Who is the intended audience for this primary source
How do you discover a historical source's intended audience?
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when analyzing a source is important to
realize that all sources were created
for a particular individual or group of
people discovering who the original
audience was will help you understand
why the source was made and how it had
affected the creation of a source for
example the sources creator may have
used specific words or mentioned
particular events based upon who they
were writing to identifying such
decisions can help you to determine
whether a source is useful or reliable
for your historical studies therefore
knowing who the intended audience of the
source was can help you come to an
informed evaluation of it what is an
intended audience the audience of a
historical source is the individual
person or group of people who were
originally intended to view or use it
based on what you know about the time
the source was created and who created
it you need to identify for whom the
source was originally created how do you
determine the audience some sources make
it easy for you to discover who the
intended audience was because they may
specifically address them for example if
your source is a letter it might simply
begin with Dear John
in which case John clearly is the
intended audience of this source however
most of the time you'll be required to
make an informed guess regarding the
original reader or viewer the first
things you need to discover our what
kind of source it is the person who
created it and the time of its creation
determining these three things can help
you make an informed decision about who
the most likely recipient of a source
was to help you further in determining
the intended audience here are some
common audiences for specific types of
sources academic journals are usually
made for University academics and
students books are made for members of
the general public
who are interested in the topic of the
book a diary is usually written for the
creator themselves to read government
documents are created for the use of
government employees and departments
letters are written for the specific
person who is mentioned at the start of
the letter newspapers and the articles
in them are written to be read by the
general public
textbooks are designed to be read by
high school or university students
studying these specific
topic of the book and websites are
predominantly created to be read by
members of the general public so now
that you know what an intended audience
is and how to determine them let's look
at some examples to solidify your
learning the first example is a very
famous diary written by the young Jewish
girl Anne Frank she began writing in her
diary when she was 13 years old and
records her experience hiding from the
Nazis with her family during World War
two tragically Annie and her family were
discovered and most of them died while
in Nazi concentration camps as it is a
diary and only ever intended it to be a
private document and for her eyes only
there for the intended audience for Anne
Frank's diary was the author herself as
a side note even though Anne's father
eventually decided to publish the diary
for the general public the original
audience was only ever Anne herself our
second example is the Eiffel Tower in
Paris France which was built between
1887 and 1889 it was constructed for the
purpose of showing off france's
industrial skill during the 1889 World's
Fair which was held in Paris the World's
Fair was an international event at which
countries demonstrated their latest
technological achievements to other
nations during the 1889 World's Fair
over 32 million people from more than 30
countries visited the exhibition and so
the brand-new Eiffel Tower
which served as the entrance gate to the
event there for the intended audience of
the Eiffel Tower were the international
visitors to the 1889 World's Fair as an
additional note the Eiffel Tower was
originally planned to be deconstructed
20 years after the fair but it proved so
popular that it remains to this day
regardless the intended audience remains
the original visitors to the 1889
World's Fair now that you have a better
understanding of the intended audience
of historical sources I hope that you
feel more confident in your studies if
you need further explanations examples
and advice head over to history skills
calm and I'll see you next time
you
