Purpose Analysis
An analysis of the purpose should be done alongside the Audience analysis. A purpose analysis should identify the reasons you are communicating with someone, or a group of people.
The following questions can help you define the purpose:
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- What do you want the reader / viewer to do next?
- What do you want to happen as a result of your communication?
As a lot of multimedia work is done on behalf of other companies, you should also consider what does that company want as well as what you want.
The purpose for communication will fit into one or more of the following general categories:
- to educate - to express ideas , explain something
- to inform someone (for example the times of a train)
- to promote something (raise awareness of it)
- to advertise something (try to get people to buy)
- to persuade someone (change a persons ideas and behaviour)
- to entertain
Example - The green peace advert
- What are they trying to accomplish: To persuade people to change their behaviour and stop littering and using plastic bottles. to raise awareness of the problem of litter in the sea, to promote the Greenpeace organisation
- What do they want people to do next : Stop buying and throwing away plastic bottles, to visit greenpeace website
- What happens next: People go to the listed web address and donate money, sign up for activities to help