Social Issues (10/9/24)
Social Issues is when certain topics that might affect certain people. These might range from actions from others that might target a certain group of people or environmental factors that people care so much about. There's also factors that doesn't cause by others, but what people are dealing with on an everyday basis.
Examples
Some examples of social issues in general include racism, addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling), poverty, riots and climate change.
The issues caused by themselves, or encouraged by others, is addiction. This is a very dangerous habit that could determine how they view life having those struggles and can't find a way to stop it. There are 2 types of addiction, substance and non substance. Substance addiction includes cannabis, alcohol, LSD, anti anxiety drugs and heroin to name a few. Some non substance addictions may include gambling, eating, anti social behaviours and shopping. This is one of my main interests to based on Unit 9.
The issues caused by someone to target a group of people include racism and riots. People can be angered on what that person has said / actions committed but rioting will lead to nowhere. People also riot to government neglect, financial issues, misinformation and sport events if a result doesn't go their favourite teams' way or a rivalry (hooliganism).
Environmental issues include climate change. People see this as an issue because it can affect how the future will plan out with life expectancy. Climate Change can affect food availability, quality and quantity, temperature change, too hot or cold, and a rise in deaths by 700,000. Also, there would be a water shortage so people might struggle for a drink of water.
Primary And Secondary Research
1. Difference Between Primary And Secondary Research
Primary Research is when you receive data first hand. This means the researcher got their answers themselves. Some examples of primary research include interviews, focus groups and surveys. This is so that they could understand customer needs first hands rather than looking up what customers usually want. An advantage of this is you can get detailed answers from people or friends / family and the person conducting primary research can have access to the data, whereas it is costly and time consuming.
Secondary Research is looking up pre existing data released to the public. Examples of Secondary Research include journals, newspapers and websites. An advantage of this is you can access the data easily and can make your research faster, whereas the information on some places might be out of date and the reliability of the source.
2. What I Think Would Research Would Be Beneficial For My Product
The best research I can make for the best of my product would be looking at peoples point of view on what they had experienced with social issues and how to overcome them. Also, I will be looking at various websites to see how accurate they are for people to use to learn how to overcome their problems. Finally, I will look at advice and advertisements on my particular social issue and how I believe it will improve people or not.
3. What Primary Research I Can Do For Relevant Information
As of now, I believe that a questionnaire would be good to share to the class, with most of them being short answers as it needs detail to it. And for my close friends, I will do a confidential interview where I will ask more detailed questions that would suit this research.
4. Difference Between Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research is the process of collecting and analysing numerical data. It can be used to find averages, make predictions and widen research. Some questions about quantitative research can be how many people went into Asda this month or what's the average age of TikTok users. Answers can be displayed by bar graphs, pie charts and tables.
Qualitative Research is research that does not collect numerical data. Some example questions could be "What's your thoughts on the new building?" or "How does our food taste?" Answers could be displayed as detailed answers.
5. Secondary Research - Why do you need to reference and What is Harvard Referencing?
Harvard Referencing is using an author / date system that can be used as evidence while conducting secondary research. We have to Harvard Reference so that people can avoid copying the original work word by word written out and can be used as influence to create original ideas.
6. What Is A Tagline?
A Tagline is a short text that people can easily remember relating to a group or company. Some iconic taglines include McDonald's "I'm Lovin It" and Nike's "Just Do It". Taglines and Slogans are not similar. Some of the key differences between them the length and slogans change more frequently. To create a good tagline, it has to be short and catchy so customers can remember the tagline easily, and unique as in nobody had thought about that before.
Elements Of Identity (11/9/24)
Elements Of An Identity
Elements Of An Identity is when everyone is different through gender, race and religion, but have the same traits and personalities as others. People come together to share their identity, whether through celebration or protest and fight for what they believe in. Some factors could include where you live, where you work, interests and you share them amongst others. Through organisations, there are many aspects that make an identity different. These include the logo, colour scheme, tagline, heading, type fonts and originality.
Nike is one of the most diverse sports brands in the world. They promote on various social issues like racism and homophobia. But also they campaign on self belief and determination, like the "You Can't Stop Us" campaign last year. Over the years they have released many social campaign adverts with famous athletes starring in them. But their most famous campaign, which went onto became their slogan, is "Just Do It".
Purpose Of An Identity
A purpose of an Identity is that people understand who you are as a person and what makes them different to other people. Having an identity is important for self confidence and for your wellbeing. From this, you can meet people with the same interests as you.
Identity Organisation - UNICEF
UNICEF is a humanitarian aid organisation helping children worldwide in poor conditions. This can include poverty, homeless, no food, water and no education. UNICEF activates for the safety of children and offer them education, food, water and homes. They also attend to emergencies across the world where children are being heavily impacted by. It is one of the main organisations funded by United Nations since 1953. The organisation has many ambassadors that support the charity, from athletes to actors to musicians. Some of them include David Beckham, Shakira, Millie Bobby Brown and Ricky Martin. One of the biggest problems children are facing is disease and being really ill from it, most recently MPOX. So they sent humanitarian aid to help ease the crisis and help the sick children. The logo is all in lowercase letters and what people see on the right is an adult raising a child high, suggesting that family matters throughout the organisation. This helps recognises what they campaign for and the protection of children all over the world.
UNICEF Logo
38 Degrees
38 Degrees is an organisation that campaigns for human rights, fairness and promoting peace. They have a variety of different logos, varying to style and their slogan, people power change. The logo is in the style of a sans serif with the only capital letter featured is "D". The logo is easy to read. Another variation of the logo is a crossing out effect of 38 degrees. This may be because to identify the people who feel like they are silenced but might have the courage to campaign to fight for what's right.
Uses Of Identities Through Campaigning
Through campaigning, people usually hold picket signs with the logo to demand change for the better. We can see this through the NHS where doctors strike about wanting a pay rise. This is because they work hard to save lives, especially during COVID where they had worked very hard and tried their best in very difficult circumstances. At times, they were overcrowded with patients and with that couldn't have saved lives but tried their best to do so. Through their hard work, they wanted to have a pay rise with many going on strike to do so and get their wish.
Doctor Protesting
Research Continued (12/9/24)
Mind Map Of Initial Ideas
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Approaching Research
When doing research for addiction, there are a lot of key areas that I have to investigate. Some ideas about this is the average age group is more prone to be addicted and who's impacted by it more, boys or girls. Also looking at the most common things that people get addicted to and why people decide to get addicted in the first place. I'm also going to look at charities efforts for addicts and how that could be improved upon after treatment. I'm also going to look of the history around addiction and when it first came around the trend changes on what people are addicted to.
Tagline Ideas
As this is based on addiction, some of my ideas are based on encouraging people to stop their habits. The first example is "Stop The Fun". While this might not be good understanding for people who don't know that their addiction is fun, it's a wake up call for everyone who's into something extensively and to try and get some help or get understanding on how dangerous their addiction could get if continued and the consequences coming with. Another tagline idea is "Listen To Your Instincts". This is because in your head, you think that what your doing is not good for you and need to get help from it as soon as possible before destroying your life. The final slogan idea is "You Are Not Alone". While this slogan might be most likely used for mental health services, people have to remember addiction can affect your mental health. This can relate to a lot of people who are going through the same problems as what the sole person is going through at a very tough time in their life.
Social Issue Campaigns (16/9/24)
CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably)
CALM is a mental health organisation that helps people get treatment. People can go there for various reasons, family problems, gambling issues, or you want someone to talk to. They also fundraise money through campaigns with the latest one being 62 miles in October which will last for the whole month. I have heard about this campaign through school but never knew much about it before looking it up myself. I feel that it needs to be promoted more so that people can know more about it and to try and speak to someone. On their page, it shows how to contact them for support but don't know how long they would respond. They also offer support for families who lost someone to suicide, where the detail some reasons what might cause someone to kill themselves and contact for support. I think that they should organise more fundraisers or show what's coming up campaigning wise and the purpose of it.
Show Racism The Red Card
Show Racism The Red Card is an anti racism campaign to educate about racism. I first heard about this a few years ago during BLM movement and it isn't based around football, but help learn about racism and how to be better people. Some ambassadors for this campaign are Harry Kane, Trent Alexander Arnold and Harry Maguire, including former England manager Gareth Southgate. They operate in 3 countries, England, Scotland and Wales. On their home page, it shows a former footballer named Shaka Hislop being racially abused by a group of people, but the one person realised and came back to apologise and ask for his autograph. Their next campaign is on 18th October where their campaign is for everyone to wear red as a sign to show racism the red card. Their lessons are a 20 - 30 minute read on learning about different types of discrimination and for people to learn from it. This has been promoted well because it's one of footballs ant racism bodies and for people to educate themselves about racism.
Crisis
Crisis is an organisation that helps homeless people. Their aim is to help provide homeless people with food, water, clothes and help find jobs for them to work towards. They have many ways of campaigning, through experiences with homelessness or something similar, petition to the government on this issue or become a member of crisis. Their latest campaign was a petition towards the government on homeless and what should be done to tackle this issue. I feel that there should be more campaigns or have a campaign page on some upcoming work to end homelessness. Also, the topic of homelessness should be more of a discussion than it is so that more people are aware of the impact it has on others. Around Christmas time since 1972 there's event for people to have Christmas Dinner and to have accommodation in that time. This is helped by 10,000 volunteers On their social media pages, they show the dangers of being homeless, with £2,500 fine or even prison time. They also show people volunteering in their campaigns to end homelessness and sharing it on social media.
Action On Addiction
Action Addiction is a service to try and get people to get help from their addiction. Found in 2007, they help people understand the effects of addiction and ways to get support from if struggling. The charity is supported by the Princess of Wales. On their website, it shares peoples stories on addiction and how not only affects the person struggling but for the families also have a heavy impact by it. They also promote shows about addiction, with one of them being an "actress" going to a rehabilitation centre for the first time and her experience there. Their current campaign is "Everybody Knows Somebody" meaning that you have good people around you that will help you, mainly being friends and family. The campaign has 4 key elements - integration impact, family stories, friendship and recovery on impact and the ripple effects of recovery. Over the past few years, the talk about addiction and people opening on their experiences has risen, but a lot more action needs to be taken for people to learn about addiction before becoming addicts themselves. Each element has a brief description on what impact it can make. I think that they should improve on talking on other sorts of addiction rather than talking about substance abuse. This is because they might not know on other addictions only knowing substance abuse and what harm and effects could cause if having other addiction.
Their social media shows promotional videos on recovery from addiction and the help that you can get through Action on Addiction. They also provide stories and advice on what to do if suffering and how to learn from past mistakes. They also promote campaigns and how people can join in to raise awareness on addiction.
Experimental Jetset Poster Research (18/9/24)
Experimental Jetset is a Dutch graphic design poster group founded in 1997. Their focus is sorting words into visual images. Their work has been showcased all over the world including the likes of Melbourne, Ghent and Amsterdam, where they're based. They also teach their style of work where they currently shown at ARTEZ Werkplaats Typografie.
Poster 1 - Long Lunch
This poster is about lunchtime. Through this poster, we can tell that lunchtime goes quickly. On the poster every single out has been crossed out. This is also highlighted in green as a way to not feel bad about feeling left out. This is like everyday scenario where people feel lonely and missing out on opportunities in life. It images a story of what someone had went through and felt excited when it was time to go out to lunch, which is the only positive phrase throughout the work. I think that for this poster, it should be improved upon by adding context on why they feel bad but highlighted the positives and negatives of the poster. There are no images to support the poster, which would've been better for it to make a lot more sense for readers.
Poster 2 - 10 Years Of Posters
This poster was created 10 years after Experimental Jetset was formed. The poster tells us the positive and negatives over the past 10 years at the time as some sort of a reality check. The negatives include feeling guilty, staying up all night and making up excuses. Whereas the positives over that period were posters, reading newspapers and listening to pop music. For each point over the past 10 years, they are all aligned making it neat while making important points on life. They use the same type size and san serif font. The poster is displayed at Kemistry Gallery. I think the improvement that could be made is showing the positives over the past 10 years as a lot could've happened at the time, or this might come from the designers point of view in that time. There are no images showing how the last 10 years were but created an image in the readers head on what the last 10 years felt like for them. I think that the word play portrays more of a story because it's what normal people go through in their lives and how depressing it may be at times.
Poster 3 - New Luxury
Another Experimental Jetset poster I liked was the one above. The one to the left is called "The New Luxury" with it being translated into a few languages. This poster probably demonstrates travelling around the world as we see lines pointed out even covering up parts of the text. This project was in search of a new vision on design through this project.
Constructivists
The Constructivists were an art movement originated in Russia in the early 1900s. It was founded by artists Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Their designs aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. Their influence has been reached to the likes of music, film, fashion and theatre. Even though the movement ended years ago, their work has had a huge significance to this day. Some characteristics of a constructivist design includes colour scheme, shapes and creating visual images for the audience.
El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky is one of the artists who focused to Constructivism. The design below is called Proun 19, created in 1922. The design is a collage and oil on wood. The colour scheme mainly features white, brown and yellow through a variety of shapes. The design is currently presented at Museum of Modern Art in New York. The artwork is used as a new beginning of the Constructivism movement, using different elements as a sense of spatial depth and architectural presence. I like this drawing because of the different styles used to create this and how it creates an image to the audience's heads.
Kazimir Malevich
Another artist focused on constructivism is Kazimir Malevich. Throughout his life, he mainly focused his work on Suprematism, developing form of illusion through objects. One of his works is showing off different identities as part of the constructivist movement. Below is the drawing of the Sportsman in 1931. In this drawing we see different colours to each person, without any facial recognition but only by the colours used. The clothes are all mixed up and wearing different coloured shoes or feet. This image demonstrates athletes turning into abstract forms. This is one of the more confusing designs in my opinion because I don't know why they have different faces in half with different coloured hands and feet. I think that each person makes it abstract through their identities, so we don't know the genders of them.
Stenberg Brothers
The final example of artists in Constructivism are the Stenberg brothers. This poster below was used as part of the theatrical release, Berlin - Symphony Of A Big City in 1927. The brothers added their skills of theatre design, architecture and fashion to the poster. In this poster we can see a mans head with a cigarette in his mouth and a camera overing his right eye. His arms and hands have been covered with stick like material, with only 1 hand being present. At the bottom, there's Russian text all in san serif and all capitals, which I don't know what it translates to. I don't know why there's a flat block in the background and a pilot jet to the bottom right of the poster, which is my criticism of this poster.
Preparation for my Social Campaign Pitch (23/9/24)
Experimental Jetset Poster Experimentation (25/9/24)
1 Poster (Practice)
This was the first practice poster that I made. This was just me experimenting an experimental jetset like poster that isn't part of my social issue theme. In the middle of the poster I had 1 in bold and enlarged with many words and scenarios that link to the theme around it.
Campaign Poster Design
Lighting (30/9/24)
Soft Lighting
Soft Lighting is the type of lighting that reduces hard shadows and to create a more flattering look. It also creates soft shadows as well. The positives of soft lighting is it can portray a more romantic look in photos and the shadows that appear on the photo are not distracting for people to see. The downside to this however is it doesn't have the same dramatic feeling as hard lighting where it can create photos for dramatisation.
This is an example of a Soft Lighting image. The full focus on the image is on the main subject (the woman) with the background rarely visible. The ideal situation to use soft lighting is when you're taking the photo of a person as it's the main focus. If there is a good background to it then it also has to have a focus to it so if it's just soft lighting have a coloured background instead of a scenery one.
Key Lighting
Key lighting is the main source of lighting in pictures that focuses on the main subject. This is impacted through the key light position, intensity and the angle of the light. There are 2 types of key lighting, high key and low key lighting. The pros of key lighting are having a professional look to the images and removes harsh shadows in the images. But the cons to this are having the perfect light source to create key lighting and it wouldn't really portray a dramatic or serious theme to the image.
This is an example of a key lighting image. Here we see half of the mans face but the other half is faded away in black. The light is pushed to one side of the man to create a dramatic tone. This is also part of 3 point lighting.
![What is High Key Lighting? [Complete Guide] - Video Collective](https://www.freelancevideocollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/High-key-and-low-key-lighting-comparison.jpg)
Here's a contrast of high key and low key lighting in film. To the left we have high key lighting. This screenshot shows a woman looking suspicious at something with an outdoor background. To the right is low key lighting taken from the film Joker in 2019 where the Joker appears menacing. We can tell from the light source to portray this way as quite possibly something might happen to catch the audience's attention.
Hard Lighting
Hard Lighting is a lighting source that creates strong and well seen shadows and has a high contrast between illuminated and shaded areas. Most hard lighting images are in black and white. The pros to hard lighting are creating a dramatic mood to the image with it mainly being black and white and can be used to create interesting patterns. However the cons to this are being unflattering for portrait photography and needs a more precision of accuracy to make the picture perfect. I would only use this lighting if it's a black and white portrait for photography or a scene in black and white in cinematography.
This is an example of a hard lighting image. Here we see a man holding a wine glass and a woman looking at something that is not in the frame of the image. We can see shadows in the image through the right side of the mans head and shoulders.
Natural Lighting
Natural Lighting is the source of lighting that is available to obtain naturally, like sunshine or darkness at night. It can add realism and authenticity to the film. The cons of natural lighting is trying to get the right amount of natural lighting source as it has many factors for its availability, like time of day and weather. This can also be used for interviews and documentaries.
A man in a field with sunflowers taken with the use of natural light.
Bounce Lighting
Bounce Lighting is the light source that reflects off of an object. This is used in both photography and cinematography. They have to control the intensity and quality of the light as well. The pros of Bounce Lighting is it can help soften and reduce shadows and remove the glare from it as well. The cons to this however is that you may lose the light source reflecting to create the image. I would only use this lighting at the right time when natural resources are available.
Here is a behind the scenes image of Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix using bounce lighting. Above where the boom mic there is another light source that is used to have a bounce lighting effect to the scene. I couldn't really find an actual image of the bounce lighting in effect for photography but found one behind the scenes to help make my point.
Side Lighting (Chiaroscuro Lighting)
Side Lighting is when the light is used to contrast in light and shading across the entire image. Side Lighting was founded during the rise of the noir movement through low key lighting. The pros of side lighting is it can create dramatic effects with the texture of the lighting. However the cons of this are the creation of harsh shadows through this lighting that may not be acceptable for some objects.
This is an example of side lighting taken from The Godfather. Here we can see the top half of the characters face visible for us to see whereas the bottom half we can't see. This screenshot might mean a turning point is about to occur in the movie or something dramatic is about to happen.
Surrealism Experiment (2/10/24)
This is a design that I made inspired by surrealism. This is based on the social issue that I'm tackling on, addiction. A man is literally hanging on a knife-edge about how his life is going downhill to the point of death. This is helped with the arrows showing what addiction can do to people, substance and non substance addiction. Then at the bottom right is a message on addiction and trying to get help. The above was the final design that I made but below are some changes I made along the way.
This was an earlier design that I made focusing on addiction. Here I had a format of things people can get addicted to and make it into a meal. The cigarettes are the food placed in a fries carton, the drink as a pint of beer or any alcoholic beverage and finally the desert is cocaine, a harmful drug. Below the image reads "Food, Drink, Dessert Of An Addict" showing the harmfulness of addiction and how that can be normal, but not realising the health hazards that come along with it.
Surrealism Research (3/10/24)
What Is Surrealism?
Surrealism is an art movement developed in Europe after the end of World War 1. The designs made are not realistic, but either a figure of speech or creating dreamlike scenarios. Even though it was made in art form, it has spread to photography, theatre and filming. Another reason for the movement was the detachment of society post World War 1. This was a way to challenge reality by creating fictional features.
Why is Surrealism Used In Campaigns?
Surrealism is used in marketing in various amount of ways. The art can help people distract themselves from real life situations to create pictures in the audience's head on what their ideal world may look like. Also using marketing for Surrealism is brands can be creative in their designs. This can become memorable in peoples heads for a long time. Some big brands that have used Surrealism in advertising include Coca Cola's "Open Happiness" campaign and Apple's "1984" advert.
Lex Drewinski - Hunger
This design is called "Hunger", made by Lex Drewinski. The person on the left has his stomach curved out whereas the person on the right looks obese with his stomach sticking out. I believe this drawing has 2 meanings. One of them is tackling eating disorders and obesity and it can have health problems and could die from complications from it. The other meaning to it is tackling how poor people can't eat much food whereas people in wealthy countries have the privilege to eat how much they want to eat. Scattered around the image is the spelling of hunger all in capital letters with 3 letters tot the top and 3 to the bottom. This might appeal to the audience as it can reflect on their eating habits and if it doesn't improve it might have a big problem to them. Also it might have sympathy for those who can't eat much and living in hunger. Some people who live in good stable countries can also live in hunger due to lack of money they have.
Surrealism in Advertising - McDonald's
This is an advertising for the Fillet - O - Fish released by McDonald's. Here, the advertising uses what's supposed to be a real life fish swimming in water shaped like a Fillet - O - Fish sandwich. The surreal elements used to advertise this is the water sandwich, which is impossible for humans to consume, only drinking water. Also, the physical appearance of the fish inside the sandwich is also surreal as it's usually baked for humans to eat. The advertising can be linked to 2 separate target audiences. One of them being people who like to eat fish and like burgers combined to one, whereas the other target audience could be vegans / animal activists against the use of the advert as they think the fish should live. I believe the positives of using surrealism in this is it can help promote the product and to make people aware that they sell fish burgers. But the downside to this however is the use of a physical fish to promote a Fillet - O - Fish and could push back customers to buy the food.
Vox Pops (8/10/24)
Vox Pops are interviews videoed into short segments while interviewing a bunch of people. They can be recorded anywhere with people agreeing to be on camera. You can see this through news reports or social media, mainly YouTube or TikTok. Here, people have a microphone and cameraman and ask a few questions, with not every answer appearing on video. Some topics might include their thoughts on building works or sports events like a football match and opinions on the game.
Campaign Pitch Verbal Presentation - Addiction (10/10/24)
Why I chose Addiction
I chose to focus my social campaign on addiction because I believe it's on the rise and want to educate people the risks and harms of addiction. People believe that addiction is only drugs and alcohol, but you can be addicted to other things that would be catastrophic for friends and family. The focus will be on both substance addiction and non - substance addiction. This campaign will only be focused in the UK as it's where we live and I believe that addiction is on the rise in the UK as well.
Social Campaign Name
For my campaign name, I chose "Coming Clean". I chose that name because it can encourage people to open up on their struggles with addiction and talking out might help save and rebuild their lives. This is also part of a therapy session as it can help people come out to talk about their problems.
Slogan Names
Some slogan ideas I have in mind are
"You Win If You Stay Clean"
"Recover Towards Freedom"
"Stairway To the Perfect Land"
In the end, I decided to choose the first slogan "You Win If You Stay Clean". I decided to go with this slogan for my campaign because you can achieve a lot more in life if you decide to get help from addiction and look towards a brighter future ahead of you. Even though there will be other challenges in life outside of addiction, it can help restart your life.
Audience and Demographic
The target audience for this project are both men and women who are over 18, primarily 18 - 25 year olds but suitable for all ages over 18. This is because they are more prone to have a serious addiction and with enough time to talk about the addiction and get appropriate help that they need in this situation. This is suited for both substance and non substance addiction. Addiction can happen to anyone so people can learn about it to stay clear from it.
Research Methods
For research, I will be doing primary and secondary research. For primary research I will be doing a questionnaire on what addiction means to them and if they had ever struggled with it. Also I will ask close friends more detailed questions about addiction and more. For secondary research I will look up data of people struggled with addiction and articles on peoples experiences with addiction.
Addiction Organisations Connected Or Similar
There are many organisations that can help with addiction. They are primarily mental health services but it can lead to mental health problems and possibly worse. Some organisations include Turning Point, Alcohol Change UK, Action On Addiction and We Are With You. There are other organisations that help support someone else, like Addiction Family Support and Families Anonymous.
What I Will Be Making
I will make 2 things that will go under the same name, "Coming Clean". The first thing I'll make will be a magazine on Adobe InDesign. Here I'll have a front cover, contents page and an article double page spread. I've not decided on what the article will be but it will either be an interview of someone talking about their experiences of addiction or something trendy that people are addicted to. The next thing I will make is a website on Wix. It will be mainly an information website talking about different addictions and why they are dangerous. This will also promote my magazine issue for the week.
Why I Think My Campaign Will Be Successful
I believe that my campaign will be successful because it will take a serious route on explaining addiction rather than producing a film mocking someone who's actually suffering from addiction. It will be very informative on the dangers of substance addiction, but also non substance addiction, which not many people are aware of the dangers around it as well. It will also offer advice on what to do if you think you're struggling or want to learn more on addiction.
Key Message
The message I want people to take away from this campaign is addiction is dangerous, not just on you but your friends and family. I want for this campaign for people to stay away from dangerous things that would cause serious addiction problems and for people to live happy and addiction free lives. Addiction could happen to anyone and you may not know that you're suffering with it, substance and non substance addiction.
Audience Theory
Audience Theory is peoples perspectives on how they see media and how they react to it. They focus their views on various topics, like social issues, cultural studies and communication studies. There are 2 types of audiences. Active audience engages and responds to media in different forms whereas a passive audience accept what media portrays and doesn't challenge to it.
Hypodermic Needle Model
Hypodermic Needle Model is a form of communication in media where the information is directly sent to the audience's heads. It was developed between the 1920s and 1930s.
Uses and Gratification
Uses and Gratification is how people choose to consume certain types of media and they get specific gratifications because of it. They are aware of how they consume media and they can relate with other people with similar opinions through conversations. It's also a form of escapism as it can remove what's going on in reality with having the media representation in your head.
Vox Pop Planning (14/10/24)
Interview Questions
The questions I will ask for my Vox Pop will be based on my social issue campaign, addiction. I will ask 3 - 4 questions about my theme to every person that I interview. I will try and make it 2 minutes long and will edit out unnecessary answers or if it frags on for too long. I don't know how many people I will ask but it won't be too many people but it will probably be 4 - 5 people.
Lighting / Background
I plan on conducting my Vox Pop in the Stanmore College studio. I will use a black background with bright lighting as using a black background without light would make the person appearing dark. I will adjust the light and will keep it the same with everyone that I'm interviewing as long as there's nothing wrong happening throughout. If I was to meet people outside of college, I will only use a recorder as I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable on camera and just use their voice for the Vox Pop.
Props
The props that I will use as part of my Vox Pop are a microphone so that the audio can be clear for people to listen to and when using it making sure it's not far and not close to the person at the same time as it could cause different sounds to the audio (popping sounds if too close or outside noise if too far). Another equipment that I might use as well could be a camera to record people, but will have to let them sign a consent form to be presented on camera.
Target Audience
My target audience for the Vox Pop is the same as the target audience that I have for my main project. This is both men and women over 18, primarily 18 - 25 but suitable for all ages over 18. This is because they are more likely to have an addiction and to talk about it openly ca help prevent people from becoming addicts themselves and stop others from becoming one as well. I will ask them the same question each time for them to answer and use those answers for Vox Pop.
Possible Questions I Might Ask For Vox Pop (15/10/24)
For the Vox Pop, I have to think of questions to ask people and to make sure that it isn't longer than 2 minutes. It depends on 2 factors, the questions asked or the amount of time it takes for people to answer the question. Because of that, I'm only going to ask 3 - 4 questions to each of them. These are...
- What do you think the word "Addiction" means?
- (You don't have to mention any names) Do you know people who have had experiences with addiction in the past?
- Have they recovered from it and what did they do to help recover from addiction? (Only ask this question if they say yes to previous question)
- What's your advice to people that are currently going through addiction?
Those are the questions I will ask as part of my Vox Pop. I don't want to go too personal with the questions as it might have affected parts of their lives and don't want to bring back painful memories again. This is also good for them to give best advice on people going through addiction or having traits on starting a certain addiction.
Secondary Research for Addiction (16/10/24)
Statistics On Addiction
In the UK, many people are going through addiction, whether it may be drugs or alcohol, or other things like over eating or gambling. On the government website looking up statistics of people going through addiction, 209,635 people were in contact with drug and alcohol services between April 2022 and March 2023 (the most recent update on the website). This is a small rise from the previous year where 289,215 checked into these services. Between April 2022 and March 2023, 137,479 checked into rehabilitation programme, which is a significant rise between previous 2 years figures, which was 130,490 and 133,704. The drug related deaths in England and Wales in 2022 was 4,907 deaths. II couldn't find any statistics of drug related deaths in 2023 so used the previous years statistics. This is a small rise from 2021 where 4,859 people died from drug misuse. The statistics in 2022 were the highest recorded deaths since records began back in 1993.
Looking up on how many young people who are going through addiction, ages between 16 - 24 who are going through addiction are 274,000, which was last recorded in June 2022. This is a very worrying statistic as you could possibly die young and not live out your life and reaching your full potential.
Secondary Research Continued (17/10/24)
People's Experience With Addiction
There are many people who suffer from addiction, from normal working class people to popular celebrities, whether that would be in sport, film, music etc. They have been open about their struggles in the past and urge people to not fall to the trap of addiction as it's not worth it. Unfortunately, some celebrities have died due to the effects of addiction. The effects of drugs and alcohol can destroy lives, but having other addictions can be very problematic, like gambling which many athletes and celebrities have been open about. One person who has opened up about their experience with gambling addiction is Paul Merson, who is a former professional footballer and pundit on Sky Sports. He suffered the addiction whilst playing football and still had even after he retired from playing football. Talking on gambling addiction he said "People who don't understand think that is madness. But this addiction grips you and doesn't let you go." What he's referring to is how dangerous gambling addiction is and has the same long term effects as drug or alcohol addiction.
What also worrying is how many people are going through alcohol addiction. Looking up people who have been open on their struggles with alcoholism, there's one name that took me by surprise which was Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in every film. Talking about alcohol addiction he said "The drinking was unhealthy and damaging to my body and social life." When ending his addiction he said "I had to stop myself. And stopping has shown me a world of happiness that I didn't think was possible".
Types Of Addiction
When people think of the word "Addiction", they probably presume drugs and alcohol, but that's not just the case. There are many examples of addiction and the harm it can cause to people. There are 2 types of addiction people can go through, substance addiction and non substance addiction. Drugs and alcohol fall under substance addiction. Other examples include cigarettes / vapes, painkillers, anti depressants and inhalants. Whereas non substance addiction is what you pick up naturally. Examples include gambling, overeating or under eating, exercise, gaming, anti social behaviours and using the internet.
Symptoms of Addiction
There are many signs that could indicate that someone you knower yourself, is going through addiction. The first sign is you can't stop. People say that they will stop with what they're doing, but in reality they can't stop, leading to further consequences. Another sign is having issues, physical or personal. Personal problems could lead to ending relationships with friends and family with your addiction, making you feel isolated in this situation and might impact your work life and be sacked because of it, possibly becoming homeless. Physical problems might be having mental health struggles with addiction getting to you psychologically, developing disease (if you take substances) and aging. Another sign is behaviour change. You start to become more stubborn and want to be kept alone, leading to isolation and further problems with you.
(21/10/24)
Effects Addiction Can Have On Friends And Family
If you become an addict, not only you can suffer but your friends and family can be heavily affected by it. Some of the effects include trust issues, emotional stress and bad communication. This can happen if the addict doesn't go in treatment to make them feel better and restore trust in friends and family. If the addiction continues, it could lead to the end of friends and family relationships and could drastically worsen the person having an addiction. According to Psychology Today, 1 in 5 children grow up in a home with a parent who is addicted to either drugs or alcohol, which is very disturbing. They are also 3 times likely to be neglected or physically abused by them. Through this disturbing facts about friends and family, I want to spread a strong message about addiction harming friends and family in my projects.
What Can Addiction Lead To?
If you become an addict, it can lead to many tragic events. Some reasons on what addiction can lead to are having accidents, especially driving under the influence, that can lead to not only you getting serious injury or worse, but can affect other people around you or other people driving in a different vehicle. Another could be self harm / suicide to try and take the pain away of being an addict (can apply for both substance and non substance addictions) or dying accidentally through your addiction (substance only). It can also lead to legal trouble as it could attach you to a life of crime because of your addiction and could possibly be jailed for having possession of illegal drugs, regardless of being addicted to them. Finally, it can have a massive hit on your financial situation as you paying for your addiction can make you poorer and become homeless if it gets worse.
23/10/24
Magazine Articles On Addiction
Looking up magazines that solely focus on addiction, I couldn't find any that releases weekly issues on addiction and the problems it has. But it's understandable because it can be repetitive with the message it preaches but it's. also important as addiction is very dangerous for a variety of different reasons. But I did find articles on addiction and one of them is written by TIME Magazine. Reading through it, it talked about the dangers of eating habits which could turn into an addiction.
Websites On Addiction
There are many websites that talk about the dangers of addiction. One of the websites I talked about earlier is Action On Addiction. Taking a look at their website again, they promote their articles and news surrounding the organisation. They also have a hotline where they can talk to someone if you're suffering from an addiction. If you don't want to speak to someone, they offer advice if you're going through an addiction. Looking on the NHS website on addiction, it only focuses on advice and booking an appointment with a GP and what the treatment of process is like. Those websites don't mention the causes of addiction and reasons why people get addicted in the first place. This is what will be featured on my website alongside the repercussions on the effects on friends and family.
Celebrities Who Nearly Died From Addiction
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato is an actress and singer who was famous at a young age through appearing on Barney and Friends. When her career began to bring her to stardom, she had struggles with drugs and alcohol. It got bad to a point where in July 2018 she overdosed on traces of fentanyl and suffered several strokes and a heart attack whilst doctors trying to save her in hospital in a grave state. She was hospitalised for 2 weeks and immediately went into rehab. She went on to recover and thanked doctors for saving her life. She has since released a documentary talking about her experience with addiction and the moment she overdosed and her thoughts and feelings with the near death experience.
Eminem
Eminem is one of the most recognised rappers around the word who has multiple songs that have become high chart sellers and some that went multiple platinum (over 1 million sales in America). But at times it definitely not been easy. He had an addiction to prescription medication and it led to an overdose in December 2007. He was 2 hours before death but doctors rushed to save his life. Since then he's been sober for 16 years and credited music for saving his life.
24/10/24
Analysis on Magazine Front Cover on Addiction
Looking up magazines that only focus on addiction, I couldn't find any. But what I found was magazine weekly issues that focus on addiction for the week, one of them being TIME Magazine issue for September 30th 2019. For this front cover, there isn't much text with cover lines or other features, but the main image is pretty compelling on what it's all about. For this, we see a young person vaping with smoke covering most of his face. The main cover line is "The New American Addiction - How Juul Hooked Kids And Ignited A Public Health Crisis". Juul is a company that sells E - Cigarettes to people. The main cover line could have a lot of questions - Why do people get addicted to them? Why is it that kids can buy them easily? What are the health risks of vaping.
Magazine Plan
For my magazine I plan on having the following pages, front cover, contents page and the main magazine article double page spread. Depending on how much I write I might have 1 more double page spread for the same article. The front cover will show off different types of things that people can get easily addicted to with a person in the front cover showing off how badly they're addicted to the substance. There will feature main cover line (what I'm writing) and other tagline ideas that won't feature for the project. Also it will feature bar code, masthead, issue number and price of the magazine. For the contents page, there will be different cover lines that correlate with the theme of addiction scattered around the double page spread. Finally the article, I've going to write an opinion piece that you would see on a newspaper talking about an addiction that young people are getting into, vapes and showcase why it's bad and dangerous for young people to be exploited by them, showing off statistics to back up my points.
Website Plan (13/11/24)
My website will be based mainly on factual information on the dangers addiction can have and what to do to prevent becoming an addict. I will be showcasing both substance and non substance addiction and why they both have the same long term effects that will probably ruin them for the rest of their lives. I will also present statistics on the addiction of young people and help persuade people to not become addicts and be open about your struggles as it can impact your mental health. There is also a hotline where people can talk to mentors and be open about your struggles. These ideas are mainly from the websites I've been looking at during my research.
Campaign Pitch Presentation Feedback
This is the feedback that I got from doing my verbal campaign pitch. On the sheet of paper it detailed what I presented through this, like my ideas on what I'll make, target audience and what my campaign is based on which is addiction. The presentation lasted roughly 3 minutes where all of my ideas were presented. I believed that all my points were clear and I know what's best for me to make. On the feedback sheet some advice was about gambling awareness as apparently it's for older people who get more addicted to it. But looking at gambling statistics for 18 - 25 year olds they have a lot who are addicted in that age range.
Magazine Front Cover Sketch (20/11/24)
Before starting my front cover for my magazine, I wanted to sketch my ideas for what I want my front cover to look like. This features everything a magazine front cover should look like, masthead, main image, bar code, issue number main cover line / cover lines and price. The main image is based on different addictions people can get hooked to. From left to right we have a bottle of wine (alcohol) and glass, unhealthy snacks, money (gambling debts) and drugs. Paracetamol is used as the appropriate drug as it's part of medication. Below the line of the main image I have cover lines, 1 main cover line (what my article is based upon) and 2 random cover lines that I thought of that will be part of my contents page when I make it on Adobe InDesign. Other features include bar code with numbers at the bottom right and the price of the magazine, issued at £4. I have since taken a photo of all of the items mentioned as addiction and will begin on making my front cover digitally.
Magazine Progress (27/11/24)
On this day I got started with making my magazine for my campaign. I got started with making the front cover using original imagery. I was able to find all the items I wanted to use as imagery for the front cover and started this on Adobe InDesign. I had already had the set up for magazine design, with columns and page numbers, to which I remembered from doing a magazine design last year. The image didn't fit to scale on the page so I resized the image on a website generator for this. When I re organised the image I got started with adding contents for the front cover. These include barcode, price, issue number, masthead, main cover line and cover lines. Below is the progress I made.
Vox Pops (5/12/24)
This was my Vox Pop that I made for my campaign. Looking back, the biggest mistake that happened was the microphone sound not being properly recorded to transfer onto the computer. However, I was able to work around with the camera sound as it was better than I thought and added background sound to the production. If I have to, I will try and properly record the sound again. This has helped with my primary research and getting peoples opinions on addiction.
Final Magazine Design (10/12/24)
Front Cover
Contents Spread
Article Spread
This is my final designs of my magazine. I wrote a fictional article based on a gambling addiction interview style showing off the dangers and the scars that would lead to the addict for life. I used real photos for the magazine as it would suit best. Front cover had various items people can get addicted to. Contents page had on one page articles listed for the magazine issue and a photo previewing another article listed, previewing the audience what the article is based on. And for article spread I showed off money as that's what gambling mainly involves wagering large sums of money. Overall, I'm happy how it turned out learning some new skills along the way of creating the magazine. It was a bit challenging with the picture quality on my phone as it isn't the greatest but made it clearer and useful for the magazine. I think the magazine has important information on dangers of gambling addiction and at the end it links to my website as part of a hotline to help addicts.
Final Website Design (12/12/24)
These are some screenshots that I took from my website. Below is a link to access the website.
Final Logo Design
Overall Evaluation On Unit 9
For Unit 9, I based it on Addiction and named it Coming Clean. I made a website and magazine based on it and also did a Vox Pop to learn more from peoples perspectives. I had equal focus on common addictions that people know but also things people didn't know that you can get addicted to, which is why I did an article on gambling addiction. This is why it is different to the rest of addiction awareness because it doesn't show another side to how bad addiction is with friends and family which was also another focus I wanted to show off which is ignored by big companies.
Most of my research was finding statistics on addictions I wanted to focus and help plan and influence what specifically to make. I used most of those findings for my website. I did also look at websites talking about addiction but it was mainly drugs and alcohol, which is why I want to have a different focus on spreading awareness on different addictions. I think it improved my work as I learnt a lot more from some addictions that I didn't know were that serious until I found out.
I chose to make a website because I believe that it would be the best place to showcase important information on addiction and the impact of it. I used the research that I conducted with statistics to showcase why addiction is dangerous and deadly. I also set up a hotline so that addicts can talk to people about the struggles and to end their addiction with the best supportive people and advice given to them. Also on the website was promoting my magazine, which I decided to make so that people can listen and understand a family's struggle with addiction, despite not being addicts themselves. This can be relatable to thousands of families going through the struggle. Even though the article I made was fictional, it can have real life repercussions.
The best item to communicate the dangers of addiction is the website because it has detailed information on each addiction listed and how many people are addicted. I also showed off statistics of young people addicted which is the primary target audience and causing death because of it. The aim of the website is to educate young people on addiction and not fall in the loophole of being addicted to something that would ruin their lives.
Looking back, some changes I would make to my project would be having a better picture quality for my pictures that I took for the project. Also, I could've added 2 more addictions that people could get into and adding information to them why you should avoid them. For my Vox Pop, maybe I should've re recorded the audio as the microphone file messed up and couldn't use the audio.
In my opinion, the most successful part of my campaign would be the website. This is because it has all the important information on different addictions and why you should stay away from them. It also has important statistics on the problems with certain addictions, which lacks in the magazine article that I made as I only focus on one topic which was gambling. I still like the magazine but the website has the necessary information on addiction.
The campaign message is "Addiction is dangerous and deadly, learning important information could save your life." I believe that for both pieces that I made the message remains clear as educating yourself should make you a more responsible person and can handle things a lot better. Staying away from the items listed on the website can make you more happy and can live an addict free life, being loved by friends and family. It's a simple message saying addiction is bad, but learning can help save lives.
My main target audience for men and women between 18 - 25 years old because they are more likely to become addicts as at that age they're still young and inexperienced with how bad addiction is. Learning about this can help them to stay a clean path from addiction. For my target audience, I think the magazine would suit a lot better because it's a better way to reach out to them rather promoting a random website.
There were a few problems I encountered whilst doing unit 9. The first one was the picture quality as my phone doesn't have the greatest camera quality, but with some quality adjustments I was able to make it bit more clearer which I was fine to use at the end for both website and magazine designs. Another problem that I had was ideas for my magazine article. Originally I wanted to show the dangers of vaping to young people but none of my friends vape so it wouldn't make sense in asking them, especially a random stranger. Instead I focused on gambling addiction as it isn't being spoken about enough on how bad and destructive it can take on people. I did an interview style article learning more on the dangers of a gambling addiction.
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