Knowing Your Audience

Knowing Your Audience

Often times a message to be delivered contains devastating news. The way in which the message is worded or delivered can change the severity of it. When a person has the task of delivering a message with life-changing results, he or she needs to be aware of the situation and have the facts, to deliver the message properly. He or she would want to deliver the message face to face. A person does not want to hear of the news through an e-mail or memo, although it can be used for follow-up communication. The person delivering the message needs to be compassionate, empathetic, composed, and polite. The audience, and the information can change the delivery of a message. Knowing the audience, and the message will help a person deliver the message correctly. The needs of the person receiving the message need to be met.

When news broke of the mine in Chile collapsing, trapping 33 miners, the families of the miners needed to be consoled (Mother Nature Network, 2010). The families receiving the news should have received the news face-to-face, if possible. Their loved ones were in a tragic situation, and the families were scared. When the company is communicating with them, answers need to be given. The family members of the miners need to know why this has happened. The

answers may not be available immediately but need to be disclosed as soon as they are available. Reassurance needs to be given to the family members that everything possible is done to rescue the miners. They need to be informed that a full investigation has been started, and the details will be given as they become available (Mother Nature Network, 2010). A meeting should be set up for the family members to meet with the company’s leaders and be onsite of the accident, to be offered support, answers, and the rescues, if, and when they happen.

The employees of the company need the same information, communicated in a different way. Most of the time an employee...