Joanne Perry

AS Media Studies
Questionnaire Findings
After creating my questionnaire, I asked 5 teenage girls to fill it out with their own opinion in order to
allow me to gather the findings and look over them thoroughly in order for my website to meet the
needs of my target audience. My first question allowed people to tell me how many images they
would like on a website to support and help people suffering with an eating disorder. 80% Of the
people I asked chose either 5 or 6, or More than 6. This represents that my target audience would
like a large number of images in order to make the website more appealing to them. Therefore, in
order to ensure that my website fulfils the needs and expectations of my target audience, I will
ensure that I have a minimum of 5 striking images to ensure that my charity campaign website is a
success. Images give off more of a verisimilitude perspective on an eating disorder and therefore
the audience will feel as though they are gaining more knowledge through looking at a picture and
finding the expressed emotion in a picture, rather than the website being overloaded with text which
the audience will not want to read too much due to the target audience being a fairly young age of
15 to 24 year olds.
My second question asked the audience if they think that a website to support eating disorders
should feature real life stories. Just over half of my audience thought that stories would be
beneficial on this campaign website. However, 2 people out of 5 objected to the idea. In my
personal opinion, stories based on real life events can sometimes be scary, especially to
somebody who does not have to deal with the illness. Moreover, real life stories are a conventional
element, often produced on charity campaign websites, allowing people to gain more knowledge
through a verisimilitude connotation of the illness. Therefore, most people like this conventional
element as peoples stories show a very polysemic approach to often, specific niche audiences.
Usually audiences who suffer with the illness, know someone who has suffered or is suffering or
has a link with the illness in any form. Stories represent a narrative which people can relate to and
feel as though they are not alone, whereas they may have been unsure before. I feel that stories
would be a very positive feature which I should create on my website to ensure that my website
meets conventions of other charity websites and the audience feel as though they are part of a
community by feeling as though they are not alone.
Thirdly, I asked the audience whether they think that having a celebrity figure who has also suffered
an eating disorder, telling his/her story and offering support, will help others who also suffer an
eating disorder as well. The feedback I received on this question were strong and positive apart
from one maybe answer. However, due to nobody disagreeing upon this element, I feel that this
would be a strong, persistent code in which would anchor the audience in due to it ensuring that
the website receives more publicity as well as ensures that this also helps people who suffer from
the illness to find their path to recovery, just like the celebrity figure.

For the fourth question about the effect upon the images on the website, I received very mixed
feedback from the audience. The options were black and white, colour or other. Black and white
and other were the most popular, with colour still being selected on one persons feedback too. As I
imagine images for a charity campaign to create an emotional impact upon the audience, I feel as
though black and white will induce the emotion further onto the audience due to the dark emotions
which are portrayed more clearly in order to create more emotion for the audience to feel as they
view the image. However, one person specified that they would like both black and white images
and also coloured images to be used after selecting the other option on the questionnaire. I like this
idea as I feel that this could fulfil everyones different needs and can portray the emotions through
various ways as a construct in order to make the audience feel emotional impacts through a variety
of verisimilitude aspects.
The fifth question, I asked the audience whether they thought that music featured by a celebrity
figure such as Demi Lovato, singing about her recovery on the website, would appeal to them. Over
half of the target audience agreed that this is a good idea however some disagreed. This could be
due to people not wanting the illness to be sugar coated and people wanting the illness to be
perceived as serious as anorexia is often overlooked and people forget that it is a disease and is
not a chosen lifestyle. However, due to most people agreeing that it would be a good element, this
shows that by having this feature, it could inspire the audience to be like the celebrity and start
recovery through the use of my website. Therefore, I feel that this would be a good element to have
as a sign to the niche audience that recovery is possible and they can be just like the celebrity if
they use my website to allow themselves to get better.
Moreover, another question I asked my audience was if they would like a lot of facts and statistical
figures placed on the website. The results for this question shocked me as 80% of people said yes,
they would like a lot of facts and statistical figures and the other 20% said that they would like some
but not a lot. This represented to me that facts and statistical figures are necessary on a charity
campaign website in order for the audience to learn more about the illness as well as it allowing the
website to look professional, assertive and informative for the target audience to receive as much
information as possible and trust the website due to their large amount of knowledge about the
illness.
For the seventh question, I asked the audience whether they thought a video would be a good
element to feature on a main page of a website. Only one person disagreed to this whereas
everybody else who filled out my questionnaire agreed that it would be a good feature. By including
a video it ensures that the website looks more professional, as well as allow it to provide more
information instead of having too much text which my target audience may not find as attractive. A
video on a main page is a conventional element to a website which is shown within my research as
most websites which contain videos, are regularly placed on the first page in order for it to
immediately stand out and grasp the audiences attention in order for them to continue looking
further into the website. A video will also provide an ideological interpretation of the illness in order
to appeal further to the target audience due to the verisimilitude representation of an eating
disorder to create an emotional impact on the audience.

The eighth question allowed me to ask the audience for specific colour schemes they would
choose from as a theme for an eating disorder campaign website. The options were: pink and
white, black and white, grey and black or other. I also included a comment section in order for
people to write their own opinion on colours to support the illness. I received a variety of responses
for this question, 2 people choosing pink and white, 1 person chose black and white and 2 people
chose other. The audience who chose other wrote that red and white would be a good colour
theme and another person wrote, all of the colours put together, would be a good colour scheme. I
like the idea of interpreting all of the colours together in order for it to appeal to a larger audience.
This would allow the website to appeal to a mass number of people as well as appeal to a small
amount of boys. Due to my target audience being teenage girls/young women, I will prioritise the
conventional colour pink in order for it to appeal specifically to my target audience. However, by
including a variety of other colours suggested, this would allow other audiences to feel as though
they are welcome to the site too and therefore would increase the popularity of my website by
gaining a larger audience as well as meeting the main conventions for a website aimed at teenage
girls.
The next question I asked the audience was whether or not they would find it useful to be directed
to another website supporting eating disorders, for more information when selected. I had mostly
positive feedback for this question with 80% of my audience telling me that it would be useful.
Therefore, I feel that this should definitely be included on my website in order to represent a
professional website who is associated with other anorexia campaigns and therefore allows the
audience to feel as though they can trust my charity and represents my charity to be reliable as
well.
The final, tenth question which I asked my audience within my questionnaire was the type of
background that they would like on a charity campaign website. I gave the audience two options
which were: a plain, assertive background or a bright, colourful background. 60% Of my audience
said that they would prefer a plan, assertive background for my charity campaign website. Eating
disorders can often be a heavy, touching subject for teenagers and therefore by having a plain,
assertive background, it represents my website to be more professional and caring. White regularly
represents purity, innocence and vulnerability and therefore as an example, by having a plain white
background, this could allow the audience to feel as though they can relate more to the website as
they are not at their happiest stages and therefore feel vulnerable (if they are suffering an eating
disorder).Therefore, after taking all of my feedback into account, I will interpret all of the most
popular options into my website to ensure that it is conventional and fulfils the needs and
expectations of my target audience.