AUDIENCE

Unit

Copyright 2018 New Digital Journalist C Taylor

It’s your own WHO

Audience guides your topic development. When you start to write, answer these questions:

Who is going to be reading this? What do you want them to do with it? Why should this topic matter to them?

Your answers to these questions define the direction your topic takes

Who is going to be reading this?

YOUTH SENIORS LOCALS TOURISTS

ADVOCATES ANTAGONISTS

EMPLOYEES EMPLOYERS

What do you need to do to make this readable for them? Your vocabulary, organization, interviewees, photographs, and graphics all change based on the demographics of your audience.

Your answers to these questions define the direction your writing takes

Who are the people who will be reading this?

What do you want them to do with it?

Is your GOAL actually attainable? Can your audience accomplish this themselves? What does your audience need to know in order to accomplish the goal you have?

Why should this topic matter to your audience?

!   What matters to me about this?

Does it matter to your audience? Is this topic in your audience’s best interest? What does your audience need to know in order to comprehend this issue?

When we know to whom we are writing , we can write much more effectively.

Our audiences are in a constant state of flux. Carefully consider the elements of your topic

that will change based on audience.

Through the writing process we need

to continually come back to our

audience and see if we are using the

tools and techniques that will best

accomplish our purpose with the

audience we are addressing.

The kind of tools we use are ,

, and

which can help enhance the meaning for our audience.

Techniques, including

the we choose, the of our article,

and the and we use,

will help develop and clarify for our article’s audience.

Hey, these are the for purpose …

now consider how the audience can change them.

Do you really want tons of interviews for a junior high audience? Will high-schoolers be interested in a graph on power usage? Are senior citizens the only people you can interview about social security?

Look at the following scenario and project the changes you will employ based on audience.

Pre-school parents

Masters candidates in environmental science

High school soccer players

Empty-nesters

The local high school science class is going camping in a nearby canyon during the upcoming weekend.

Look at the following scenario and project the changes you will employ based on audience.

Pre-school parents

High school students

Community business members

A local school is opening a daycare facility where students will care for children as part of the child development.

Take a moment and write down three different story ideas and explain how each would change for three different audiences

For each idea, write down a , an , and an and explain

how they would change with each different audience.

Use these ideas in your article outline.