt.

Physical conditions

External noise interference physically interferes with the audience's ability to hear.

Formal Methods of Analyzing Your Audience

Focus group interviews and questionnaires or surveys

Focus group interviews

Focus groups are small group interviews run by a moderator. Questions are prepared before the interview to elicit demographic or psychographic information.

What Is Listening?

Listening involves maximizing attention to, and comprehension of, what is being communicated by someone who is using words, actions, and other elements of the immediate environment.

Media Audience

Mass media allow speakers to expand their audience by entering the homes and organizations of people they can never get to know personally. It is not possible to predict the reactions of every receiver when the speaker's message is delivered through the media.

Personal problems

Physical illness and discomfort, Distractions such as money, relationship, work, or school problems, Apprehension about listening to people when they speak to us

Hostile audiences

Respond to a hostile audience by finding out why it is hostile and by remaining friendly and even-tempered. Avoid defensive behavior and show respect for audience members' feelings.

Hecklers

Speakers should ignore hecklers. If that is not possible, hecklers' concerns should be briefly and sincerely recognized, and the speaker should continue with the presentation.

Co-cultural prejudices

Unrealistic attitudes toward individuals based on a stereotype prohibit effective listening. Prejudiced listeners tend to dismiss the speaker's message.

barrier to listening

any condition, either in the public speaking context or one that is personal to the audience member, that reduces accuracy in listening

Interjectors

audience members who provide positive verbal responses to the speaker when they agree with what is being said. Interjectors are to be enjoyed. For instance, cue- or call-response patterns may be used to affirm what the speaker is saying.

Dramatic Style

build tension, use colorful words, exaggerate, tkae pleasure in joking and playing with audience, magnified gestures, long eye contact, voice variation. overstatement and understatement.

masculine communication style

characterized by assertions of status and power by demonstrating strength and independence. public speaking is perfect for this crowd. Instead of trying to connect with the audience, more likely to demonstrate distance and authority by claiming expertise in the subject matter. Rather than relying on personal accounts to demonstrate an idea or support an argument, prefer objective facts, data, and expert testimony.

feminine communication style

emphasizes interpersonal connection. seek human connection more than they do status, power, or winning. Such communicators are likely to try to relate to audience members as individuals; they come across as inclusive and immediate. also more likely to acknowledge and emphasize areas of agreement between themselves and the audience.

Open Style

invite audience involvement and participation by coming across as affable, sincere, trusting, and self-revealing. conversational approach. rely on personaly experiences etc. mostly positive but sometimes speaker is at risk.

four common misconceptions made by poor listeners

listening is easy, listening is just a matter of intelligence, listening requires no planning, if you know how to read you know how to listen

Speaker-audience reciprocity

occurs when both sides engage in adaptation and feedback simultaneously, adjusting their behavior to each other.

passive listening

occurs when the listener exerts little or no effort in attending to and comprehending what is being communicated.

rhetorical style

overall quality of how a speaker communicates using verbal and nonverbal messages

Contiguous Audience

people sitting or standing immediately in front of the speaker. The contiguous audience gives the speaker a physical audience to speak to and provides immediate feedback for the speaker

Connotative meanings

refer to personal, subjective, and unshared interpretations of verbal and nonverbal symbols and signs.

Humorous Style

relies primarily on humor to engage audience attention and to build positive affect. should be planned and practiced before it is used in a presentation. audience loves it.

Importance of Effective Listening

requires the acquisition of skills that help discriminate between what should be paid attention to and what can be ignored.

active listening

requires the acquisition of skills that help discriminate between what should be paid attention to and what can be ignored.