A new season of the cultural project "A Large University for a Large City” began on 27 October. Mariana Rozenfeld, Associate Professor of Voronezh State University, gave a public lecture “The addressee factor in communication: when, how and who to talk with”. The host of the meeting was Larisa Diakova, Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism of VSU.
“I would like to explain the meaning of the term mentioned in the title of the lecture. What is the “addressee factor”? There are a few factors that should be considered in communication,” said Mariana Rozenfeld in the beginning of her lecture. “They are: the speaker factor, i.e. everything that has to do with the speaker: his appearance, his behaviour in the audience. Message factor, i.e. text characteristics: its structure, content, reader/listener impact techniques. Finally, it is the addressee factor, i.e. the information about you that I have to have when giving a talk to you. For example, we have people of both genders, different ages, and professions here. It is a typical mixed audience and I have to keep it in mind.”
The lecturer explained a few rules you have to follow when giving a speech to a large audience. One of them is to respect the time limit. A good presentation should not be longer than 10 minutes. You should not ask questions if you deal with a big audience, you had better avoid discussions: if a person answers your question it can cause “emotional contamination” when everybody starts speaking and it is not easy to restore silence. You should use simple language and avoid using heavy terminology. You can make jokes, get a bit off the topic, use proverbs and sayings, and impressive quotations. In other words, anything that can entertain the audience.
At the end of the meeting the speaker answered questions from the audience.
