Audience and Voice (and Sometimes Reflexivity)

As qualitative researchers reach out to expand the reception of their research, they must consider both the kinds of audiences they wish to reach and the discourse—or “voice”—that will have the maximum impact for that audience. A careful consideration of this interaction can often be found by using deep reflexivity, or the reflection on the self-in-interaction with an audience and its preferred discourse(s) and media. Researchers will need to “shift registers,” or transfer from one kind of discourse to another, which is not always easily accomplished. This chapter considers the potential audiences, the types of languages and discourses familiar to those audiences, and the forms of communication most likely to reach a given group or audience.