Analyzing Your Audience

As you will quickly discover, audience analysis—a highly systematic process of getting to know your listeners relative to the topic and the speech occasion—is a critical step in the speech preparation process (O’Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2012; Yook, 2004). Because you are asking the audience members to accept your message—to learn new information; to change their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors; or to recommit themselves to a cause or organization—it is important for you to understand them. You must consider not only their expectations but also the unique situational factors affecting them, as well as their demographic and psychographic background and their potential reactions to your speech. Gaining this understanding will be crucial to choosing and shaping a topic that will resonate with them.