If you've been invited to give a keynote at a particular event
or to chat to some kids visiting your university
or to go on the radio to discuss how your research relates to a current story.
Then your audience, who you're going to engage with your science, has helpfully being defined for you.
But if you haven't got a specific opportunity,
if you're keen to write a talk to take to schools or run some hands-on science workshops or make a podcast
or a YouTube video.
Then you've got to work out who that's for.
And that's what this video is all about.
It's part of a YouTube course on how to talk about science with non-experts.
I wrote it with a focus towards practicing scientists
but to also be helpful for anyone interested in doing science communication.
In the previous video we worked through why it's worth taking time away from the lab or the laptop,
to chat with the public about your work.
Those 'Why's?' may dictate your audience or it may work the other way around.
The audience you identify in this video, may influence your purpose.
One thing is for sure though,
Tthe success of your science communication, depends on how well you can tailor it to a particular audience.
So, here are five things to consider when defining who you're trying to engage with your science.
*Aiming to engage everyone will usually reach no-one*
There are so many different groups:
You could do public engagement with school students, community groups, families, special interest groups,
the elderly, policymakers, other scientists.
The list is endless, well not endless
but very long, especially because you can break down each of those groups into further groups.
As we'll discuss during the course,
You'll need to change your content, your language and your style for different audiences.
So it's essential to take a moment to choose which groups you want to engage.
*know thy audience*
Having worked out who you're working with, you need to understand how they're different to any other audience.
What's particular about this group of people?
The challenge, is that effective communication is essentially mind-reading, so do your research.
Ask the people who invited you to do it, ask the event organizer who they expect to come,
speak to the producer of the radio show about the audience break down,
contact the teacher of the class that you're going into.
Evidence, data, is key in science.
It's also essential in science communication too.
Here are some things to consider about the Intel you need.
What do they care about?
We're all unique.
We're passionate about different things.
We're all dealing with different stuff in our lives, but your challenge is to work out what your audience share.
What interests, concerns, goals do they have in common?
The key is to then find the connection between those and your science.
Because they need to care about your science, before they'll invest any effort in trying to understand it.
Video four will dive into this in more detail.
As we're going through this, it's a good idea to start writing out an audience profile.
If you'd like a helpful doc to structure that, then go download my free course resource for this video.
It's part of a whole pack of free resources that run alongside the course.
*What do they know already?*
How much are your audience likely to know about the science topic you're going to be talking with them about?
Ask the teacher where they are in the curriculum, look into the YouTube demographics of the channel,
ask the conference host who's in and what their academic backgrounds are.
Another important question, is what do they think they know?
Are there common misconceptions which you'll need to address earlier on?
Video 6 dives into all this but it's really important to start thinking about it and putting it down on paper.
*Put on someone else's shoes*
We've all got different levels of sensitivity around various topics.
Whether you're discussing using animals in experiments or explaining evolution.
It's really important to stop and consider what your audience may find
worrying or controversial or just a bit tricky to digest.
Go and deliver public engagement in another country, with a different culture and these are very apparent.
But it's just the same with an audience, at an event down the road.
Some of these issues may be best approached through a more interactive two-way debate or discussion,
rather than say a video or a talk.
Hopefully, working through these considerations have helped you identify and define your audience profile.
When you've got this clearer view of who they are,
you need to work out how to invite them to engage, how to take your science communication to them.
The next video will look at what your options are.
But it's worth pointing out here, that talking with audiences that are similar to you
geographically, socially, politically, is easier than talking with audiences that aren't.
It depends on what your purposes are
but if they are to include engaging with audiences who are considered hard to reach,
it's going to take more effort and more planning to do so
but it may make more of an impact and be more rewarding.
As always, let me know any thoughts or questions about this video in the comments below
and if there's anything you'd like me to dig further into, put that down there too.
Subscribe to the channel for future videos and I'll see you next time.