Public Writing; The Audience

On any issue, the audience is the people who are interested in the issue. Many people may browse through a topic on the internet and find it an interesting one but may never be moved to participate actively in it. That may be the reason that just a couple of people showed up at Misquamicut for the 'Hands across the Sand' event.

First of all, what was the event about? A picture of such a previous event seen on the net by anyone may mean anything to them. One may think that it's a game or something.

This now leaves the task of explanation to the participants in the cause. Only they know what the cause is and can deliver its message to the audience, or people that know nothing about 'Hands Across the Sand'. They are tasked with doing the Public Writing here.

If one of the participants brings together several people of a like mind who are interested in the cause, then they can each find other people still interested. If this is done on the internet, it’s even better because the number to be reached is limitless, especially if the cause is explained clearly to a new audience. This would be just the general audience. Only those that go further by enlisting even more people are the activist audience. When the internet writers get together with the people that finally show up for the event then these are the activists.

So actively engaging an audience by Public Writing on the internet will bring in participants and when participants bring in more of their acquaintances, the numbers grow. There is a ripple effect.
Furthermore, in case people do not turn up for an event perhaps because of bad weather or something like that, as a resourceful public writer, this is not the end of the convention. There is a new mode of communication on the net called a "Webinar" and it is exactly what it sounds like. A seminar on the web. Getting together this way by people promoting a cause, and relaying the message to an appropriate decision maker like a Member of Congress or another target audience would indeed have some effect. Not even the weather or 'stay-at-home' participants can take the mojo out of this. Besides, is this not how Barack Obama got elected?