How Audience-Centered Should Interpretation Be? A Study of Visitor Preferences in the U.S. National Park Service

In the past decade, the National Park Service (NPS) has shifted interpreter training to focus on an audience-centered approach to program delivery and development. One element of this approach emphasizes empowering audience members to share their own thoughts and experiences with each other to develop or reveal deeper meaning together. However, the extent to which visitors want this new style of program is uncertain. Through survey research at nine diverse NPS sites, this study provides insight into NPS visitors’ interest in attending programs that ask them to share their own ideas openly and/or listen to the ideas of other visitors during programs. Results from the 1,990 respondents suggest that visitors across the demographic spectrum (gender, age, visitation, race/ethnicity, and geographic origin) preferred more traditional programming over programs in which visitors share their own ideas. This paper discusses practical and theoretical implications of these findings, as well as opportunities for future research.