Audience

Target audience

Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech was delivered in front of a live audience and televised.

The live audience included many of Obama’s voters and supporters. If you watch the video of the speech, you will notice that the audience is constantly cheering Obama and that they wear campaign caps and carry placards with supportive slogans. You can also see that they are a diverse crowd and often interrupt the speaker with applause, sometimes chanting his name or his slogan “yes we can”, suggesting they support his candidacy.

In the speech, Obama often addresses his live audience directly: “Thank you, New Hampshire. I love you back.” (l. 1); “You, all of you who are here tonight” (l. 32). This shows that he wants to keep them engaged with his speech and give his voters the credit they deserve.

Given that the speech was televised and shared online, this suggests that the target audience is the whole of America and even the rest of the English-speaking world. Obama uses direct address to target a wider American audience as well as the people present in New Hampshire. Here are some relevant examples that show Obama targets all Americans with his speech: “your voices and your votes” (l. 14); “Americans who are young in age and in spirit” (l. 22).

The speaker also addresses his counterpart Hillary Clinton, who won the elections that day, as cu...