Audience Analysis: The Ugly Truth

Audience Analysis: The Ugly Truth

There are many different ways of speaking with different people. These different ways may be through a different language, slang, or simply with a different personality or demeanor. You wouldn't want to go to the White house dressed as a hippie, and you wouldn't want to go to a gang dressed up in a tuxedo. It is also possible to analyze writing and who audience is that the author is trying to target. In the story "The Ugly Truth about Beauty", Dave Barry's target audience can also be discovered, through evidence from the reading.

In the first sentence, Barry connects to the male audience by stating, "If you're a man, at some point a woman will ask you how she looks Ð''How do I look?' she'll ask" ("Dave Barry"). This is the first piece of evidence to suggest that Barry's target audience is males. Even though it is evident through his writing that his target audience is males, Barry however does not put women down.

It is also evident from the story that males are the target audience by the length of the reading. It is only two pages! This is very appreciated by males. Based on this length, it can also be determined that the age group of the directed audience probably starts in the late teens. Males in this age group are not very fond of long boring reading. Dave Barry also adds much humor to his writing to entertain his audience and keep the readers interested. Barry states, "Most men, I believe, think of themselves as average-looking. Men will think this even if their faces cause heart failure in cattle at a range of 300 yards" ("Barry").

It can also be discovered that Barry's target audience is average males. College students and working class Americans would be included in this group. This can be determined by my previous points of the humor and the text being only two pages. College students are also able to relate to this type of deeper relationship where the woman asks, "How do I look?" Working class Americans are targeted since this is the class of males that consider themselves average looking, and don't really care about their appearance. Most white collar Americans can not relate to this story, since they do care about their appearance. White collar Americans must have a professional demeanor and deal with other professional workers. Celebrities are also definitely part of the target audience, as Barry refers to Cindy Crawford dispensing makeup tips, and Brad Pitt as a pretty boy.

The age group of the targeted audience probably extends to males in their 30's to 40's.