Audience Analysis

Just what is communication? For the purpose of this paper, communication may be viewed as the spread of information and meaning from one individual or group of people to another. The crucial element in the definition is the meaning. Communication has its fundamental objective.  The spread of meaning. The procedure of communication is victorious only when the recipient understands the idea as the dispatcher intended It. mutually parties must concur not only on the information conveyed but also on the meaning of the information.

People with different backgrounds bring varied views to the decision making. Any successful company has to rely on its employee ability to work with a highly diverse group of people, who are located in many countries. The more effectively they work together the more successful they are as a company. Before conveying nay message to a group of people, one has to consider several factors such as the characteristics of the audience, the appropriate communication channels, you evaluate on the audience diversity as well as evaluating the message conveyed is effective (Guffey & Nagle, 2000, p.33)

The person for whom a message is intended is the audience. Translating the message from its symbol form to meaning involves a process known as decoding. Successful communication takes place only when a receiver understands the meaning intended by the sender. Such success is often hard to achieve because no two people share the same background. Success is further limited because barriers and noise may disrupt the process. Decoding can be disrupted internally b the receiver's lack of attention or bias against the sender. It can be disrupted externally by loud sounds or illegible words. Furthermore decoding can be sidetracked by misunderstood words or emotional reactions to certain terms. Therefore it is always honorable to consider and analyze the characteristics of the audience you will address (p.30).

In a business world, as the global competition opens worlds markets, businesspeople will increasingly interact with colleagues from within business such as stakeholders, including managers, salespeople, and customers as well as with colleagues from all over the world. It is therefore deemed necessary and sufficient to analyze the characteristics of such a meeting consisting of the business stakeholders in terms of race, ethnicity, age gender, national origin, their physical ability and other countless characteristics.

While also the audience is becoming more diverse, the structure of businesses across the globe is also changing. Often referred with the term "flexible enterprises" to bank on any audience diversity will call upon the adoption of the following practices; establishing a cooperative relationship and maintain a n excellent rapport between the speaker and the audience, ensuring that you maintain a flattened organization and presentation of speech with fewer layers of management, the audience empowerment with rank and file stakeholders given the authority to make decisions. In addition you need to focus on the audience's feedback as a technique of altering your communications skills (Murphy, 2007, 2-8).

According to Guffey and Nagle (2000), Communicating in a diverse work environment will require new attitudes and skills. Acquiring these new communication skills is worth the effort because of the benefits that diversity brings to consumers work teams as well as the business organization. Today's communicators face increasing complexities in dealing with cross-cultural and diverse audiences, moreover, they must familiarize with the rapidly evolving technological tools which usually dictate on thee appropriate communication channels while at the same time ensures massage effectiveness (p.35). One of the most common speaking functions for businesspeople is the presentation of ideas in the oral report. Such a presentation is most frequently made informally to managers, shareholders, salespeople or even customers. But no matter the size of the audience, the best oral reported will always begin with effective planning. You analyze your audience, organize the content, and plan the visual aids.

Knowing about your audience helps you decide how to structure your report. The size of the audience affects the formality of your presentation, with large audience generally requiring a more formal and less personalized approach. Other factors such as sex, age, education, experience and attitude towards the subject will also to a great length affect the presentation. It is always necessary to analyze these factors to decide on your strategy, vocabulary, illustrations, and level of the detail. You may for instance pose some specific questions to yourself which will guide you in adapting the topic to your audience. Such questions might include; how will this topic appeal to the audience? What do I want the audience to believe? What actions do I want the audience to take? Or even what aspects of the topic will most interesting to the audience (Laskoswki, 2006, 4).

Several channels of communication can be effective in delivering the required message. This might include the use of planning visual aids such as transparencies, flipcharts, computer visuals as well as handouts. A show and tell is effective not only for school children but also for adults. Come authorities suggest that we learn and remember 85 percent of all our knowledge visually. Therefore an oral presentation that incorporates visual aids is twice likely to be understood and retained as a report lacking visual supplements. By appealing to the senses of both sight and sound, you double the impact of the message (Holmichel's, 2006, 1-3).

When incorporating visual aids into the oral report, they should be used to clarify major points, you should try to keep the visual aid simple, ensure that everyone can see the visual aids and talk to the audience and not to the visual aids. That way you will be assured of delivering message effectively. Nearly everyone experiences some degree of stage fright when speaking before a group, such fears are quite natural. To ensure message effectiveness, the first key is to try and learn to control and reduce stage frights as well as incorporating techniques of effective speaking in your presentation by studying suggestions from experts. To be a successful speaker you ought to employ these techniques before, during and after the report (5).

As one of the most effective devices to reduce stage frights, you should prepare thoroughly, ensuring you understand the topic well, which will give you the confidence. A thorough diligent research on the topic of presentation as well as careful sentence structure will contribute greatly in ensuring effective message delivery. It is always best to rehearse and practice the entire presentation repeatedly and not just the half. Place your outline sentences on separate cards with a possibility of adding translational sentences that help you move to the next topic. It is also quite important to practice on stress reduction. If tension and fear builds up while awaiting your turn to speak, use stress reduction techniques such as taking deep breaths (Laskoswki, 2006, 8).

Before making an oral presentation, as a good speaker you should analyze you audience, define the purpose, organize the content, prepare an outline, and plan effective visual aids successful meetings as well panned and conducted by a leader who keeps the discussion on target, summarizes conclusions and ends on time.