social action task 1

Social Action and Community Media Production

Outline

Social action and community media production work can take a variety of

forms.

It can include work intended for distribution to a mass audience, such as

campaigning work for charities, public information or political parties.

However, it can also include work which is primarily intended to bring

about localised community improvement and for which mass distribution

and exhibition are much lower priorities.

In this unit, we are going to concentrate on the work of social action

organisations and their promotional materials from posters to leaflets and

even websites.

You will need to examine a range of social action and community media

products to understand the purpose and impact of each. This will give you

an understanding which will then help you produce your own work.

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Purpose and impactThere are a range of purposes that a social action campaign might

produce promotional media for. You will need to learn these and then

apply them to your own research.

Purposes:

To bring about local, national or global change:

Most campaigns want to bring about some sort of change but they may

target different levels of the world. Some may only want to change

something in their community whilst others might want to change

something in the whole country. Other campaigns might try to effect global

change.

To change attitudes:

By raising issues, social action campaigns hope to change the way people

feel about issues.

To raise awareness:

Often campaigns might be started to alert people to an issue which they

may not already be aware of. 3

Purpose and impact

To create access to media production for non-traditional groups:

There are many groups of people who are under represented in the media

both in terms of production and portrayal. There are many organisations

which try to allow people from disability groups and different ethic and

social backgrounds to take part in the media.

To challenge dominant representations and agendas:

As you are aware the media creates representations and these often

influence or reflect the way society thinks. Social campaigns often try to

challenge these dominant representations which in turn can change the

way people feel about a subject.

To create or strengthen community ties:

Communities often come together over an issue and this can create and

strengthen relationships. In todays digital world a community could come

together online rather than interacting in person.

4Creative Media Production 2012

Purpose and impact

To provide information:

Most social action campaigns will aim to give out information as a way of

achieving many other purposes.

To campaign:

The purpose of most social action is to campaign.

To change voting behaviour:

Political campaigns may come from a political party or may encourage

people to vote on a particular issue with the aim of winning an election or

successfully changing or introducing policy or law.

To infiltrate mainstream media:

Access to mainstream media can sometimes be difficult for smaller groups

making it hard to get their message out. Some campaigns aim to bring

attention to themselves to enable them to get mainstream media coverage

which can them help them get their message out.


Purpose and impact

To build relationships with subjects:

Often people might have little or no understanding of a social issue and it

might not be widely discussed. Campaigns often work to help us build an

understanding of an issue and build a relationship with it.

When you are carrying out your research, you should find a selection of

artefacts which allow you to apply all of the purposes.

Some will apply to almost everything you look at whilst some will be harder

to apply and take more work.

We will discuss how to apply them later on.


Purpose and impact

Impact:

Making sure that the campaign is making an impact is important.

Organisations need to be able make sure they are achieving their aims.

It’s important that you find evidence of any change being brought about

through projects that you look at.

This could be in the form of facts and figures or a chart or a graph which

shows an effect.

Organisations web sites can be a good place to find this information.

Sometimes is can be hard to attribute an impact to a single poster or

campaign but you can look at it in a wider context of campaigning.


Techniques and context

Techniques: The techniques used to get the message across. What has

the producer of this product done to get their message across? How have

they tried to influence people?

This links back to work you have done previously about how audiences

are targeted.

You should consider the images, the colour scheme, the copy, the fonts

and the tone amongst other elements to help you with this.

Use your experiences from projects such as critical approaches and recipe

cards to help you here.


Case Study: Compassion in world farming


Case Study: Compassion in world farmingPurposes:

To bring about global change

To change attitudes

To raise awareness

To challenge dominant

representations and agendas

To provide information

To campaign

Aims: To bring about changes in

the farming system that lead to

higher animal welfare.


Techniques:

A simple clear font has been used so that the copy is

clear and easy to read. This mirrors the overall message

of the advert which is also simple.

This particular poster is in black and white and quite stark

which again mirrors the message and makes it simple to

understand.

The tone of the poster is shocking. It mixes a cute image

with some unsettling text which really grabs attention.

It uses large text initially to get its message across before

using smaller text later on to reinforce the message and

get the reader to pay more attention.

Finally the bottom of the poster contains the organisations

name and then a request for donations.


Case Study: (campaign/organisation name)

Compassion in world farmingImpact: evidence of any change being brought about through projects


Key dates of campaign against the sow stall

1967 CIWF formed by dairy farmer Peter Roberts to campaign against factory farming systems such as the sow stall.1979 Government sets up Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) to advise on farm animal welfare issues.1988 FAWC publishes report recommending a phase-out of stall and tether systems for keeping sows.1989 Government announces that it accepts the recommendations of FAWC’s report.1990 Sir Richard Body MP presents Private Member’s Bill to Parliament to phase out sow stalls (and tether systems) over afive-year period.1991 Bill fails, but government presents its own Bill to phase out sow stalls and tether systems over an eight-year period. Campaigns against the sow stall continue in the European Union.1999 Sow stalls and tether systems illegal throughout UK.2001 EU Council of Ministers decides that sow stalls will be banned in 2013, but announces that the ban will not apply for the first four weeks of each pregnancy.

Smoking


Smoking Whilst you cannot attribute the fall

in the numbers of smokers to a

single campaign, years of social

action campaigns, coupled with

legal changes have lead to

significant decreases in the

numbers of people who smoke.


Case study: Political


Case study: Political


It was run by the Conservative Party during the run-up to the 1979 general

election and was designed by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

To bring about local, national or global change

To raise awareness

To campaign

To change voting behaviour

Political

Impact:

When the poster was released, the way the photo was taken was leaked

and Labour's Denis Healey criticised it in the House of Commons by

claiming the people in it were not genuinely unemployed and said that the

Conservatives were "selling politics like soap-powder".(Wikipedia.com)

The Conservatives won the election with a 43-seat majority.

Lord Thorneycroft, Conservative Party treasurer, claimed that the poster

won the election for the Conservatives.

In 1999, it was voted the "Best Poster of the Century” by Campaign

magazine.


Infiltrating mainstream media

In the run up to the 2010 general election, Conservative party billboard

adverts were targeted by graffiti artists and anti-cuts groups amongst

others.

This quickly infiltrated mainstream media coverage which only

exacerbated things.

The anti-Tory agenda quickly found it’s way in to the mainstream media.


Infiltrating mainstream mediaThe graffiti became so popular that an online site was created where people

could create their own versions of popular political adverts.

http://www.mydavidcameron.com/

The impact is hard to judge as the election resulted in a coalition government


http://www.mydavidcameron.com/


To bring about local, national or global change

To change attitudes

To raise awareness

To challenge dominant representations and agendas

To campaign

To build relationships with subjects

Although the target of the campaign was HIV, it actually had a profound

effect on all sexually transmitted infections.

New diagnoses of HIV, which were over 3,000 in 1985, dropped by a third in

three years.

The number of new diagnoses stayed relatively stable until 1999. It has

since more than doubled to 7,000 new diagnoses each year.

Case Study: Accessible arts and mediaAccessible arts and media are a community media group. Their work is not

about campaigning but providing non-traditional groups with access to

media.


Impact:

Hands & Voices is AAM’s award-winning project that was set up in 1997 to

enable members with learning and communication difficulties to express

themselves more easily. It is one of the first singing and signing choir in

the UK and AAM’s flagship project. http://www.a-arts-media.org/html_docs/handsandvoices.shtml

AbleWeb Radio is York’s online radio station created by and for people

with learning difficulties and disabilities.

Ableweb York is an information website created by and for people with learning difficulties and disabilities living in and around York.


Case Study: Accessible arts and media

http://www.a-arts-media.org/html_docs/handsandvoices.shtml

Over to you.

In your groups, look at the poster you have been given.

Identify the purposes of the poster. You should be able to apply several to

the work in front of you.

Consider the techniques that have been used to get the message across.


Prostate cancer


Prostate cancer


Just like the anti-smoking campaigns,

prostate cancer advert cannot be credited as

being the single factor in improving survival

rates but, by helping us build a relationship

with the subject matter, the disease can be

normalised and people will feel more able to

go to their doctor earlier, does lead to better

survival rates.

Raise awareness

Change attitudes

Provide information

To campaign

To build a relationship

with the subject

To bring about local, national

or global change

To change attitudes

To raise awareness



To create or strengthen

community ties

To campaign

To build relationships with

subjects



or global change

To change attitudes

To raise awareness



To create or strengthen

community ties

To campaign


subjects


Impact:

Instances of racism in football had

decreased but in recent years several

instances of racism, both on and off the

pitch have caught the headlines.


or global change

To change attitudes

To raise awareness

To campaign


subjects


Impact:

Although no single campaign can take credit for the reduction in drink

driving and related accidents a fatalities, campaigns such as this one have

made drink driving a socially unacceptable thing to do.

This, combined with greater testing and more severe penalties for those

caught, saw drink driving deaths fall from 1,640 in 1979 to 230 in 2011.

Task:


Task 1:

You need to comprehensively explain the purposes and impact of social

action and community media production work with elucidated examples.

You should explain all of the purposes of social action and community

media which have been listed with multiple, detailed examples. You will

likely use lots of the purposes on many of the adverts.

You should explain the techniques used. You should explain the impact of

the campaign.

You should provide a range of evidence to show you have looked at

different campaigns and community media groups.

Your work will show a sophisticated appreciation of the purpose and

impact of specific examples of social action and community media work.

Understanding of the relationship between techniques, intention and

context will be highly developed.

Social Action


Brief:

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is an environmental charity protecting the

UK’s oceans, waves and beaches for all to enjoy safely and sustainably,

via community action, campaigning, volunteering, conservation, education

and scientific research. http://www.sas.org.uk/about/

During this project you will design a range of products to promote

awareness of key environmental issues and the organisation itself.

http://www.sas.org.uk/about/

Social Action


Task 2:

Complete the aims, objectives and considerations sheet to help formalise

your research and ensure you go about it in a sensitive and ethical

manner. This will allow you to set yourself targets, taking ownership of

your own research.

You will have to assess the type and number of artefacts you would hope

to look at. You will have to identify what parts of those artefacts you will

need to analyse.

Finally you need to identify potential problems, final uses for your work

and funding issues for SAS.

Social Action

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Task 3: Product Research

Conduct research in to existing products produced by your client and other

relevant social action organisations.

You should look at the techniques they have used to attract attention

including the use of fonts, images, colour scheme, copy and overall tone.

You can look at advertising and promotion materials of any kind including

website and moving images to build up a sense of what already exists.

Things to look out for:

• Logo and use of branding

• Copy and use of facts

• Imagery (positive, negative, aspirational, emotive, photographs,

illustration)

• Intended audience

• Purpose (raising awareness, generating money, education, promoting

and event)

• Font, colour scheme, layout, tone

Social Action

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Task 3:

Surfers Against Sewage have very kindly provided us with a range of

resources to help us with this project. You will have specific items to

design so it is important that you investigate existing products to help with

your production work later on.

Logo

Membership form

Campaign poster

Merchandise

Social Action

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Research:

Whilst the client should be your main focus, there could be much to be

gained by looking at materials from other organisations. Environmental

groups would be an obvious area of exploration although any social action

work could produce relevant insight.

Social Action

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Task 4: Client Research

Understanding your client and the issues they are trying to tackle is vital if

you are going to produce a successful piece of work that will please the

client and have a genuine impact on the issue.

• Background research on the client and the key issues

• Gather useful facts and figures and quotes

There is a pro forma with some further advice and guidance to help with

this. You do not have to follow the format but I would recommend following

the advice.

Social Action


Task 5:

Initial Responses

Using your understanding of social action and your client, document your

initial ideas for the project. We will do some more specialist idea

development later on.

You should consider elements of the project such as the product types, the

images, the font style, the layout and colour scheme, the copy, audience

and overall style.

You can record this in any way you would like. Mind maps are acceptable

as are simple lists of ideas. Detailed paragraphs of ideas are another way

you could do it. Combine written work with sketches and doodles if you

prefer.

The most important thing is to explore the possibilities. The more the

better. Don’t question your ideas, just document them.

Social Action


Task 6:

Detailed, annotated mood boards:

Select some of your more promising ideas and create a mood board for

each. You could include some of the copy you want to use and perhaps

the fonts as well.

You could think about the style you want for the final products and mirror

that in your mood board. If you have an idea for clean, minimalist and

organised work, try experimenting with a clean, minimalist and organised

mood board.

Conversely, if you want a bold and busy design, use your mood board to

reflect that.

You should produce at least 3 mood boards, each one looking at a

different idea.

Social Action


Task 7:

Schedule and Resources

You will need to create a schedule of work so you can divide up the tasks

and allow yourself time for contingencies and further developmental work.

You will also need to outline the resources you will need.

There is a not a pro forma sheet to help you with this. You are on your

own.

If you are taking your own images you will need to plan this and ensure

that you leave enough time to get them and that you have them when you

need them.

Social Action


Task 7:

Production Tasks:

• Logo

• Campaign Poster

• Membership Leaflet

• Merchandise

Timescale for production:

• 4 weeks of production

• See individual tasks for requirements

Potential resources:

• What resources might you need to complete your work.

Social Action


Logo:

• Produce a logo. No planning required but it should be based on your

mind maps and mood board that you produced earlier.

Campaign Poster:

• Mind map of potential ideas

• Outline of final idea

• Completed A3 poster

Membership Form:

• A range of annotated flat plans

• Completed membership form

Merchandise:

• Mind map of ideas for products and designs

• Annotated mood board of surf related merchandise

• Completed merchandise artwork

• Mock-ups of 3 pieces of merchandise

Social Action


Logos

Social Action


Logo:

“A thought-provoking logo design can

strengthen your brand image and

corporate identity…” http://www.logodesignsource.com/types.html

http://www.logodesignsource.com/types.html

Social Action


Logo types:

Iconic/SymbolicImagery that conveys a representation of your organization. Symbols are less direct than straight text, leaving room for broader interpretation of what the organisation represents.

• Recognisable

• Memorable

• Clear when produced in small sizes.


Social Action


Logo types:

Logotype/wordmark

incorporates the company or brand name into a uniquely styled type font

treatment.

• Script fonts imply a sense of formality and refinement.

• Thick fonts proclaim strength and power

• Slanted type fonts impart a sense of

motion or movement.

Type font treatments can also include

hand-drawn letters, characters or symbols

that have been rendered in such a way as to

intrigue the eye and capture the interest.


Social Action


Logo types:

Combination marks

Combination Marks are graphics with both text and a symbol/icon that

signifies the brand image that you wish to project for your company or

organisation.

• Integrated combination marks, for instance, the Starbucks logo, has the

text and graphics integrated

• Stand alone combination marks,

such as the AT&T logo, keep the icon

separate from the text


Social Action


Logo:

You must design a new logo for your client.

Use the fonts and colour schemes you created as your starting point.

It can be an iconic, logotype or combination logo (or all 3).

Think back to the shape task and rotoscoping from the start of the course.

Don’t be afraid to play with fonts, adjust them, edit them, make them your

own. Again, think back to early experiments with fonts.

Record everything, try lots of options, the more the better.


Social Action


Social Action


Campaign Poster:

Concept development: Who are you going to target? What issue are you

going to target?

Think back to your initial research. Each poster had an aim; it was trying to

achieve something.

You need to create the campaign concept for the poster before designing

the poster itself.

Social Action


Campaign Poster:

There are lots of areas you could think about to develop your own ideas

for a campaign poster.

• Positive or negative imagery (or a mix)

• Content (logo, images, facts, typography)

• Purpose (bring about change, change attitudes, raise awareness, challenge

representations, strengthen community ties, provide information, campaign,

build relationship with subject)

• Action (get people to be members or do a beach clean or think about their

impact on the sea or stop using plastic…)

• Audience (surfers, non surfers, children, businesses, politicians…)

• Existing campaigns/issues (water quality, marine litter, protecting waves,

climate change, toxic chemicals)

Social Action


Campaign Poster:

Mind Map:

Use your previous research to help with this and mind map ideas for your

campaign poster.

You can use an existing campaign idea and think of a new way to

approach it or you could come up with something new.

Poster outline:

Take the best idea you have and write a short outline describing what you

are hoping to make.

Production:

Produce your poster. It should be A3 in size (420mmx 297mm, 300

pixels/inch).

Social Action


Membership form:

Use your initial ideas on colour, font, images and style to help you create a

membership form.

This mixes the creative and the formal.

Some key elements to consider are:

• Renewal or new member

• Promotional deal

• Direct Debit form/charity number

• Contact details

• Reason to join

• Images/logo/fonts

• Full colour/limited colours

Social Action


Flat plans:

Produce flat plans for your membership form.

They should include annotations to help us understand your thinking. You

can include sample images, fonts and colours if you want to.

You should produce multiple options for your layout.

All the key elements must be considered.

Orientation and format (single side, double side, folded) are up to you.

This should encourage people to join the organisation.

Social Action

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Example:

Facts about rubbish in the seaEnticing Offer

Direct Debit form

LogoSlogan

Payment options

FRONT BACK

Social Action

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Negative image to show what

is happening and how we need

to do more.

Hard hitting facts on the

amount of rubbish in the sea.

Dark and negative colours here

although still in the same colour

pallet as rest of the work.

Simple, clean layout on this

side.

Social Action

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Simple logo and slogan on the

back

More dynamic layout of offer to

contrast with direct debit form

Simple font that works at small

sizes. Direct debit logo.

Colour background for payment

options

Social Action


Membership form:

Produce your membership form.

Page size, page number and orientation at your discretion.

Ensure Direct Debit logo is included on your form.

Ensure that the name of the organisation and the logo appear on the form

somewhere.

Ensure that the form fits in with other products.

Social Action


Merchandise:

Create a range of merchandise using appropriate text and imagery.

All work must be your own creation. This means you cannot simply use a

photograph or other piece of artwork.

You can use shapes, typography and rotoscoping to help you.

You should create at least 3 different products.

You can use redbubble.com to help with mock ups or you can do it

yourself.

Social Action


Social Action


Merchandise:

To complete your merchandise task, you should:

• Mind-map ideas for products and designs

• Create a mood board of surf related merchandise. Include products

from Surfers Against Sewage as well as other surf companies. Add

annotations to support your work and show your thinking.

• Produce artwork. Stronger work will include a range of designs and

adapt designs to suit different types of products

• Create mock-ups of merchandise

Social ActionTask 8: Production

Use your schedule and initial ideas to help you complete the following

production tasks.

Logo:

• Produce a logo. No planning required but it should be based on your mind maps and

mood board that you produced earlier.

Campaign Poster:

• Mind map of potential ideas

• Outline of final idea

• Completed A3 poster

Membership Form:

• A range of annotated flat plans

• Completed membership form

Merchandise:

• Mind map of ideas for products and designs

• Annotated mood board of surf related merchandise

• Completed merchandise artwork

• Mock-ups of 3 pieces of merchandise

Social Action

Task 9: Evaluation

You should evaluate your progress during the project. Your evaluative

work will demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of devices and

techniques that you used during the project.

You will make an accurate and critically objective assessment of your

own achievement with detailed reference to extensive examples taken

from your work.

You will also make critical comparisons of your own work with current

practice.

Social ActionEvaluation (cont):

Questions to answer are:

• Are your finished pieces fit for their intended purpose?

• Do they communicate your message clearly?

• Are they appropriate for your target audience?

• Compare and contrast your original intentions with the outcomes you

arrived at.

• How effective are the techniques you have used?

• Is the content effective?

• What impact do you think your advertising campaign will have on the

public?

• What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

What the exam board says:

Evaluative work will demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of

devices and techniques employed.

Learners will make an accurate and critically objective assessment of

their own achievement with detailed reference to extensive examples

taken from that work.

They will make critical comparisons of their own work with current or

past practice in the same area.

Social Action

What this means for you:

Explain in detail how you have tried to get people to be aware of Surfers

Against Sewage and its campaigns.

Make sure you talk about your purpose for producing the work. Think back

to your initial research to help you with this.

Support all the points you makes with detailed examples.

Make sure you compare your work with existing products. You could look

back to your initial research again to help you with this. Present your work

alongside existing products and compare them.

Being critical does not just mean being negative. It means examining both

positive and negative aspects in detail. If you feel your work could be

improved, so say and explain how you will do it. If you think your work is

really good, say so and explain why you think that.

Social Action

Social Action


Task 10: Pitch

You will prepare a pitch for the work you have created so far, with the

intention of winning the contract to take on all of SAS’s design work.

You should produce a content overview. You should explain your intended

target audience. You will list the resources you used and are likely to

require. Finally, you will list the personnel requirements you would have.

The pitch should include images and some written content. It is a

presentation to get work so it must be positive and let you show off your

designs.

You will have 5 minutes to pitch. You will need to carefully produce your

presentation, thinking in detail about what you will say. Rehearsing the

presentation would be a very good idea.

This contributes to a whole learning outcome so it needs to be good.

Social Action


Task 10: Pitch

Content overview: This should be an illustrated overview of the content that you

have used and you should include some justification of your choices. Have you

used positive or negative images? What kind of language have you used? What

choices did you make regarding fonts and the colour scheme and why? You are

trying to sell your work to the client here and get future work so your designs need

to be presented clearly and to a high standard. Use lots of images of all of your

finished work. Showing alternative design options could be a good idea as well.

Target audience: Who is the intended audience here and how have you used

your design skills to appeal to them. Pick out some specific examples. You should

refer to previous research that you did in the project.

Resources: Give an outline of the resources you used to do the project and any

that you would require to do further work for the client.

Personnel requirements: Outline the different people who you might need to

work on the project with you if you were successful. You may need to source a

range of professionals from graphic designers to photographers to models and

surfers.

social action task 1

Education

social campaigns

social action campaigns

promotional media

community media products

range of social action

creative media production

political campaigns

global change