© Boardworks Ltd 2003 1 of 29 Audience For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation. This icon indicates the slide contains activities.

© Boardworks Ltd 20031 of 29

Audience

For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation.

This icon indicates the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable.

This icon indicates that teacher’s notes are available in the Notes Page.

This icon indicates that a useful web address is included in the Notes page.


Audience

Things are written for a purpose.

An author’s purpose may be to inform to entertain to persuade to advise.

An author uses their writing and presentation skills to communicate with their readers effectively.

Can you think of any other possible purposes?


It is important for writers

to consider their audience

to think about the implications of the type of text they are using.

How many different kinds of text can you think of?

For example, presenting information in a book is different to presenting the same information in a video.

Texts


Look at the opening scene of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

After you have read the scene, design a storyboard for how you would stage this scene in a theatre. Think about costumes, lighting, the set and the sound effects as well as stage directions.

Theatre


Discuss your ideas with a partner. You have probably come up with very different ideas from one another.

Shakespeare tells us very little, so we are able to interpret the scene in many different ways.

We bring our imagination to the text.

Theatre


If possible, look at a film/video version of the opening scene of Macbeth. What does filming the text allow us to do that can’t be done so easily, if at all, in a theatre?

What advantages does a theatrical production have?

Film

theatre film


Film


Film can also be used to tell the story in cartoon format. Many of Shakespeare’s plays are now in animated format.

What advantages might this format have over a stage play?

Animation Stage play

Animation


Look at a copy of Macbeth told as a story.

What effect does reading the play as a story have on the tale? What can or can’t the writer do with this format?

Story


A story version allows the writer to

add his or her comments in a way which is difficult in a play or film

introduce imagery to make the scene more vivid

choose to reveal the character’s thoughts and feelings

add more detail than given on a bare script but still allow the reader to use his or her imagination.

Story


Texts can be tailored to suit the needs of an audience.

Think about how a text might be adapted for different audiences.

What sort of text would best suit the groups below?Click to see some possible answers.

toddler

visually impaired

teenager

child

OAP

students learning English as another language

board book animated film

story book

audio cassette play

film with subtitles

Adapting texts


Let’s look at how traditional texts have been adapted to meet the needs of the audience.

Take a story such as Robin Hood.

Can you remember the main characters and plot of this story?

Adapting texts


A book published for a very young child might be almost entirely pictures with a sentence or two next to each drawing.

The same story published for a junior school pupil might have mainly writing but with pictures and illustrations scattered throughout.

Adapting texts


An older audience might have the story in novel form. It might include a lot more historical information about conditions in England at the time the story is set.

The same story could be presented as a comic book for older readers. Here the drawings could be much more carefully designed to convey emotion, plot and relationships between characters. The difference is that young children may have pictures to illustrate the words. Older readers might find the pictures replacing some of the words.

Adapting texts


One of the limitations of all these types of text is that once they have been written and printed it is not easy to amend them in the light of feedback from readers and reviewers.

Publishers have to wait until they have sold their first edition and are reprinting the book before they can make any changes.

I liked it but it was a bit long.

The font was too

small

There were too many pictures

I’d have liked more detail about the

characters

Adapting texts


The Internet is providing more and more information and entertainment.

Some writers are now producing books which appear first, or indeed only, on the Internet.

Some are experimenting with the idea of writing a chapter and then giving readers a choice to decide what happens next.

If the audience are able to affect the material they read the text becomes interactive.

The Internet


Can you think of ways in which information on the Internet and on CD-Rom is different to traditional print materials?

The Internet


Information on the Internet or CD can include:

Animated cartoons

Videos

Hyperlinks to other places in the text

Hyperlinks to other sites

Navigation tools.

Some of these ideas have been around for a long time. Books often have a section entitled ‘Further reading’. This refers the readers to other texts they may find useful. The Internet offers the advantage of being able to access this extra information immediately. Can you think of any other advantages of the Internet?


Choose a topic you are interested in.

Use a search engine to find a few sites that are dedicated to your topic.

Study the sites and find two or more to compare.

Write a review or prepare a presentation in which you discuss their qualities. How have they taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the new media?

Activity


Design your own web page

Choose an activity of hobby you are interested in and know something about.

Design a web page on paper. Imagine it is for a complete beginner.

Introduce the subject. Think carefully about how much text to include.

Where might you add hyperlinks? Why?

What other pages will you include on your site?

Now that you’ve analysed some other web sites it’s time to design a web page of your own!


Using different types of media can change the meaning of what we read.

Let’s return to our Robin Hood example. The child’s story book will present the story in terms of a hero and a villain.

Changing meanings


For the older reader a novel might see this story in terms of how the poor people were badly treated by the social system in place in England at that time.

The focus won’t be so much on the individual characters and rivalry but on a much wider aspect.

Changing meanings


In the past when we have read things we have usually had two main contributions to consider: the text and images.

With technology other features play a part in achieving the writer’s purpose – to successfully communicate to his or her audience.

Can you think of what some of these features might be?

Changing technology


For this next activity you are going to need to study one advert several times.


Newspapers have a particular audience in mind and this affects the type of articles they include.

For example, a broadsheet newspaper may well have a review of the latest opera production at the Royal Opera house. A tabloid newspaper may well not.

The type of advertising a newspaper or magazine carries is influenced by the audience, too.

The Financial Times, for example, will carry adverts for financial services such as stock broking companies and savings plans.

Newspapers


Decide whether the following adverts and articles are more likely to appear in a tabloid or broadsheet newspaper.

A feature on Big Brother

An article on the love life of a EastEnder’s star

A detailed analysis of the euro

A competition to win £1,000,000

A review of an RSC production

A guide to private schools

An account of Prince William’s birthday celebrations

Tabloid

Tabloid

Tabloid

Tabloid

Broadsheet

Broadsheet

Broadsheet

Newspapers


The publishers of a teenage magazine will include very different types of adverts to those publishing a magazine for the over 50s.

So, who is reading a text has always influenced the design and content of that text.

This is true of the new media as well.

Think about how you as a reader can influence the media you read.

The reader


There are web sites that allow you to create your own characters.

In chat rooms you can contribute your ideas and help to direct the conversation.

E-mail allows you to contact those running a site and give feedback which can influence the future design and direction of the site.

Many newspapers now have a facility where you can e-mail the author of an article to give your response to what they have written. This gives the paper feedback which they can use when making decisions about future content.

The reader


We have been looking at the ways that presenting information in different ways affects how we understand and appreciate what we are reading.

We have seen how sound and image combine to influence the audience.

We have seen how readers are an essential factor in design and content. Furthermore, we have increasing opportunities to influence what is prepared for us.

To sum up

© Boardworks Ltd 2003 1 of 29 Audience For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation. This icon indicates the slide contains activities.

Documents

story slide

texts slide

theatre slide

film theatrefilm slide

story version

different kinds of text

opening scene of macbeth

different ideas