Message Adaptations

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Your connection with your audience will be diminished when you are not speaking face-to-face, especially when you are not communicating in real time. If speaker and audience are in the same room, participants are more likely to experience “psychological closeness” and feel a sense of “similarity, solidarity, openness, and understanding.”25 Conversely, when you are distant, you will have a greater challenge establishing common ground and trust. It can also be more difficult to keep audience members engaged. Thus, you must plan your message carefully when your presentation is mediated.

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Building Common Ground. To compensate for diminished presence, you need to emphasize common ground even more than you would in a classroom setting. If you are taking an online public speaking class, try to make brief references to other classmates’ speeches during your own presentation. If the class includes mandatory chat times, you can also note points that have been made during these sessions. For example, in a speech on nuclear energy, you might say, “Jesse showed us how to save money by cutting back on meat in our diet, and now I would like to show how we can all save money on our utility bills.” You might also be able to relate common experiences of online students to concepts in your speech. In an informative speech on the use of smoke signals, you might note how this ancient system of communication was used to warn soldiers up and down the Great Wall of China when the enemy was near.26 Thus, students can see how methods for communicating over great distances have evolved, with technology now enabling them to interact with one another online.

You also want to emphasize common ground during mediated workplace or community presentations. If you have interacted with audience members in the past, use relevant ideas from your previous discussions. If you do not know your audience, you might emphasize goals or principles that are familiar to everyone in the group. For example, you might refer to a company’s logo or the mission of a nonprofit organization.

Keeping Audience Members Engaged. Recall that remote listeners may feel more comfortable multitasking and that you will not be able to see nonverbal cues that may indicate disinterest. It is more difficult for receivers to remain attentive when staring at a screen than when watching a live human being.27 Thus, you will need to make it easier for them to focus on what you are saying. There are several strategies you can use to maintain audience interest when speaking in a mediated setting. Many of these approaches are helpful in a face-to-face context, but they are especially important when your speech is being recorded.

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