CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES IN COMMUNICATION

Communication has been part of human beings. Our life with others and in the community requires
us to interact with the people around us, to share ideas, thoughts, feelings and experience with others, to
make sense of the world, and to position ourselves in a wider social and cultural reality.
We listen and speak, and receive and give information, which is a two-way process. Communication
connotes “communion”, “community”, making common”, or “to share”. Communication is complex. We use
symbols, words, pictures, facial expressions, hand signs, voice, tone, graphics, silence, writing, painting,
dressing, dancing, and body language. Formally or informally, every person communicates and therefore
everybody is clientele and audience of communication.
To make communication effective and attainable, the specific or intended clientele and audience in
an instance of communication nee to be clearly understood so that messages and medium can be properly
customized. Effective communication assumes the audience’s perspective and ensures that the message is
relevant to them. This means that the method of communication is carefully selected as most effective for
the target audiences.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CLIENTELES AND AUDIENCES OF COMMUNICATION:
1. SOCIAL POSITION
 the status that a person enjoys in a communication context.
 These social positions dictate how one gets communicated to and how that communication has
to be crafted, packaged, contained and delivered.
2. EDUCATION LEVEL
 an audience that has limited literacy skills may find it difficult to use written materials; with
such audience, oral presentations may be more effective.
3. AGE RANGE
 the communication materials may be relevant to people of all ages but the age of the audience
may affect the communication format or distribution channel.
 Social media websites and media texting for example may be more appropriate for providing
information to younger audience while printed material may be more effective for older
audience.
4. RACE AND ETHNICITY
 it is important to design the graphics and photos in the communication materials to reflect the
demographics of the intended audience.
5. PRIMAL LANGUAGE
 if the language used is different from the one used by the target audience, there is a need to
translate the communication materials into the primary language.
6. HEALTH STATUS
 matters a lot as it dictates people’s disposition to listening and responding and the ability to
make meaning out of the communicating material.
 It is important that the material is more personal and relevant to specific health conditions or
issues.
7. JOB TYPE
 for an audience without access to their own computers disseminating the materials through an
internet site or email messages may not be effective.
8. INFORMATION SOURCES
 matter for they affect the format and distribution of the communication materials and also the
medium they trust.