Construction of an Audience

For my class assignment, I had to read “Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Quebecois”, which develops an idea proposed by Kenneth Burke about identification of an audience preceding persuasion. The first time I read this essay, I merely glossed it over and was pretty confused about the claim. However, after breaking the piece down sentence by sentence in class, I think I have gained a better idea of what Charland was trying to say. My understanding is that, in order to effectively convey an argument to an audience, a speaker must first appeal to an aspect of the audience’s identity, and establish a common belief system. In class, we discussed the deliberate placement of commercials during TV shows that reach out towards an intended audience. For example, if I am watching the Pistons game on TV, most of the advertisements are centered on shoes, Gatorade, or other products related to sports. This is because the TV network knows that the audience watching the game will most likely be athletes. Thus the TV network recognized this part of the audience’s identity and used it to market athletic products in an efficient way.

However, Charland brings up the point that maybe it is the argument that creates the audience. If a speaker appeals to a part of an audience’s identity that the audience had not previously considered important, the speaker could bring together many people for a common cause. For instance, relating to a previous post, Hitler appealed to his audience’s sense of nationalism and pride for Germany to unite them as a single group vying for the same cause: the betterment of Germany. This argument implies that an audience does not exist until the speaker calls out to it.

When I write my blog entries, I assume that the only people reading them will be my instructor and the students in my class. In theory, I should be writing my entries for the general public, but realistically, I don’t think people would be interested in reading my blog unless they are familiar with the topics I allude to from class. Every now and then I add in a post that relates to the scope of the class but is more in tune with my life, pop culture, and current events, but for the most part, I think some of my posts are definitely geared for my English 225 peers and instructor. However, in case anyone other than this intended audience decides to read my post, I provide a little background information on what elicited my thoughts on the subject I am writing about. I think overall, blog writers constitute their audiences by relating posts to aspects of the audience’s identity. When I am reading my classmates’ blogs, the ones I tend to flock towards are the ones I can relate to, or the ones that immediately draw in my interest due to an image or bold statement. For my upcoming persuasive presentation, my intended audience is first-year medical students and I am trying to persuade them to use the biopsychosocial approach while interacting with patients. I will have to come up with ideas on how these medical students identify themselves, and draw them into my presentation by reaching out to these common beliefs.