Audience Analysis

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Audience Analysis

• Know your audience!

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Definition of Audience Analysis

• A characterization of the audience and the
  situation in which members find themselves

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Types of Audiences

• Pedestrian
• People who have no obvious connection with either
  the communicator or one another
• Passive
• A group that is already gathered to hear a
  message but that has a low level of motivation
  (Communicator must sustain interest)

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Types, contd.

• Selected audience
• Communicator and audience share a common and
  known purpose, but they do not agree on the best
  way to achieve their shared goals
• Concerted audience
• A friendly audience that shares the goals of the
  communicator but may need education (the choir)

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Types, contd.

• Organized audience
• People gathered for a non-controversial cause
  (e.g., for entertainment)

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Reference Groups

• Demographic reference groups are dictated by
• Age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc.
• Voluntary reference groups are chosen according
  to
• Religious beliefs, social values, political
  beliefs, etc.

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Audience Analysis Methods

• Primary research
• A research project to identify audience
  characteristics specifically for the project at
  hand (usually a survey)
• This task is frequently hired-out by
  organizations to marketing research firms
• Methods
• Focus groups
• Surveys Telephone, face-to-face, mail

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Methods, contd.

• Secondary research
• Data collected previously by other communicators
  (marketing firms, for example) that relate to the
  project at hand
• Sources (available at most libraries and/or on
  the Web)
• American Statistics Index
• Study of Media and Markets

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Persuading an Audience

• All forms of communication involve persuasion
• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) proposed three modes of
  persuasive appeals
• Appeals to Ethos (Ethics)
• Appeals to Logos (Logic)
• Appeals to Pathos (Emotion)

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Persuasive Routes

• Peripheral
• Audience lacks ability, motivation
• Audience is persuaded by elements other than the
  central logical argument
• Appearance, perceived credibility, aesthetics,
  elocution, perceived ethics
• Central
• Audience has motivation and ability
• Audience is persuaded by logical arguments/facts

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Writing/Thinking Exercise

• Make a list of reference groups of which you are
  a member
• Differentiate between those that are voluntary
  and those that are demographic
• Note which affiliations you probably do not share
  with the class.

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Writing/Thinking Exercise II

• When you are compelled to make a decision about
  an issue that you havent truly studied
  carefully, what persuasive cues do you use?