Same story, four completely different tellings. Today you will work one invented local news event covered four ways in shapes you already know from Irish media: a short-video clip, a broadsheet-style article, a tabloid splash, and a podcast exchange.
Your job is to name who each form is built for, and say how the form and register help that audience. You will build an Audience Mapping Sheet for your Communication Portfolio.
Three terms you need today:
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Target audience | Name who each coverage is talking to, not "everyone" | A parent group chat is for parents, not for the whole town |
| Form | Short video, article, front page and podcast each force different choices | A score update as a clip versus a full match report |
| Register | How formal or casual the language sounds; it has to match the audience or the piece feels off | A job email written like a text gets ignored |
Invented for this lesson: Ashford Town Council has approved a €4.2 million multi-storey car park beside the secondary school, opening next September. Free parking on School Road will go.
You read it next in four forms: a short-video clip, a broadsheet article, a tabloid front page and a podcast exchange. Broadsheets and tabloids are both newspapers; you will see how they differ.
For each coverage, add a note to the list: who it is for, and one signal that shows it.
1. Short-video clip (LocalLoop_Ash, phone-feed news style): On-screen: NEW CAR PARK. SCHOOL ROAD. GONE. To camera: "Ashford voted yes on a multi-storey beside the secondary school. Four point two million. Opens next September. Free parking on School Road? Gone. Parents, students, shop workers: tell us what you think."
2. Broadsheet article (The Ashford Ledger, national quality-paper style): "Ashford Council Approves Multi-Storey Beside Secondary School. Council voted Tuesday to approve a €4.2m multi-storey adjoining the school, opening next September. About sixty free School Road spaces will go; 280 paid spaces, a staff rate and a drop-off bay remain. Cllr Maeve Brennan cited congestion and a cycle lane. Two residents opposed. Passed seven votes to four."
3. Tabloid front page (Daily Town Cry, splash style): "SCHOOL ROAD PARKING AXED. €4.2m car park gets green light: free spots wiped out. ASHFORD drivers face a parking nightmare after councillors rubber-stamped a multi-storey beside the school. Parents and shoppers are furious. 'Where are we supposed to leave the car?' asked one mum at the gates."
4. Podcast exchange (School Gate Stories, local radio-style chat):
Host A: "Council said yes to the multi-storey beside the school. Opens next September."
Host B: "School Road loses the free spaces. I drop my sister there: that road is a mess at half three."
Host A: "Council says it fixes congestion and makes room for a cycle lane."
Host B: "Fine if you can pay. What about shop workers who parked free?"
Host A: "Two residents raised that. Still passed seven to four. Minutes in the show notes."
Quick check before the map. Rate how well each form serves its own named audience. Write a one-line note only where it helps. Change the weight on Register fit or Right amount of detail and watch the totals shift. There is no right winner, only a reasoned one.
This is the piece that goes in your Communication Portfolio. Build your Audience Mapping Sheet: one entry per coverage. For each form, name the target audience, note the register in a few words, and write one sentence on how the form serves them (mention a language or shape choice).
Use your own audience names from your signal notes, and lift a couple of best lines from the weighing step if they help. The list is not saved when you leave the page, so copy each entry into the box below as you go. Then copy the finished sheet into your portfolio as m3_l63_audience_map_<your-initials>.
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