Getting to Know Your Audience
It can be very simple to create content for a target audience but if you don’t give them what they are interested in, they will not care for it. In other words, knowing your audience is one of the key things you should be doing as a journalist. If your work doesn’t help a community or isn’t relatable to them in any way, it just may be meaningless.
Crowdsourcing is one way you can get to know your audience and also potentially actually have them featured in your work. It can be done in many ways but some of the most popular are to create a survey for your target audience or have them email you the information you are looking for. If you’re going to write about how maternity leave in America isn’t as good as it is in other countries, you shouldn’t just be stating facts. You should be taking the opportunity to reach out to mothers in America and other countries to obtain stories on real-life experiences. You will be hearing from the target at hand to better understand your topic, which will eventually make a better story.
Here are some examples of how newsrooms use crowdsourcing to get to know their target audience:
Engagement is another way you can get to know your audience. This method is the most common, as it is used in many newsrooms of all sizes. As a journalist, our job doesn’t end once you have created content and put it out to the world. Paying attention to the reaction of your audience is very crucial. Your audience may respond to work in many ways but one of the most common is comments. Comments are usually added to works for the audience to share their thoughts or concerns. Audiences use the comment section and so should you. You should be responding to your audience. Answering questions, addressing any concerns, or simply just thanking them for saying something like “This was great.” This is something that your audience will defiantly notice and will appreciate you doing.
As a journalist, you should genuinely care about the community you are targeting and that starts with listening to them. Sometimes, your audience is what makes the story and you just need to accept that.
