Analyzing your Audience before you Speak 6.5 113
encourage their children or grandchildren to consider his proposal. He focused
on a target audience but didn’t ignore others.
uSE DIvErSE StrAtEgIES FOr A DIvErSE AuDIEncE Another approach
you can adopt, either separately or in combination with a target audience focus, is
to use a variety of strategies to reflect the diversity of your audience. On the basis of
your efforts to gather information about your audience, you should know the vari-
ous constituencies that will likely be present for your talk. The How To box describes
several methods you can use to reach the different listeners in your audience.
IDEntIFy cOMMOn vALuES People have debated for a long time whether
there are universal human values. Several scholars have made strong arguments
that common human values do exist. Communication researcher David Kale
suggests that all people can identify with the individual struggle to enhance
one’s own dignity and worth, although different cultures express that in differ-
ent ways.^14 A second common value is the search for a world at peace. Under-
lying that quest is a fundamental desire for equilibrium, balance, and stability.
Although there may always be a small but corrosive minority of people whose
actions do not support the universal value of peace, the prevailing human values
in most cultures ultimately do support peace.
Cultural anthropologists specialize in the study of behavior that is com-
mon to all humans. Cultural anthropologist Donald Brown has compiled a list of
hundreds of “surface” universals of beliefs, emotions, or behavior. According to
Brown, people in all cultures:^15
• Have beliefs about death.
• Have a childhood fear of strangers.
• Have a division of labor by sex.
• Experience certain emotions and feelings, such as envy, pain, jealousy,
shame, and pride.Use Diverse Strategies
These strategies can help you to reach a majority of the people in a diverse audience:
• Use a variety of types of supporting materials. If you’re very uncertain about cultural preferences,
use a balance of both logical support (statistics, facts, specific examples) and emotional sup-
port (stories and illustrations).
• Remember the power of stories. People from most cultures appreciate a good story. And
some people, such as those from Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, prefer hearing stories
and parables used to make a point or support an argument rather than facts and statistics.
• Add visual support. Consider showing the audience an outline of your key ideas using
PowerPointTM or PreziTM. If there is a language barrier between you and your audience, being
able to read portions of your speech as they hear you speaking may improve audience
members’ comprehension. If an interpreter is translating your message, an outline can also
help to ensure that your interpreter will communicate your message accurately.How To