Activity 10: Your understanding of audience

Take a look at just the home page of the following sites:

• the main Web site for your school
• the Web site of a professor at your school
• the Web site of a fast-food restaurant in your area
• the Web site of a small, locally owned restaurant in your area
• the Web site of the company that made the car you drive or that makes the car you’d like to drive
• the Web site for a branch or an agency of the US government (for example, the White House, the IRS, the FBI)
• the Web site for an individual who serves in the US government (such as a member of Congress)

As you look at each home page, generate a list of notes about who you think the primary audience is for each Web site. How do you know that this is the audience? What information—textual or visual—provides clues as to who the audience is?