Collecting psychological data about audience members takes you partway through an audience analysis. Equally important is to learn demographic information about them. Demographics are the statistical characteristics of a given population. At least seven characteristics are typically considered when analyzing speech audiences: age, ethnic and cultural background, socioeconomic status (including income, occupation, and education), religious and political affiliations, gender, group affiliations, and disability. Various other traits—for example, sexual orientation and place of residence—may also be important to investigate.

Appeal to Your Target Audience

Knowing where audience members fall in relation to audience demographics will help you identify your target audience—those individuals within the broader audience whom you are most likely to influence in the direction you seek. Mass communicators rely upon audience segmentation—dividing a general audience into smaller groups to identify target audiences with similar characteristics, wants, and needs. But whether used by advertisers selling Apple iPads, advocacy groups selling cleaner air, or you as a public speaker, segmentation is a crucial tool for those attempting to reach an audience.

Consider a speech delivered to your classmates about lowering fees for campus parking violations. Your target audience will be those persons in the class who drive, rather than bicycle or walk, to campus. Whenever you appeal to a target audience, however, aim to make the topic relevant to other audience members. For example, you might mention that lower fees will benefit nondrivers in the future, should they bring cars to campus. You may not be able to please everyone, but you should be able to establish a connection with your target audience as well as some others.

Age

Age can be a very important factor in determining how listeners will react to a topic. Each age group brings with it its own concerns and psychological drives and motivations. The quest for identity in adolescence (around the ages of 12–20), for example, differs markedly from the need to establish stable careers and relationships in early adulthood (ages 20–40). Similarly, adults in their middle years (40–65), sometimes called the “sandwich generation,” tend to grapple with a full plate of issues related to career, children, aging parents, and an increased awareness of mortality. And as we age (65 and older), physical changes and changes in lifestyle (from work to retirement) assume greater prominence.

Age-specific concerns affect attitudes toward many social issues, from the role that government should play (more younger than older voters want a bigger government) to Social Security and Medicare benefits (more older than younger voters want to preserve existing arrangements).¹¹

People of the same generation often share a familiarity with significant individuals, local and world events, noteworthy popular culture, and so forth. Thus being aware of the generational identity of your audience, such as the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), millennials (those born between 1980 and 1999), or Generation Z (those born since 2000), allows you to develop points that are relevant to the experiences and interests of the widest possible cross section of your listeners. Table 6.1 lists some of the prominent characteristics and values of today’s generations.

Ethnic or Cultural Background

An understanding of and sensitivity to the ethnic and cultural composition of your audience are key factors in delivering a successful (and ethical) speech. As a speaker in a multicultural and multiethnic society, you should expect that your audience will include members of different national origins. Some audience members may have a great deal in common with you. Others may be fluent in a language other than yours and may struggle to understand you. Some members of the audience may belong to a distinct co-culture, a social community whose values and style of communicating may or may not mesh with your own. (For guidelines on adapting to diverse audiences, see “Adapt to Diverse Audiences.”)

See, for example, “Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers: Who’s Working at Your Company and What Do They Think About Ethics?” Ethics Resource Center, 2009 National Business Ethics Survey Supplemental Research Brief, http://ethics.org/files/u5/Gen-Diff.pdf; Dennis McCafferty, “Workforce Preview: What to Expect From Gen Z,” Baseline Magazine, April 4, 2013, www.baselinemag.com/it-management/slideshows/workforce-preview-what-to-expect-from-gen-z; “Generations in the Workplace in the United States and Canada,” Catalyst, May 1, 2012, www.catalyst.org/knowledge/generations-workplace-united-states-canada.

Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status (SES) includes income, occupation, and education. Knowing roughly where an audience falls in terms of these key variables can be critical in effectively targeting your message.

Income

Income determines people’s experiences on many levels. It directly affects how they are housed, clothed, and fed, and determines what they can afford. Beyond this, income has a ripple effect, influencing many other aspects of life. For example, depending on income, home ownership is either a taken-for-granted budget item or an out-of-reach dream. The same is true for any activity dependent on income. Given how pervasively income affects people’s life experiences, insight into this aspect of an audience’s makeup can be quite important.

Occupation

In most speech situations, the occupation of audience members is an important and easily identifiable demographic characteristic that you as a speaker should try to determine in advance. The nature of people’s work has a lot to do with what interests them. Occupational interests are tied to several other areas of social concern, such as politics, the economy, education, and social reform. Personal attitudes, beliefs, and goals are also closely tied to occupational standing.

Education

Level of education strongly influences people’s ideas, perspectives, and range of abilities. A higher level of education appears to be associated with greater fluctuation in personal values, beliefs, and goals. Higher levels of education lead to increased lifetime earnings, decreased levels of crime, better health outcomes, and greater civic engagement;¹² such factors may be important to consider when preparing a speech. Depending upon audience members’ level of education, your speech may treat topics at a higher or lower level of sophistication, with fewer or more clarifying examples and illustrations.

Religion

Beliefs, practices, and social and political views vary by religious traditions, making religion another key demographic variable. At least a dozen major religious traditions coexist in the United States.¹³ A major change in the United States over the past several decades is the decline in religious observance among adults under age thirty, with fully a third of persons in this group identifying as unaffiliated in 2012.¹⁴ While members of the same spiritual tradition will most likely agree on the major spiritual tenets of their faith, they will not agree on all religiously based issues. People who identify themselves as Catholic disagree on birth control and divorce, Jews disagree on whether to recognize same-sex unions, and so forth. Awareness of an audience’s general religious orientation can be especially helpful when your speech touches on a topic as potentially controversial as religion itself. Capital punishment, same-sex marriage, and teaching about the origins of humankind—all are rife with religious overtones and implications.

Political Affiliation

As with religion, beware of making unwarranted assumptions about an audience’s political values and beliefs. Some people like nothing better than a lively debate about public-policy issues. Others avoid anything that smacks of politics. And many people are very touchy about their views on political issues. Those on the right hold certain views that those on the left dispute, and the chasm between far right and far left is great indeed. Thus if your topic involves politics, you’ll need to obtain background on your audience’s political views.

Gender

Gender is another important factor in audience analysis, if only as a reminder to avoid the minefield of gender stereotyping. Distinct from the fixed physical characteristics of biological sex, gender is our social and psychological sense of ourselves as males or females.¹⁵ Making assumptions about the preferences, abilities, and behaviors of your audience members based on their presumed gender can seriously undermine their receptivity to your message. Using sexist language, language that casts males or females into roles on the basis of sex alone, will also swiftly alienate many listeners. Equally damaging to credibility is the inclusion of overt gender stereotypes—oversimplified and often severely distorted ideas about the innate nature of what it means to be male or female.

Group Affiliations

The various groups to which audience members belong—whether social, civic, work-related, or religiously or politically affiliated—reflect their interests and values and so provide insight into what they care about:

Disability

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 19 percent of the population, or about fifty million people five years and older (excluding persons who are institutionalized), have some sort of physical, mental, or employment disability; some two-thirds of these have a severe disability. Over 14 percent of those enrolled in college and graduate school are counted as disabled.¹⁷ Problems range from sight and hearing impairments to constraints on physical mobility and employment. Thus disability is another demographic variable to consider when analyzing an audience. Keep persons with disabilities (PWD) in mind when you speak, and use language and examples that afford them respect and dignity.