Descriptive Analysis of John F. Kennedy speech to the Houston Ministerial Association

In his speech to the Houston Ministerial Association, John F. Kennedy’s purpose is to assure American voters that his Catholic religion would not affect his political views and actions if he were elected to the office of President of the United States. In order to accomplish this purpose, he had to reach out to a very skeptical American audience.
Kennedy’s empirical audience included all American people. His immediate audience was the people he was addressing, the Houston Ministerial Association. His mediated audience were all those who heard, read or saw his speech, but were not actually present at it. These people included the American people who watched the speech live on television as well as those who heard it played on the radio or read the transcript in the newspapers.
Kennedy’s targeted audience included all American voters, both those who were Catholic and those who were not. He had a unique problem in his speech in that he had to both ally with his fellow Cat...