[NOISE] Hi welcome to the first lesson of the second part of the course, Understanding The Audience. At the end of this lesson you will be able to explain why understanding the audience is important. Use the appropriate medium and register when communicating, and use appropriate strategies to persuade different personalities. Before we even start any form of writing it is crucial to first ask the question, who are we writing for? The purpose of any communication is to create a common or shared understanding. No matter what kind of message we send, the important task is to consider for whom is the message is intended. That is to communicate well, it is imperative to first understand the audience. Thus, to make our message effective, we must ask who is our audience? What do they already know? What do they think or feel about the subject? Firstly, let's recap the communication process. The sender or source sends a message to the receiver. This applies in both a one to one or a one to many situation. If there are multiple receivers, they may be termed as an audience. In general, we may communicate for several reasons. It may be to express ideas, to explain something, or to explore a topic. In the professional workplace it may be to inform, persuade or to send goodwill. A recently popular term, audience-centered approach, which is actually quite a commonsensical term, is used to describe communication that emphasizes the importance of understanding the audience. Understanding the audience is important because of three main reasons. Firstly, when you know the audience well, you'll be able to identify appropriate key reasons to persuade them. Either by appealing to their reason or their emotions. The second reason is because when we understand the audience, we also would be able to select the most appropriate medium and language in terms of tone to communicate with them. The third reason relates to what we have learned in the earlier module, the idea of being personal. In order to personalize a message we are required to first understand who we are trying to communicate with. Once we accomplished that we will be able to select the most appropriate medium of communication, email, telephone, SMS, etc. And suitable language whether formal, informal or neutral. Marshal McLuhan a communications and media scholar, once famously said, the medium is the message. The context in which he derived this famous saying was not meant for professional communication, but it applies as well. What he meant is the medium of communication is as important or perhaps more important than the message itself. Choosing the appropriate medium depends slatchly on the receiver, therefore it is first important to understand your audience. So imagine if you one day face the tragic situation where you want to break up with your romantic partner. Which medium of communication would you use? Face to face communication? SMS or through email? Most of us would probably know that email is never a good choice of medium to initiate a breakup because it is seen as cold, distant, and simply inappropriate. But how do we know? Is it because of our own experiences of using the medium that tells us which medium we should choose, so that we can choose the appropriate medium instinctively without even thinking twice. Here's another example. Imagine you are meeting your grandmother for dinner, and you which to confirm the location and time with her. Would you use Facebook's Messenger, SMS, or a phone call to inform her of the details? This seems like such a basic question. Even if she's a cool and hip grandmother who uses Facebook, calling her on her house phone or hand phone, if she has one, would probably be a better idea for most grandmothers. A phone call is more personal, signifies more warmth, and feels more immediate compared to a casual text message. Your grandmother would probably appreciate a phone call more than a text. She may even find a text message rather rude. However, if it were your friends that you are meeting with, what medium would you use instead? For me I would use instant messaging devices like WhatsApp to inform them of the details. For you, it may range from WeChat, Line or any other popular apps for instant messaging. Some of you might even use Twitter or Facebook Messenger. All of us are experts when deciding which medium to use in our inter-personal relationships precisely because we know who we are communicating with. Thus, we don't even think about such relations and it becomes second nature for us. However, when we are communicating with someone whom we do not know, it becomes important to first understand them and know how they think. The second point relates to choosing an appropriate register, in terms of formality of language. To communicate with going back to the example of your grandmother, would you send this to your grandmother? The answer is obviously not. She might think that you are ill-mannered and rude. Would this be more appropriate? The second message is more formal than the first one. The first one can be considered informal language. The register we use to communicate with someone really depends on the audience. When we understand the audience, we are able to select the appropriate medium and register for communication. Thus, it is the audience that determines what you say and how you say it. The same rule applies to professional communication. Whether you should use email, a phone call, or text message to communicate with someone in the context of professional communication, it's not very clearly defined. This varies from industry to industry and from person to person. Several groups of people might find a text or a phone call intrusive and would prefer email communication while others might not reply to email at all and would very much prefer for you to communicate via other mediums. This is one way to understand the audience we are communicating with. Thus to sum it up, it is the audience that determines what you say and how you say it. In the next video, we will learn more about what we should say and how we can go about understanding and analyzing the audience using certain techniques and strategies. Thank you.
