Guiding question: Comment on how the interplay of text and images is used to appeal to multiple audiences

May 2021 Paper 1 Sample Response 5 (Infographic)

The Infographic titled “Physical activity for early years” by the UK government is a simple, straightforward, and lively way to inform a variety of audiences on the importance of physical activity for infants. The Infographic plays on a simple combination of visual bubbles with minimal text to convey its suggestions and utilises dynamic layout to increase its engagement with audiences. Elements of foregrounding such as breaking the shape and color pattern is also used to effectively key points and information to audiences. Making this Infographic both effective and appealing to different groups.

The primary audience of this Infographic would be those that have young children under their care such as new parents of young kids, babysitters, or even a way for trained pre-school teachers to find ideas to engage the kids. This idea that the Infographic serves as a list of activities can be identified by the nature of the layout, with each bubble containing an activity that counts as physical activity. This is especially relevant to the primary audience of those taking care of young kids as finding a plethora of different exercises to keep young children constantly engaged is often a difficult task. By providing a visual list it increases the level of engagement with the audience, allowing parents to visualize doing the activities with their children. By doing so, the Infographic is effective at utilising both text and images to appeal to its primary audience.

Furthermore, the Infographic goes beyond just those taking care of young kids as it also engages a secondary audience effectively. The secondary audience here is the general population – specifically those that are yet to but may be considering having a child. To such an audience the Infographic may reveal how simple, and how much variety there are when exercising with an infant. It may further serve as a warning to busy individuals how much of a commitment a child is. This can be seen by the large, bold, and colored display of 180 minutes per day – which working couples may find hard to spare. Keeping in mind it is highly likely to be 180 consecutive minutes but rather many short intervals.

To a busy, working member of modern society such luxury of time may be unavailable. By providing such crucial information on the Infographic, the UK government can encourage better and more responsible parenting. Thus, by engaging a secondary audience of those yet to have children the highlighting by text format and images goes beyond just providing information, but serves to improve the parenting and development of young children.

In addition to providing information to multiple audiences, the Infographic also serves as a powerful emphasis on a high level of activity for young children. This can be seen by the linear layout of the infographic. It starts with a claim that “Active children are healthy, happy, school ready and sleep better all of which are desireable traits for those raising kids. However, what makes this claim truly effective beyond simply stating is the further utilization of Logos, Pathos and Ethos to strengthen this idea.

Logos can be identified from the logical development and listing of the benefits to exercise such as “builds relationships & social skills. Maintains health & weight, etc.” Which makes logical sense to the audience as to how exercise can bring these positive effects. It then links to a short, impactful statement “every movement counts” which effectively drives home the idea. This is then supported by the linear structure developing into how to get those benefits – by aiming for 180 minutes per day and lasting giving concrete examples to support the audience with execution. Through this logical approach the Infographic is able to effectively appeal to its primary audience the importance of exercise.

Aside from being just a logical argument, the Infographic also strengthens its claims by Ethos – appealing to credibility. This is most notable in the stating of “UK Chief Medical Officers” showing that the recommendations do come from a reliable place of authority and thus can be trusted. This technique is effective as it allows the many claims to be better believed. Furthermore, the clean professional layout also indicates that the information is well presented and shows more care to the work. By improving credibility through both text and formatting the Infographic can then appeal better to its audiences.

The integration of images and text also builds into the technique of appealing to emotion – pathos. This is became the information presented is easily visualised and can be quickly absorbed. To further emphasize this the Infographic pays very good attention to detail as seen in each person icon having a smile on the otherwise blank face be a parallel to the claim of “happy” early on. By using both images and color along with minimal text it creates a very easy read and a fun atmosphere – effectively engaging its audience to communicate the ideas of exercise. The implementation of language techniques such as that of the rule of three in “Get strong. Move more. Break up inactivity” also serves to better appeal to the audience with short quick to read sentences. By appealing to audience emotions this way, it turns an otherwise dry topic of exercising children into a more lively read.

However, although this Infographic does a spectacular job of using text and images to convey information to various audiences there are still certain limitations to it, such as the lack of detailed information on how each of the six claims are stated there is no research or sources present to back it up. As such, an alternative should be providing a link or QR code to further information on a website – fully adding the supportive elements needed to make this Infographic more informative. To further criticize this limitation of a lack of supporting evidence, the Infographic could also have included the testimony of parents or pre-school teachers. Which will allow the primary audience to better relate to the information and directly understand the relevancy.

Overall, the Infographic by the UK government effectively utilises text, images and layout to appeal to both a primary and secondary audience’s logic, credibility, and emotions. By doing so fulfilling the infographic’s purpose of conveying information concisely in a visual manner. While the Infographic could be further improved by supporting information, research, and testimonies. This limitation does not significantly hinder the effectiveness of this Infographic on the importance of activity for young children.

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