Finding the Audience of a Web Site
			Site developers make decisions about what to include in their site, and how to arrange and design it. Their decisions are made to be most helpful to the people most likely to need and use the material. Of course, anyone can access the information on most web sites. However, the fact that you can reach a site doesn't mean it was created with you in mind. To get the most out of a web site, it may help to consider the audience it was developed for. But web sites don't carry a label stating who their audience is. You may have to browse the different parts of a site to decide how you can use it most effectively.
How to Determine Audience			For information about the audience, scan the site to determine the assumptions it makes about: what its users are interested in what its users know what information style the users want
			Now you may be thinking, "How am I supposed to know what the audience is interested in?" In fact, a web site will give you a variety of clues about the audience it has been developed for. To show how this might work, let's examine this site for clues to its audience:
Clues to Audience: 1) Parts of a Site			The main parts of the PBS site "THE WEST": An episode-by-episode multimedia survey of the TV program An interactive timeline An interactive map An interactive biographical dictionary An archive of primary sources (documents and photos from the TV program) Links to related Internet resources Interactive games and puzzles to test your knowledge of the West A description of the creators of the TV program
Clues to Audience: 2) What the Sponsors Say			Observations about this PBS web site relating to audience: The site includes a "Message from General Motors," a sponsor of the TV show and web site Called New Perspectives on THE WEST, the site provides students, teachers and others with direct access to many of the diaries, memoirs, journals, maps and archival photos that have gone into the making of THE WEST, enabling visitors to examine these sources of our Western heritage firsthand and to join the filmmakers in discovering new perspectives on this still vital part of our past. The "Message from General Motors" also describes the show as representing "our nation's history, culture and ideals in an educational and entertaining manner."
Clues to Audience: 3) What the Creators Say			The site includes a PBS introduction: New Perspectives on THE WEST can help students -- and all with an interest in this region's fabled history -- see beyond the stereotypes that still obscure our view of the American West and begin to recognize how profoundly the West still shapes our experience as Americans today. According to the PBS introduction, the site was developed in response to students' enthusiasm for the interactive environment of the Internet, it brings our nation's frontier heritage into contact with the technological frontier of our own day, offering educators a valuable tool for stimulating research, discovery and intellectual growth. As a result, according to the PBS introduction Apart from the guided tour, the web site does not present a narrative history of the West. Instead, it presents the elements of Western history -- profiles, documents, images -- and encourages visitors to link these into patterns of historical meaning for themselves. Hyperlinks throughout the site are designed to facilitate this process of discovery, while at the same time providing access to background information for anyone hoping to learn more about incidents portrayed in THE WEST.
Clues to Audience: 4) What Is For Sale?			The site includes a section called "Some Frequently Asked Questions." This section provides information about how to buy a copy of the program THE WEST, which is available in a regular video tape edition, and a classroom edition with a printed index including every key person, place, event, issue and topic in the series. Also described in this section are a companion book and soundtrack.
Hands-on
			From the clues given above, what conclusions would you come to about the audience of the PBS web site? Check your answer
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