Question

This is Public Speaking (but that subject was not listed, so I selected psychology. Audience demographics - Examples of why a speaker should take time to analyze their audience based each of these catergories: 1-Age, 2-ethnic and cultural background, 3- socio-economic status (including income, occupation, and education), 4-religious, 5-political affiliations

Ex: for Age, you would create scenario where a speaker might have a problem if they ignored Age in their audiences. Then give me the opposite side of the coin, If they did analyze what would occur then.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Audience demographics

Age: Consider a scenario of a standup comedy show. The comedian needs to analyze the age group of the audience to be able to crack jokes that are age appropriate. This is important to make the audience relate to the joke or topic being discussed. For example, elderly people in the audience might not get a joke about pop culture or certain memes aimed at the millennials.

Ethnic and cultural background: To be able to relate to the audience, the speaker should always identify the ethnic and cultural background of his or her audience. If the audience is from different backgrounds, the speaker needs to include diverse topics that don't pertain to any specific culture. In this way, the speaker can hold the interest of all the audiences.

Socio-economic status: Similar to the above factors, identifying the socio-economic status of the audience is important to engage the audience in your discussion or speech. This may include income, occupation, education, etc. For example, if a discussion is focused on the struggles of an architect, then the writers or computer engineers in the crowd may not connect with the topic and eventually lose interest in the discussion. Similarly, if the audience is of a lower economic status, then a speaker's discussion on fancy holidays or expensive cars may not be relatable. So the topics should be audience inclusive to keep all the members of the audience engaged.

Religious: When discussing topics about religious beliefs or religious figures, the speaker should acknowledge the sensitivity of the topic and ensure that no religious sentiments are hurt in the process. Religion is a very broad topic and different people have different views and beliefs. So it is very important for the speaker to not propagate any religion or insult anyone's opinion.

Political affiliations: Politics is a broad subject that encompasses different groups, values, and opinions. When discussing political topics, the speaker should maintain a neutral viewpoint or at least try not to disregard the political views or affiliations of the audience members. It is simple. Supporting the Democrats in front of the Republicans isn't going to change their views or fetch you more audience members in the future.