Author: Anna Lowenthal 

The word “audience” is often used in colloquial terms; however, it is one that is very important to rhetoric and communication studies. Speakers and writers often imagine who will be hearing or reading what they are producing. Because creators keep their audiences in mind when crafting, you can tell a lot about an author’s purpose. In order to properly understand why the word audience is so critical, it is necessary to distinguish the everyday definition of the word from the academic definition. At the most basic level, Merriam-Webster defines audience as “a group of spectators or listeners ("Audience"). However, communication scholars have theorized four different types of audiences: empirical, mediated, targeted and constructed. The chapter reveals that the keyword audience is a central concept to rhetoric and communication studies.



When a rhetorician drafts a piece of work, they almost always keep in mind the different types of audiences that may witness or hear what they have to say. Both the empirical and mediated audiences are ones that will be directly in front of speakers and writers. The empirical audience is who the speaker interacts with directly (“Analyzing Audiences”). The mediated audience is one that will witness the speech as it being given, but the speaker cannot see. An example of this is someone watching a sports game through the television live (“Analyzing Audiences”). The target audience for a piece of work differs as this is who the rhetoricians hopes will be part of a larger audience. If the rhetorician could control who was in their empirical audience, it would be the people in their target audience. Lastly, the constructed audience is less of an actual group of people but is more of a strategy rhetoricians use: this is where the rhetoricians creates a role and invites the audience to inhabit it. All of these types of audiences inherently affect the work being produced, whether or not the rhetorician is aware of it (“Analyzing Audiences”).

Often times, audience members derive their own messages from a speech or piece of a text. Even when the people are listening to the same thing, they may walk away having heard something completely different from one another. That is because audience members are tasked with creating their own interpretation from a piece of work. While of course interpretations of messages are shaped by culture and ideologies, every individual has had their own life experiences and come to each piece of work from a unique perspective. There is no way to predict exactly how an audience member will receive a message unless you are that exact person. This concept has been asserted by many scholars: “Stuart Hall...emphasized that communication required audience members to translate the messages they received into a meaningful response” (O’Donnell, 2018). Being an audience member is not a spectator sport; it is not simply enough for audience members to absorb what they are spectating. Audiences have to derive their own singular meaning from something for it have a purpose other than just being words strung together. However, individual processing is not the only way someone receives a message.

Being a member of an audience can be a unifying experience. This is one explanation for why so many things, such as sports games or concerts, are viewed in groups. This enables audience members to process and discuss what is unfolding in front of them in order to derive the most meaning from it. Because people tend to talk about what they witness, people are forever bound together as humans who shared the same lived experience (Morley, 1995). When something dramatic or unexpected happens at a live events, the audience members present to witness will never forget what happened or who they were with. For example, in 2017 when there was an attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, surviving audience members all experienced a similar panic. They all were unsure of what was happening and even if an audience member did not lose someone they were with or experience a major injury, they all felt the loss of what happened that night. They all were discussed by people around the world and they all had their lives shaped together on the same night, whether they were family members or complete strangers (Morley, 1995). Because these people elected to be in an audience during a certain time at a certain place, they are forever bound to one another and will always be grouped together as history remembers that deadly attack that took place that night.

However, pop culture is not the only example of when being in an audience can be a unifying experience. Citizens at political events often have similar experiences. While people at a political rally are likely to be ideologically similar to the people they are standing with, they are not exactly the same. Politicians have a lot of different perspectives to keep in mind when trying to appeal to voters and constituents. Exploring a politician’s speech highlights how a rhetorician keeps their audience in mind. Based on who a politician is talking to, or wants to hear their message, a politician will cater their speech. For example, during Donald Trump’s campaign, he had a very specific audience that he wanted to appeal to. Studies have shown that a typical Trump supporter is likely a white, poor, uneducated person from a more rural area (Thompson, 2016).

While this obviously does not describe every Trump supporter, it is a solid place to start. Because Trump knew what these people wanted to hear and what they wanted changed, he was able to craft his message to perfectly fit their ideal. An example of this is Trump’s constant rhetoric surrounding immigration. Trump has promised, since the beginning of his campaign, that he would enforce stricter immigration rules, including the potential of building a wall to stop Mexican immigrants from illegally entering the country (Feffer, 2018). Trump built this campaign promise after studies showed that the voters he was trying to appeal to were afraid of losing their jobs to immigrants and what immigrants do to the American economy (Pierce & Selee, 2018). Trump is not the only politician to keep his audience in mind. An analysis of Trump reveals that a speaker does in fact picture a certain audience when composing a message, and that audience all received a message they wanted to hear. Since he won the 2016 presidential election, it is clear that his assessment of his potential audience worked. Most politicians are able to assume who their likely voters will be through party platforms and previous votes and say exactly what they want to hear. Politicians have been doing this for decades, however the rise of 24/7 news media and social media has made this trend ever more obvious. The rise of modern day technology has changed who are in audiences and who is being considered when crafting a message. Because of this, communication studies needs to pay closer attention how media and emerging technologies are creating, shaping, and producing audiences.

The rise of the television expanded the audience members that politicians kept in mind when curating a speech or platform. Before the television, it was much harder for anyone who was not at an event live to see a politician. While print news may have circulated a summary of a politician’s view, a completely different component was added when more people were actually able to see what occurred. This especially expanded the target audience of a politician: there is now a greater chance that the people the politician will want to see their speech actually will. While citizens used to be able to read about political debates and rallies, broadcasts have it made it so they can actually see the events. Being able to firsthand see a politician talking has enabled voters to potentially form an opinion without as much of a bias of the newspaper and have a better sense of the person who represents them (Keeter, 1987). This revolution also enforced the fact that their messages had to be consistent, no matter what group they were talking in about. Before rallies were recorded for all to see, politicians could make different promises who emphasize different points. Now that people have access to a lot more of what a politician says, a politician has to say the same message everything they speak or write because their audience can see everything they produce. Trump has often been criticized because he often contradicts himself, showing he is not the rule, but rather the exception (Enli & Rosenberg, 2018). The increase of the media has allowed audience members to hold politicians more accountable and have ensured that a politician always keep their now expanded audience in mind wherever they are.

Over time, rhetoricians have become more conscious of their audiences and have crafted their messages in order to get the most favorable response from their audience members. Understanding who a rhetorician was hoping to appeal to or expected to appeal to can explain why certain decisions were made when crafting a message. Who is considered to be part of an audience changes as the ability to reach new people increases. This enables society to share ideas with new people. As technology continues to develop and change, it becomes increasingly more important to understand the role audience members play in order to fully understand rhetoric and communication studies. 

Works Cited

“Analyzing Audiences”. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~jklumpp/comm401/lectures/audience.html

"Audience". (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audience

Enli, G., & Rosenberg, L. T. (2018). Trust in the Age of Social Media: Populist Politicians Seem More Authentic. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118764430

Feffer, J. (2018, November 07). Trump's Only Election Strategy Was Racism. Retrieved from https://ips-dc.org/trumps-only-election-strategy-was-racism/

Keeter, S. (1987, January 01). ILLUSION OF INTIMACY TELEVISION AND THE ROLE OF CANDIDATE PERSONAL QUALITIES IN VOTER CHOICE. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/51/3/344/1805038

Morley, D. (1995). Acknowledging Consumption(1st ed.) (D. Miller, Ed.). Florence: Routledge. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203975398

O’Donnell, A. (2018). Audience. Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16(4), 591-598. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from Project MUSE database.

Pierce, S., & Selee, A. (2018, January 22). Immigration under Trump: A Review of Policy Shifts in the Year Since the Election. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigration-under-trump-review-policy-shifts

Thompson, D. (2016, March 17). Who Are Donald Trump's Supporters, Really? Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/who-are-donald-trumps-supporters-really/471714/