Social action and community media
Social Action
Social action media is used to raise awareness of a particular subject or cause, often aimed with the intention of promoting action or change amongst its intended audience. It is often produced within a specific community. I am going to be writing in detail about social action and community media and talk about the relevance and the greater importance of the subject.
Social action and community media is a form of advertising a specific topic which is not rarely spoken about or is not a commonly known subject to people which gives an opportunity to do something about it. Social action media is named in the sense that it is media produce with the aim to provoke social action. This form of media usually takes on controversial subjects as a way of influencing a change. Subjects that are commonly looked at are smoking, alcholism, politics, racism, drug addiction and many more. Films may be made on these topics and can either consist of factual information or be very dramatised. The films will focus on the most tragic outcome to impact the audience further and entice them and create more interest as such. Juxtaposing that films may be made in such a way taking a more confrontational approach and by challenging individuals who may be implicated in a particular issue.
The main purpose of social action media is to inspire change. This change can take place on a local, national or even international level depending on the subject matter and the scale of production. Productions on a more local scale tend to tackle causes relevant to the community. Larger scale productions and international productions will tend to talk about larger issues as they know they will be attracting more attention. They will often go through more planning and consideration when putting their production together. This has obvious reasons as larger productions will need to reach people all over the world creating a lasting effect. Social media is one of the largest ways to reach and target the audience. Especially sites such as YouTube which allows you to target your demographic more accurately allowing you to upload videos and being able to communicate with the audience through the comments and also creating videos of someone expressing their opinions and answering any questions the audience may have.
The impact of social media can effect people in many different ways. It has been the subject of much discussion. People may argue that social media is inflicting certain emotions upon the audience which they may not feel. For example drug abuse films showing extreme physical and harmful outcomes may shock the audience to a larger extent. But due to technology become more advanced over the years people have become aware of software such as photoshop which can be used in documentries to enhance the image of people so therefore the audience will become more sceptical of how realistic some campaigns are. Some social action campaigns have proven to be rather effective. The impact of many productions have really entised an audience and made them realise what goes on outside of their lives. Many people will find that they can relate so some of the documentaries in some way be that they have experienced it themselves or a family member or friend has gone through it. This makes the audience take a moment to think about what they may be able to do help the situation and if the issue is within their local community it will help them think about something they may be able to do to reduce the problem.
An example of social action media impacting an international audience would be KONY 2012.
The purpose of the campaign was primarily to raise awareness about Joseph Kony in order to get the US government to commit to locating and arresting him. Joseph Kony is a rebel leader who has for 20 years abducted children in his quest to raise an army of boys, forced to kill others and their own families, whilst girls are raped and vilified and treated as sex slaves. The campaign begins with the meeting of one American man and a African boy called Jacob, a victim of this monstrosity. The American man whose name is Jason Russell, was touched by Jacobs story and begun a revolution to change the face of not only the issues surrounding Joseph Kony and his rebel mission but also the way that media can be used as a tool to change the world.
The Kony 2012 video has had over 43 million views in only two days on YouTube. It entices the audience as it is something most people have not heard about before. The average viral video on YouTube is only two minutes or less, Kony 2012 video lasts for half an hour. The first part of the video shows people connecting with each other and the value of friendship. This emotionally impacts the audience and makes them relate to their own friendships. The video then immediately grabs the audiences attention and starts showing the experiment. It then gets personal focusing on a child that is suffering. The leader of making the Kony 2012 video focused on his own family showing him talking to his son about the topic.
Community Media
Community media is any form of media that is created and controlled by a community. Community media is separate from commercial media, state run media and public broadcasting. Community media can be defined as media produced and circulated within one particular community. It is most popular in radio broadcasting. A number of radio stations have been set up with the intention of providing a service to local people. They often invite local residents to participate in part of the production and allow them to discuss issues related in that specific area. It is community owned and controlled giving access to voices in the community and encouraging diversity, creativity and participation. It encourages open dialogue and transparency of administration at local level and of a voice to those who want to put their opinions and voice across.
Community radio stations reflect a diverse mix of cultures and interests. There are many radio stations which cater for urban and other types of music, while others are aimed at younger people, older people, religious communities or the armed forces and their families. An example of a community radio station is Kane FM. It is a uk not-for profit local community radio station which broadcasts on FM and online across Guilford in Surrey and in the surrounding areas. It helps artists who are not famous but have a passion for music in the local community and broadcasts their music and work to get them known. Kane supply work experience for them also and talk to them about possibilities and future jobs they can get into. It helps people in the community that are into music develop and gain skills and give them an insight into what area of work they would like to do. This helps get people who may be unemployed in the local community get sorted and focused. They also have certain times where Kane FM talk about local issues in the community briefly and how they may be able to work together to resolve the issues.
