In order for communication to be able to take place there must be an audience for a message to be communicated to. It depends on that audience as to what language you use, what approach you have towards them, how you put your words together and how you transfer the message.
Cultural differences: any cultural differences need to be addressed and catered for. Cultural differences could be seen as a barrier to communication in some situations, some words or signs that don’t cause offence to one person could seriously offend a person from a different culture. Staff should be trained if working with a variety of people from different cultures and should all know how to address the situation. It should be made sure that nobody is discriminated against or shortened of their rights to knowledge because a person cannot interpret to them what they are trying to say. To address this you may use different gestures or words to those that you would usually use when communicating with somebody from a different culture.
Adapting to suit an audience: The way you communicate with an audience can vary depending on the age of the audience. The type of voice you use and tone that you use may be different depending on which age group it is. To maintain interest of your audienceyou may wish to do certain things such as use a different tone of voice and different volume as well. You may raise your voice in order to keep interest from the audience and make sure that they can hear you, you could do things such as use a microphone to maintain the interest of the audience. You should make sure that the words you use are understood by your audience, if you are using terminology that your audience cannot understand the message will not be transferred very well.
Engaging the audience: it is important that the audience doesn’t lose interest when you’re communicating with them, whether they are reading something you have written or watching and listening to a presentation of yours you need to maintain the interest of that person, you may try different techniques to do so. For example if you are speaking and you have the same tone through the whole of what you’re saying it could bore the audience, therefore you should always ensure that you vary your tone throughout the time you are communicating with somebody. Other ways you can engage the audience are asking questions: If you ask questions to the audience it gives them a chance to get involved, also it will make them think about what you have said and gives them a chance to voice their opinion, an effective way of approaching question asking could be saying something along the lines of “there will be a chance to ask questions at the end”, this will give the audience an incentive to listen to what you are saying even more. In the context of written communication a technique of engaging the audience and grabbing attention. For example in a presentation you may put animations, pictures and music in it to make it more enjoyable. You should only do this to a certain extent however, your audience may be distracted from the message you are trying to portray if they are overloaded with animations and pictures.
http://managementhelp.org/blogs/communications/2011/01/02/20-great-ways-to-engage-and-involve-your-audience/
