Distinguish between captive and voluntary audience members. Provide an example of each, and explain why it is important for a speaker to recognize whether his or her audience is captive or voluntary.

What will be an ideal response?


- Voluntary participants choose to hear a speech because of a particular interest or need. An example of a voluntary audience is a community group.
- Captive participants are required by some outside force to listen to a speech. An example of a captive audience is a classroom.
- The speaker should assess the type of audience as being an element of the communication situation and adapt accordingly. For example, the speaker may need to take extra effort when arousing attention for a topic before a captive audience.
- Student examples will vary.

Communication & Mass Media

You might also like to view...

The proliferation of advertising and the decreasing length of broadcast ads has created a problem: too many ads

Indicate whether this statement is true or false.

Communication & Mass Media

A factorial design for a study must have at least two factors or independent variables

Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

Communication & Mass Media

Aggressive trainees:

a. lack social skills. b. argue constructively. c. are assertive and then get aggressive as the situation escalates. d. cannot be asked to leave a training session.

Communication & Mass Media

Most programs produced for public television have

a. one source of funding. b. multiple sources of funding. c. corporate sponsors that fund the entire production.

Communication & Mass Media