Purpose, audience, ideology and positioning

Introduction

We have already explained that context is the situational factors or circumstances of either the responder or composer. This affects the way in which readers respond to written texts as well as the way that composers construct their written texts. In this chapter we will look at how purpose, audience, ideology and positioning affect the way that readers respond to and composers construct written texts.

Audience

The audience refers to the group of people, the responders, who will be reading the written text. When a composer constructs a written text he/she is writing for a particular audience. This will have an impact on how the written text is composed.

Imagine, for example, that you are leaving a note with another person. Do you think that the message you leave will be different if your intended audience is your best friend? Your mother? The manager of the place where you hope to get a job? If you can see what some of these differences might be then you already understand audience. Now it is a matter of recognising where a written text is suitable for an audience.

Not every written text that you analyse will have you as the intended audience. It is important, therefore, that you can decide what audience the text has been designed to reach. In a written text where the subject matter is about a famous rapper, the audience may well be people whose interests include listening to rap music.

Refer to the 'Audience Activity' animation to practise using audience.

The next time you see a written text, try to decide who might be the audience for that written text. This will be quite obvious for specialised (topic specific) magazine articles such as you might find in wrestling or beauty magazines. It will require more thought to decide upon newspaper articles that are targeted at general topics. Even more thought will be required for many novels and poems.

Purpose

Every written text that we come across has a purpose. The purpose is the reason for the text being composed. This could be a text message with the purpose of meeting a friend at the beach on the weekend. The purpose of some texts could be to make teenagers laugh. The purpose of many newspaper articles is to inform and sometimes to persuade. The purpose of written advertisements is certainly to persuade. In each case the purpose of a text will influence the way in which it written and will generally have a purpose such as entertaining, instructing, persuading or warning and so on.

Refer to the 'Purpose and audience activity' animation to practise with purpose and audience.

Purpose, audience and context

Purpose, audience and context are very closely linked. This is because the purpose of a written text often involves communicating with a particular audience. A written text with the purpose of making teenagers laugh should have an audience of teenagers who want to laugh. In order for this to happen, the composer will need to have a good understanding of the context of their audience such as the teenagers' circumstances, their interests and what they find humorous.

Another example is a newspaper report where the purpose of the text is to inform the public about an event. As the purpose of the report is to inform the public in general, its audience is very wide. The composer hopes to communicate with people from a diverse range of personal contexts. The composer of a newspaper report needs to ensure that their personal context does not stop them from reporting the news objectively (without bias) as opposed to subjectively (where the personal context and opinions of a composer directly affect the construction of a written text).

Ideology

Ideology is a set of values and attitudes. We derive our values and attitudes from our everyday experiences and what we are taught. They are what help us to decide what is right and wrong.

Our ideology is very much influenced by our context. Many written texts that you will study and analyse, in particular novels and poems, will present a particular ideology. These ideologies are quite often influenced by context. A composer of a written text whose values and attitudes are very much against racism and prejudice, for example, may present a written text that aims to communicate those values to the audience.

Positioning

It is important that a composer puts their audience into a position to understand their ideology.

In the novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' written by Harper Lee, for example, it is vital to the success of the novel that the reader has an understanding of the prejudice and racism in the particular historical context so that they can see the damage that it has done.

Let's look at a simple example of positioning. Text One states the topic objectively. There is no point of view, this is to say that the composer has not included any opinion.

Racism and prejudice exist.

Text One

Text Two is the ideology stated very simply. The composer has included his/her point of view or opinion.

Racism and prejudice are bad things.

Text Two

Text Three positions the reader to understand the composer's context more clearly before stating the ideology.

Many people in countries around the world suffer because of racism. Some are murdered on the basis of their ethnicity and others are denied many things that we take for granted such as education, freedom of speech and feeling safe in our own neighbourhoods. Racism and prejudice are bad things.

Text Three

Which do you think is more effective? While Text Two reveals the composer's point of view, the responder is far better positioned to agree with the opinion in Text Three. The examples in Text Three position the responder to understand why racism and prejudice are bad things.

You should note that this is an example of how to write effectively. Your teacher will tell you that there is no right answer but there is a more effective answer. Text Three explains the point of view of the composer, so it is more effective than Text Two.

Text Four is an example of how the reader can be positioned through narrative rather than through fact.

When I was five years old I was not allowed to go to school like the other kids in my street because of the colour of my skin. I remember peeking over the rusted metal fence at the boys who I used to play soccer with as they went to their first day at school. I was impressed by their neat, new clothes. I saw my friend and asked him where he was going. He looked at me coldly and kept walking. My mother came and brought me back inside. I cried for three days straight. Racism and prejudice are bad things.

Text Four

Text Four is a particularly effective written text because it explains the point of view through a personal first person experience rather than through facts or an objective third person description of an event. Consider how the audience is positioned. Is Text Four more effective in convincing you that racism and prejudice are bad things? Does being able to empathise (relate to) with an individual make a statement more realistic?

You should note that many written texts that you study will contain themes that are expressed through the experiences of the characters in the text. This is an effective way to help a responder become aware of the effects of actions on individual people.

Refer to the 'Positioning activity' animation for more practise with positioning.

In this chapter

You should now be able to build a picture of how context, audience, purpose, ideology and positioning are interrelated and how they impact on shaping meaning in texts.

As a responder, you need to be aware of the context of the composer and how that contributes to the construction of texts. You should be aware of how your own context influences your interpretation of a text. You need to be able to understand who a text has been constructed for and explain why this is. You need to understand the ideology of composers. You need to understand how composers position their audience to initiate particular types of responses.

As a composer, you should always be aware of who your audience is, what you are trying to communicate, that is, the purpose, and what the best way to communicate is. By reading texts and looking for the above information you will come to a better understanding of how meaning is shaped in text and this, in turn, will be extremely valuable in constructing more effective compositions.