ABSTRACT
The encoding process in rhetorical communication must take into account, as we stated in Chapter 2, the nature of the people for whom the message is being created. People are not all alike; they are individuals. When they gather together into audiences they do not give up their individuality. The differences that most concern communicators are those in people’s attitudes and beliefs. It is impossible for you to perceive all of another person’s attitudes and beliefs, much less to perceive those of all of the members of a large audience. How, then, are you realistically to adapt a message to your receivers? You should base the message on audience analysis. By this we mean that you should estimate the attitudes and beliefs of the audience and base your message on this estimate. Audience analysis will be examined more closely in Chapter 8, in the discussion on the creation of the message. This chapter, however, is more directly concerned with what attitudes are, how they are formed, why they persist, and how you may cause them to change.
