In chapter 6 of Thank you For Arguing, Jay Heinrichs explains how to get an audience to listen to you and keep their attention. He mentions sharing virtues and wisdom. The audience must also like you and trust you because if they do not, they will not follow you or listen to you. Think of a boss, if the employees do not like their boss, odds are they will not show that boss respect and if they do it is most of the time because their job depends on it. On the other hand, if the employees like their boss but do not trust them, they also will not listen because they do not trust their judgement when giving orders.
Virtues and wisdom are also very important when trying to grab an audience's attention. If the audience does not agree with what someone says, most of the time, the audience stops listening. When I think of the importance of a listening audience, I think of comedians. I know it sounds weird but the audience can literally make a comedian lose their job. For example, say a comedian makes a joke about a topic that majority of the audience values. The people in the audience might take offense to that joke and not find it funny. The comedian should realize that and stop making the joke otherwise, the audience will not find them funny anymore. Jay Heinrichs mentions bragging. Bragging can be a great way to show wisdom, bragging about what you have achieved, or where you went to school. Sometimes people brag about who they have met. Staying on the topic of comedians, many people know John Mulaney. He has a popular skit where he talks about the time he met Mick Jagger. Although many do not realize it, the audience is engaged because "if Mick Jagger likes him and talks to him I like him" (which is also the persuasion tactic of popularity). The audience listens to him because they like him, shares values, and believes he is wise. In conclusion, in order to get people to listen to you, they must like you, trust you, share values, and believe you are wise.
This is a great concept that isn't really brought to light too often in my opinion. However, it is a fairly large part of successfully keeping the attention of your audience. This can take some time, though. Speakers must take time to prepare what they plan on presenting to their audience and make sure it is strong enough to keep their attention but successful in either persuading them, like we do in English, or make them laugh, when it comes to comedy like your example explains. Huge parts of this process is exactly what. you mentioned: getting people to like you, trust you, share values with you and believe you are wise.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a great point here. One thing that I am not sure if I agree with you, is your point on the boss. Yes, you may think that your boss is an idiot, but that does not mean you won't listen to them. People have to listen to their bosses even when they don't like them because otherwise they would be fired. When I was 14 I worked at a small, local sandwich/soup restaurant. My manager was a horrible human being that I 100% despised. This manager was caught sexually assaulting one of the girls in the freezer and was not fired. I absolutely hated him but when it came right down to it, that was the only place in my town that would hire 14 year old's and I needed the job. I had to listen to him and do what he said in order to maintain my job there. When it came right down to it, my need for a job outweighed my hatred for my boss. I do agree that since I hated him I did not do as good of a job as I normally would have, but I still had to do it.
ReplyDeleteI think your topic is something that everyone should learn how to do. I like that you used references from the book Thank You For Arguing. I like how in the beginning of your blog you made examples to make it easier to understand what you are talking about and connected real life situations that people relate to. I also agree with you that an audience can make a comedian lose their job I think that was a really great point.
ReplyDeleteI think you chose a great topic to write for your blog post. Getting an audience's attention is something that we all need to know and learn when it comes to writing our papers or even doing a presentation. I found your examples and references very helpful when reading your post and getting a better understanding on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great blog post. You drew everyones attention in and It helped show that you in fact do know how to make the audience listen. The examples helped a lot as well.
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