The Audience

Audiences are all the same;   they deserve and expect the best you can deliver.   Along with the expectation for immediacy is their expectation for quality and quantity.   The audience's expectations have risen over the years for many reasons.   The single most important is their sophistication.   Fifty years ago when modern media was in it's infancy.   People were satisfied with the occasional exposure to entertainment or educational experience, movies and personal appearances by public figures such as popular entertainers were few and far between.   As a result audiences were not critical of style and content.   Regular exposure to quality presentations just did not take place.   At election time or the traveling circus or a religious revivalists were the only experience with dynamic public speakers.   Their style often was short on quality and long on volume and emotional appeal.   Television has changed all that, thanks to exposure to quality performances first to quality performances in movies then to the great number of speakers on television and radio, expectations have changed.

Thanks to radio, great speakers such as Winston Churchill, Billy Graham and the famous "Fireside Chats" of FDR the amiable President of the United States created higher expectations among the audience.   Along with the exposure to quality presenters the education level has been rising.   As the average person became aware of the need for their education thus they expect a better level of presentation from their mediums.   Many of the great leaders now must be trained in public speaking and all it's skill sets.