Chapter 3. Reading Visuals: Audience

Introduction

Cheryl E. Ball, Illinois State University and Kristin L. Arola, Washington State University

In this tutorial, you will explore how visuals are designed to appeal to different audiences.

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Audience: Define

© Corbis/Bettmann

The first definition of audience fits the group you see here—people gathered to watch a performance, like a movie, a football game, a play, or a political speech.

Audience: Define

© Corbis/Bettmann

Less public, or less performed, texts—e-mails, diaries, advertisements, novels—have an audience too, even if the audience will never be gathered together in one place.

Audience: Define

© Corbis/Bettmann

Writers and designers must always think about their audience when creating a text so that the communication they intend to make will be effective. It is easy to say when we write something creative or funny that it doesn't have an audience—or that we are its only audience. But this is seldom true, even for texts we read and compose in our classes.

Audience: Define

Courtesy Mandie Rose Danielski

The choice of black-and-white photography is often associated with serious, artistic images and an audience of people who appreciate serious, artistic texts.

Audience: Define

Courtesy Mandie Rose Danielski

Visual theorists have noted that when we look at images, we tend to try to see or look at what the subject is looking at—to share their visual sight line. So we want to join this woman as an audience, but we are also voyeurs, peeking at her the same way she's peeking through the blinds.

Audience: Define

Courtesy Mandie Rose Danielski

Do you think this would have a different audience if it were in color? Why or why not?

Audience: Define

Courtesy Mandie Rose Danielski

When you know the title of this text, does it change your understanding of its audience?

Audience: Define

Courtesy Mandie Rose Danielski

How would your understanding of its audience change if the title were, "Sara waits for nightfall to make her break for freedom"?

Audience: Analyze

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an unprecedented relief measure to offer work to the unemployed on highway, education, art, and public programs. The WPA gave unemployed artists the opportunity to decorate public buildings. Hundreds of posters were also created to publicize health and safety, education, and community programs.

Audience: Analyze

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

These posters were all aimed at the general public, but we can also identify more specific audiences for individual posters.

Audience: Analyze

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

The engaging colors and graphics in this image turn math into something fun. It might be aimed at an audience of educators, or at people who might join the cause of the WPA—6 + 8 is a greater number in sum than either number is alone.

Audience: Analyze

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

This poster has a clear message—get the struggling child (the “dull” one) straight to an optometrist. The audience for this poster is probably educators or parents.

Audience: Analyze

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

This poster promotes the progress and sense of purpose made possible by the WPA. The iconic blacksmith makes this poster feel like propaganda (reminiscent of the Soviet hammer and sickle or Chairman Mao’s red sun). The primary audience is the general public, as well as politicians and WPA administrators.

Audience: Respond

Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Work through the following questions to use the concept of audience to analyze this photograph by Lauren Greenfield called “Sara, 19,” which is part of a larger body of work titled “Girl Culture.”

Audience: Respond

Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Audience: Respond

Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Audience: Respond

Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Audience: Respond

Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE