In Muhammad Ali’s 1971 interview with Michael Parkinson, there were a few audiences that Ali was speaking to. Ali’s intended audiences were Michael Parkinson, England, America, and the rest of world. Michael Parkinson was the person giving the interview, so it makes sense to view him and his audience as the primary audience. Michael Parkinson worked for BBC, so his primary audience was the people of England. Ali was primarily talking to Michael Parkinson and the people of England. Naturally, America is one of the audiences because that is what Ali is mostly talking about. America was more of a secondary audience because Ali was not being interviewed in America or by an American channel. Thanks to technology and popularity of this interview, the rest of the world was able to this interview too. The rest of the world was the tertiary audience. Ali was telling Michael Parkinson, England, America, and the rest of the world what it was like to be an African American athlete and Muslim man in America and his views on race and religion. With these audiences in mind, Ali spoke to them in an informative manner. Ali also specifically said that he was specifically talking about white men in America, “And if the white man ain’t the devil, he’s been aiming at the history of the Americans. He didn’t mention anything about Europe or Sweden or Canada. America,” so other white people in other countries did not think he was talking about them, and that white Americans know he’s talking specifically about them.
By Justin De Burgo
Though it's true that Michael Parkinson was the one conducting the interview, I'm not sure he could be considered part of the audience. It seemed like he was more a channel to reach Ali's intended audience than the audience himself. Parkinson was also probably using the interview to appeal to his own audience, making him and Ali more like separate ethos that were intersecting for that interview.
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