From the audience’s point of view, each listener comes to the speech with a framework
of prior knowledge, beliefs, and values, and each listener “decodes,” or interprets,
the speaker’s message within this personal framework. In a large or culturally
diverse audience, the frameworks used by listeners may vary greatly.
To a particular listener, some ideas will be more important, or salient, than other
ideas. In a speech about carrying weapons on campus, for example, some listeners
will be focused on personal liberty, others on campus safety, and still others on
the dangers of gun violence. The speech may support, challenge, or modify any
of these frameworks, but each listener’s framework will shape how he or she interprets
and understands the speech. Audience members work actively to assess
what the speaker says against what they already know or believe, and they constantly
make judgments about the message and convey them back to the speaker
through facial responses and other nonverbal clues.