- A survey on poverty awareness was distributed, with most respondents being female (65%) rather than male. This suggests females may be more empathetic to poverty issues or more willing to help. - Most respondents were aged 16-20, with very few over age 60. However, most of the people surveyed were friends aged 17-19, so the age demographics may not accurately represent willingness to participate. - Respondents associated words like "hunger" and "homelessness" with poverty, showing an understanding of the issue, but many also associated it with foreign countries rather than the UK, indicating a lack of awareness about domestic poverty.

1. Survey/Audience analysis –
Poverty Awareness

2. As you can see, a large majority of the audience for my
survey were female rather than male (approx. 65%). This
potentially could mean a number of things. One of the most
likely things that this tells me is that females are more likely
to empathies with people effected by poverty, or feel more
obliged to take part in helping out, this being more likely to
take the survey. The fact that I sent my survey to almost a
completely 50/50 split between males and females backs up
this theory, meaning that I didn’t specifically send the survey
to more females in order to obtain these results. What this
shows me is that when creating my survey aimed at raising
awareness (particularly amongst the middle class) towards
poverty, it will be important that I am able to appeal to this
male audience who seem more reluctant and less interested
about the topic. The main way that I can project this
knowledge onto my campaign is through the use of more
masculine colors (no pinks or purples), or by using a choice
of words which help me cater towards a male audience etc.

3. A large majority of the audience for my survey were aged between
16-20 (more than half), and there were very little over the age of 60
(5%). One key piece of information that must be taken into
consideration when analyzing these results is the fact that a large
proportion of the people who I chose to send my survey out to were
friends aged 17, 18 and 19, so it is highly likely that this isn’t an
accurate representation of willingness to participate in a poverty
awareness based survey based on age. What these results do show
me is that many young people do seem to have taken enough
interest in the topic to want to participate (21 answered out of
around 30 young people who were sent the survey). This tells me
that it shouldn’t be particularly challenging to get 16-20 year olds to
engage with the campaign, and it could be useful if I cater for this
audience through the use of young trends, social media (which young
people tend to engage with) and teen friendly phrasing on posters.
The fact that very few people over the age of 60 participated could
be some indication of their lack of interest in the subject, however
there are one or two flaws in this finding. One of which is the fact
that fewer elderly people have access to the internet, meaning that
they can’t participate in the survey. The other flaw in this finding is
the fact that I am socially connected to very few elderly people,
meaning that I really don’t have any way to contact them and request
their participation. Overall, the fact that elderly people are not
particularly socially connected makes them a much harder target for
socially action campaign work, so I’ll rule them out of my target
audience.

4. These qualitative responses have allowed me to gain opinionated responses
from my survey audience, rather than making them just tick a box (which
would limit their ability to project opinionated responses). In this particular
example, I’ve found that a great deal of my audience associate words such as
hunger, money, homelessness etc. with poverty (which was as I had
expected). Another finding was the fact that many associated poverty in
general with foreign countries rather than the UK. The first finding shows me
that my audience in general have some understanding of what the word
poverty actually means, and have been somewhat educated on the topic,
whether it be through school or the media. I can use this to my advantage
when creating my campaign, as I won’t necessarily need to define what
poverty is to my audience, but instead can focus on actually changing their
aptitudes through shock value images etc. My second finding, the fact that
many associate poverty with foreign countries, gives me an indication that
many of the survey participants may be somewhat oblivious or unaware of
the severity of some of the UK’s poverty. I can use this information when
targeting my project at UK poverty, in order to create awareness to it,
focusing on British facts and figures, and getting in touch with other British
organizations in order to benefit the campaign.

5. In this second qualitative question, I’ve learnt a lot about my audience in
general and their financial situations, as well as how they perceive the effects
of poverty. The majority of my audience have said that they are in no way
effected by poverty personally. This gives me an indication of the fact that not
only are they living comfortably, but also the fact that they don’t feel that
poverty is something which they need to be concerned about the effects of.
Some of the respondents however, managed to mention the fact that on
some levels, although not directly, poverty has an impact on them (whether it
be emotionally or financially). Despite this, the fact that so many actually felt
that poverty had no impact on them, is a clear indication of the fact that they
are either oblivious to the damage it is creating, or simply don’t really care
because it doesn’t directly effect them. I can use this to my advantage when
creating a target audience, of those who are oblivious of the impact poverty
can have on us as a community, and to open eyes in order to make people
understand that it has an effect on us all. Unfortunately, there were one or
two participants who attempted to sabotage my research and abuse the
opportunity for qualitative feedback with answers such as ‘I laugh in the face
of poverty’ and ‘ref u gee’. Luckily these answers are heavily outweighed by
the useful responses of my other participants, meaning that I don’t have to
worry about them ruining my findings.

6. What I’ve found from this question is that the majority
of my audience are not often exposed to poverty
(around 42%), and around 40% said that they were
somewhat exposed to poverty. Only 19% said yes.
These results tell me that almost all of my audience
have either little or no exposure to poverty, and this is
probably down to the fact that I’ve distributed my
survey to a predominantly middle class audience of
friends and family, and the fact that most of my
participants are from York (which is an affluent city
with low poverty levels in comparison to other cities in
the UK). What I can learn from this is that people from
affluent cities such as York generally will have very
little or no exposure to poverty, so making sure that
people from areas like this support the campaign will
be crucial in order to change attitudes. The fact that
these people aren’t directly exposed to poverty means
that it will be harder to get them involved in the
campaign due to the fact they don’t see quite how bad
it can be and the impact it has, but adopting shock
value tactics when creating my campaign should help
to counteract this problem and open my audience’s
eyes in order to get them involved.

7. These results show that the majority of participants (about 55%) feel
that more media coverage on the issue of poverty is necessary, about
35% feel that coverage is somewhat adequate, whilst only 10% feel
that there is adequate coverage. Straight off the bat, what this tells me
is that my audience don’t see enough media coverage for themselves
in order to gain a firm and extensive knowledge on the topic. Only 10%
actually feel that there is adequate coverage, which leaves the rest
with less information than is needed. This basically means that enough
awareness isn’t raised, so anyone who watches the news every day but
doesn’t follow charities which cover poverty awareness simply will not
have any idea of what’s going on within our country. Using this data, I
can conclude the fact that much more needs to be done in order to
raise awareness and change attitudes towards poverty, and that
mainstream media simply isn’t helping the cause. This for me adds
extra importance to my campaign and what it stands for in order to
change perceptions. An example of how I could really try and change
these statistics could be in an attempt to infiltrate a mainstream media
source (in this case likely to be a local newspaper) to boost the media
presence of the topic of British poverty. One possible flaw in these
results is the fact that many young people (who account for the vast
majority of my survey audience) aren’t really exposed enough to media
outlets such as news channels or newspaper articles to form a
worthwhile opinion on whether or not there is adequate media
coverage, and this was one consideration I had to think about when
analyzing these results, but as a counter argument, these young people
are much more likely to be exposed to internet based media
broadcasts via social media outlets etc.

8. These results show that the majority of participants
(around 55%) feel that British documentaries covering
the topic of poverty tend to be unfair and not accurate
representations of poverty stricken communities.
Furthermore, 35% of participants were unsure on
whether they are fair representations, whilst 7%
answered somewhat, and only 5% answered yes. What
these statistics show about my audience is that a great
deal are unsure of whether or not they can trust
documentary representations of poverty, meaning they
are left unsure on how much truth there is behind
these documentaries. This statistic encourages me to
want to make sure there is a level of trust between me
and my audience when creating my campaign, in order
to sustain a more truthful and accurate representation
of the issue of poverty in general as to steer away from
these negative and untrustworthy media
representations. The fact that such a great amount of
my audience marked ‘I’m not sure’ also leads me to
believe that my audience are somewhat ignorant on the
topic, and they lack the knowledge to understand
whether these documentaries are twisted perceptions
or realistic, so by choosing to reinforce my work with
factual evidence I can aim to counteract this level of
confusion.

9. These statistics are pretty extreme, yet at the same
time not particularly surprising. They show that a
massive amount of my audience (almost 80%)
think that more could be done by the government
to reduce levels of poverty, whilst a miniscule 2%
feel the government couldn’t be doing any more.
Some of my audience have mixed opinions, with
15% feeling that the government could somewhat
reduce poverty levels, and 5% being unsure. These
statistics speak for themselves really, and with sure
a unanimous amount of my audience believing
that more could be done, there’s no doubt that
they feel that there needs to be some change. This
backs up my previous beliefs that our current
government simply doesn’t do enough for those
who are effected by poverty, and it pleases me to
see that my audience have similar political beliefs
despite many claiming to not be effected by
poverty in any way. I can work with my audience in
order to change these statistics, and hopefully by
the end of my project (if not on a national level but
a global level) more will be done by authorities to
counteract the impact poverty is having.

10. In this question I have received another complete
majority on whether or not my audience is living
comfortably in terms of food and water supply, with
93% saying yes, and 5% saying no (which may well
have been from 2 the members of my audience who
aimed to sabotage the research). These facts were as
to be expected, especially considering the geo-
demographic of the majority of my audience, and
this basically goes hand in hand with the ‘are you
affected by poverty personally?’ question, and
further backs up the fact that my audience are not
connected with poverty on this personal level. It
speaks for itself really, and means that I really have
to consider how I’m going to engage my campaign’s
audience whom are disassociated with poverty on so
many levels, and do not feel it’s effects. This was to
be expected as the main aim of my campaign is to
change the attitudes of those who are the LEAST
effected rather than those who are.

11. The majority of my audience work as an ‘authoritative
figure/part manager, teacher, PR, police officer, nurse
etc.’ (41%) whilst about 26% work as a ‘company
manager, executive, doctor, lawyer, company director,
accountant etc.’ These are two higher ranking social
classes (middle class and upper-middle class), and
account for about 67% of my audience. The lower
ranking social classes (lower middle class, skilled
working class and working class) account for the other
33% of my audience. These results are not surprising to
me, as the majority of my friends come from middle
class backgrounds, and my parents friends (who
participated in the survey) are predominately middle
class. The results correlate with previous responses, in
that those members of my audience who are ‘not
directly affected by poverty’, or ‘do not encounter
poverty on a regular basis’ are also likely to of a higher
social grade. I will use this information in order to
further benefit my understanding on which social
grades are more or less effected by poverty, and will
choose to target the higher social grades with my
campaign, in order to create a well rounded poverty
aware local community that doesn’t exclude people
based on social grade,

12. Example of correlation…
These graph results have been filtered in order to spot patterns between audience
characteristics. On the left are middle class and upper middle class respondent’s answers to the
question on exposure to poverty. As you can see, 55% of these members of my audience were
not exposed to poverty at. On the right, the results are filtered to display the working class and
skilled working class members of my audience. The results are much different, as only a mere
12% said that they were not often exposed to poverty. These results are an demonstration of
correlation between lower social grades an poverty exposure, and from this data I can back up
my point on the importance of getting people from higher social grades involved in my
campaign.

13. Summary…
To summarise, despite one or two members of my audience not taking the survey seriously, the
vast majority of the results I’ve collected have been extremely useful in allowing me to not only
gain a great understanding of my audience, but also to understand how I can cater for the
various demographics, and what considerations I will need to make before undergoing the
production of my campaign. For example, I've learnt that significantly less people form the
middle classes are exposed to poverty than those of working classes, meaning that getting the
middle classes involves and engaged with my campaign will be more difficult but also more
important. This is one of the many findings that will aid my campaign greatly. By analysing data
trends I have been able to see clear correlations between different members of my audience,
which will allow me to really gain a good understanding of poverty and people’s attitudes
towards it. Although there are factors which could have potentially made results less accurate,
I’ve aimed to address them all and compensate for them with counter arguments when
analysing the survey.