Journal 2: Audience

Audience is the group of people that the author is trying to influence with their
work. Audiences can be grouped by many different classifications such as ethnicity, age,
gender, nationality and more. The author may be attempting to engage a large group of
people such as a population or a small group by using esoteric language. The author may
explicitly state the audience by addressing them directly or the author may never state the
audience, leaving it open to interpretation. Gloria Anzalduas How to Tame a Wild
Tongue and Chris Wilchas The Target Shoots First both have unique audiences.
Anzaldua engages an audience that has a misunderstanding for her people writing
Chicanos need to identify ourselves as a distinct people.(Page 4) My definition of
audience helps me to understand both of these pieces better through connecting with the
struggles present in both. The documentary and the writing parallel a corporate struggle
to maintain popularity and a cultural struggle to loosen the suffocating grip of ignorance
on identification by language. Wilcha complicates the notion of audience because it
doesnt seem there is an intended audience. For example, in the beginning of the film he
says that after receiving a video camera as a graduation gift, he Decided to take it to
work with [him] every day(2:07). Anzaldua has shifts in the audience throughout her
piece. She talks to different variations of Spanish speaking people, such as Tex-Mex,
Pachuco and Standard Mexican (Page 4). She wants to bridge the gap between these
groups and is therefore speaking to those involved: the oppressed and the oppressor. I
wouldnt change my definition of audience after these two works although I now have a
better understanding of the term.