“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear
them and be influenced by them for good or ill.-Buddha.” (www.brainyquote.com). For
this assignment we are asked to not just focus on the communication being given
but the audience that is being targeted for this communication. I will be using
three different forms of media communication and identify their target
audience. I will be doing this through examining specific elements of the
communication using written and visually specifically for the intended
audience. Whenever you are trying to
communicate with someone it always important to understand what kind of
audience you are trying to communicate with. This way you can best communicate
with that audience and everyone will understand.
The first form of media communication that I will be
examining is a news article from the Baltimore sun. The title of this news
article is No one injured in plane collision at Carroll County Regional
Airport. The Baltimore Sun used a style of writing called a straight news
story. “Straight news stories begin with a headline that summarizes the story’s
main point. The lead (a first paragraph) of news story includes the most
important details of who, what, when, where, why, and how. The first sentence
of the story often includes what, who, where, and when.” (Marsh, C., Guth, D.M.
& Short, P. 2009). By following the
guidelines the author of this news’s article is targeting an audience that just
has a brief amount of time to skim the news. The author makes sure to follow
the who, what, where, and when in the first sentence of the article. “Two
planes collided at the Carroll County Regional Airport on Saturday afternoon,
according to a news release from the Maryland State Police.” (www.baltimoresun.com). This
article is also very stimulating to the audience by adding a large picture of
the plane crash above the article. This way the audience in a hurry can look at
the picture and read the first line of the article and understand exactly what
has happened right away.
The second form of media communication that I have found is
a travel brochure online. This brochure was found through a website accessed
for people interested in taking a trip to Europe. So right away this brochure
can establish its primary audience which is people looking to vacation in
Europe. This brochure offers a ton of visual aids. Every picture is meant to
inspire and persuade someone to go ahead and book the trip of a lifetime. There
are many people interested in taking a tour of Europe and the company really
needs to make sure and appeal to everyone. This brochure does a great job of
that by offering packages for families, couples, and single travelers. The
author had a clear sense that it had to target many different people and from different
cultures. Through using many different visual aids of numerous people from all
different cultures; the author was really able to target a wide audience.
The last form of media communication that I will be using is
a website created by a dear friend of mine. My friend Eric runs a charity
called the Roc Solid Foundation. This foundation is specifically geared towards
helping children that suffer from childhood cancer. I decided to use his
website for an example because it is hard to specifically identify his intended
audience. “No other audience is potentially as diverse as the Web audience.
Your viewer could be the person next door or someone in Algeria. However, that
doesn’t mean that the Web is a typical mass medium. Think of it as one-to-one communication.”
(Marsh, C., Guth, D.M. & Short, P. 2009). Through understanding that my friend is trying
to communicate a need for support I understand his audience. It is anyone that
ever been effected or knows others that have been effected by cancer. The
foundation is targeting the hearts of people that are in families with or
without children. The first thing on their website is a picture of a child
experiencing cancer and explains exactly what their foundation does and how you
can contribute.
In conclusion, Buddha really says it best when he explains
that your audience can be just as important as the words that you are saying.
You need t o understand your intended audience and their wants and needs of the
communication that you are trying to get across to them. In this paper I have
given you three different forms of media communication and using different
elements to explain their intended audiences.
REFERENCES:
Marsh, C., Guth, D.M. & Short, P. (2009). Strategic
writing, multimedia writing for public relations, advertising and more.
Boston: Pearson.
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