So far you have asked whether you can trust a piece of content, and whether it is biased or shaped by an algorithm. Today you will ask who it was made for, and why.
You will learn a shared four-field frame, which is four headings the class will use to look at any piece of content. You will use it to build and test a post for a client, and then on one piece you choose yourself.
Every piece of digital content is made for someone, for a reason. That is why a sports highlight reel looks so different from a charity campaign.
From today, the class will use these four fields to look at content.
- Theme is what the content is about.
- Purpose is why it was made, such as to inform, sell or entertain.
- Intended audience is who it is really aimed at, not just everyone online.
- Techniques used are the choices made to reach that audience, such as music, colours or hashtags.
Look at this made-up post together as a class.
@FocusFuel is a small account that shares study tips and links out to free mixes. Lo-fi beats are calm, relaxed background music.
With a partner, talk through the four fields for this post, and be ready to share one with the class. You do not need to write anything down.
Work with a partner. In Scroll Stopper below, you run a tiny content agency. You make a social media post for a client and test it on a panel of ten local people. The clients and the people are made up.
- Pick a client. Their brief gives you the theme, the purpose and the people to reach, which is the intended audience.
- Build the post. Each choice you make, from the platform to the posting time, is one of the techniques used.
- Press Test it on the panel. See who stops, who scrolls past and who never sees it.
- Press Tweak it and test again, and change one or two choices to reach the people in the brief.
- When your teacher says so, press Go to the bonus round and decode four rival posts.
Be ready to say who your post was really for, and which choice made the biggest difference.
Scroll Stopper
Pick one piece of digital content you use or have seen recently. It could be a post, a story, a short video, a game trailer, a school update, a sports clip or a product review. Do not pick anything private, or anything unkind about someone in the room.
If you cannot look it up on a phone in class, pick one piece you remember well. Name it in one line, like the examples below, and do not just write a type of content such as "football videos".
"the GAA championship trailer on RTÉ Player last weekend"
"the free-premium banner in [game you play]"
(A free-premium banner is an advert inside a game offering you the paid extras for free.)
Then, on your own, work out the four fields for your piece. Type them into Enter Your Work under this step: the box already has the headings. If you have no device, write them in your notes.
- Theme: what is it about?
- Purpose: why was it made?
- Intended audience: who is it really for?
- Techniques used: which choices try to reach that audience?
- You have named your piece in one line, saying what it is and where you saw it.
- You have filled in all four fields in plain sentences.
- You have added one more line: "It is really for ___ because ___".
- You could say your answer out loud in under thirty seconds if you are asked.
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