ABSTRACT
In communication and media industries, expression serves an audience and carries a message. To serve that audience well, we have to know that audience well. We need intelligence on our audience members’ information needs, habits, sensitivities, and objectives. This chapter provides a roadmap for finding and charting this information. Once we are dialed into our audience and its needs and wants, we are ready to do some whiteboarding: To brainstorm story and coverage ideas. This chapter provides extensive help finding and creating more and better ideas for writing projects, from the theoretical to the very practical. Also outlined in this chapter is how to begin developing a style guide, which helps maintain consistency, promote credibility, and save time.
