Types of Audiences

Resistant Audience

A hostile, resistant audience that disagrees with you may be closed ot the idea of change, at least at first. Your goals are to avoid more hostility and get people to listen and consider possible alternatives. It's possible you could get a hostile audience to change its mind, compromise, or at the very least, agree to disagree (which is better than more hostility).

Neutral Audience

A neutral audience may be uncommitted or uninterested in your issue and how it is resolved. Your goal is to change the level of their indifference and encourage them to take a position.

Undecided Audience

An audience that is undecided or either mildly agrees/disagrees with you may possess no clear reasons for its tendencies or beliefs. Possible outcomes: 1. final agreement with you 2. a new interest in the issue and a commitment to work out a position on it 3. a tentative decision to accept what seems to be true for now To establish common ground: - get to the point quickly - use support and fair-minded language that will establish connections

What motivates an audience?

Consider the following motivations for your intended audience (this should be familiar to all my psych students, ie Maslow's hierarchy of needs): 1. Survival needs: food, warmth, and shelter; physical safety 2. Health: physical well-being, strength, endurance, energy; mental stability, optimism 3. Financial well-being: accumulation of wealth; increased earning capacity; lower costs and expenses; financial security 4. Affection and friendship: identification in a group; being accepted, liked, loved; being attractive to others; having others as friends or objects of affection 5. Respect and esteem of others: having the approval of others; having status in a group; being admired; having fame 6. Self-esteem: meeting one's own standards in such virtues as courage, fairness, honesty, generosity, good judgment, and compassion; meeting self-accepted obligations of one's role as employee, child or parent, citizen, member of an organization 7. New experience: travel; change in employment or location; new hobbies or leisure activities; new food or consumer products; variety in friends and acquaintances 8. Self-actualization: developing one's potential in skills and abilities; achieving ambitions; being creative; gaining the power to influence events and other people 9. Convenience: conserving time or energy; satisfying the other motives with considerable ease

Friendly Audience

If your intended audience is already in agreement with you, then your goal is to confirm this audience's beliefs and strengthen its commitment. Tips: - be straightforward with this audience, addressing it directly and openly with your claim at the beginning, supported with evidence that it can accept - political rallies, religious sermons, and public demonstrations by special interest groups all serve to make members more strongly committed to their original beliefs; when you write for a friendly audience, you will achieve the same effect

Unfamiliar Audience

When you don't know your audience's position, it is best to imagine it as neutral to mildly opposed to your views. Imagining an unfamiliar audience as either hostile or friendly can lead to extreme positions that may cause the argument to fail. Imagining the audience as neutral leads to an even tone that will hopefully promote audience interest and receptivity.