Instagram Blog: https://www.instagram.com/stopclimatechangeleap4/
Meme Slideshow: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1soGOuJ7QuZn4f91jmjVidZv4m4quax-U
Romanuel Percy
Communications 416: Propaganda
May 7, 2018
Professor Renee Hobbs
Introduction:
In some of our first lessons in this course, we learned about the different levels of propaganda and how they can be utilized. Accorded to Hobbs and McGee, “Propaganda involves the intentional sharing of facts, opinions, and ideas designed to change behavior or motivate action (p.57, 2014)”. Prior to taking this course, I had the assumption that propaganda was only used negatively. I thought it was a way to convince people to change their behaviors for negative reasons. Such as Hitler pushing an entire nation to detest Jews or countries like Russia and China producing “fake news’” all over the internet. Through exploring the definition of propaganda and the different forms it can assume, I’ve learned that it can be used positively by promoting prominent issues in today’s society. By using tactics and information learned in this course, I have been able to create my own propaganda in order convince people of supporting an issue I am passionate about, climate change. As a nation, I feel it is important to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions and practice eco friendly practices in order to save the fabric of our world and environment. In order to promote that messages, I have created a campaign in order to push my message from https://www.dosomething.org/us/volunteer/stop-climate-change.
Campaign Strategy
For my climate change campaign, I created an Instagram photo blog and series of memes. In order to spread my message efficiently, I created propaganda that would attract college students by being both relatable and easily accessible. At the start of my campaign, I wanted to to use a platform of social media that I was very comfortable with. With Instagram as an option, it was the natural choice to use in order to connect with people. This medium is very user friendly and a great way to connect with college students. Secondly, using memes was also a way to be creative and use images that younger generations are very familiar with.
Production Process
For Instagram, I created an account called @stopclimatechangeleap4. My first step on the account was following accounts with similar messages. I really wanted to build a following and timeline of people and organizations that aimed to stand up for climate change and preserving the environment. This was so legitimize my account, so when I followed my peers they would find more credibility in my account. For the Instagram account I posted fifteen different photos. I had a range of different photos posted in order to convey a few different messages. I had a few infographics posted, but a majority of the photos were the effects of climate change of some of the things that cause climate change. For example, I have a few photos of extreme weather patterns that have damaged the earth, such as drought or the melting of the polar ice caps. The effects were very dramatic and represented the pinnacle of climate changes effects on the environment. I captioned a few of my photos with facts and information from https://climate.nasa.gov, in order for people to see the extreme photo with some factual information. I also created a hashtag, #stopclimatechange, so that all of my new followers can join my movement and post their own content.
When generating memes, I really wanted to connect with my generation and share facts along with humor. In order to do so, I found some very common meme photos that have gone viral on social media. Most of the photos were of celebrities such as Cardi B, Will, Smith, and other popular memes like the young baby holding up his first or Kermit the Frog. I tried to incorporate a lot of the original humor from the memes with my stance of promoting the issue of climate change. I incorporated some facts and reasons why people should recognize climate change, along with why people should try and reduce the carbon footprint. I also used the song “Send it On”, which was Disney Channel Song from our childhood that featured all of the Disney Channel stars. At the time, the song was created to promote making a difference.
Strategy Reflection
When thinking about my strategies, I really wanted to incorporate some of the lessons we learned from class. One of the messages I really wanted to blend into my project was the use of satire. According to Jack, “ Satire uses exaggeration, irony, and absurdity to amuse the audience, while calling attention to, and critiquing, perceived wrongdoing (p.11, 2017)”. With memes, I really wanted to amuse my audience while calling attention to some serious issues in regard to climate change. For example, one of my memes was Kermit the Frog sipping his tea. This meme blew up all over the internet and made the expression “sipping tea” extremely popular. If you are “sipping tea”, it basically means that you are judging the actions of someone by not saying anything, only sipping on your tea. With my meme of Kermit, someone is basically not recycling their trash and adding to the negative effects of climate change. In the meme Kermit is sipping his tea to indicate that he is judging that person. With this meme it indicates that someone is doing something wrong by not recycling and their actions are being judged. Similar themes of exaggeration and irony are applied to many of memes in order to get my message across.
While creating my instagram page, I really wanted to create information that would spread and cause many people to interact with my content. According to Holiday, “If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead. With social sharing comes traffic, and with traffic comes money. Something that isn’t shared isn’t worth anything (2012)”. This tactic was essential my mindset of spreading this topic to all of my followers. Firstly, I made my content very clear and intentional to my message. I choose very exaggerated and detailed photos in order to optically and visually get people to interact with my content. I need people to share and like my content, and in order to do that I followed people with similar messages. Other accounts and pages would like and comment on my pictures, this was the indication that my message was spreading and people enjoyed the work I was doing. I also received direct messages from people asking if they could repost my photos onto their accounts.
“In a world where current events, ideas and opinions are spread virally through news aggregators, Twitter, and Facebook, more and more people are recognizing that, to get noticed in an attention economy, you must use any means necessary (Hobb, p.625,)”. This was one of the most important concepts I applied throughout this project. I really wanted to focus on the platforms I have as a college student. We have learned that we have so many tools at our disposal such as social media and if we want to make a difference, the solution is at the tip of our fingers. In an article in Time Magazine, as a nation, we are checking our phones 8 billion times a day. I found it so important that if I get the chance to take advantage of one of the moments, I should (http://time.com/4147614/smartphone-usage-us-2015/). Using memes from pop culture and Instagram, I was able to make an impact and push my propaganda in order to get people to start recognizing and aiming to reduce their carbon footprints.
Conclusion
In conclusion, through this course and for the purpose of this project, I have learned the importance of how to use the resources that I have accessible to make an impact of my society. I can reach my peers and allow them to get educated through the distribution of accurate information through satire and social media. I also learned the importance of fact checking, conducting research, resisting the spread of disinformation, and properly addressing misinformation. Moving forward, I will be able to use all of these skills to be an agent of change and continue to promote positive messages to change the behavior of my peers. Using propaganda is a very unique skill, and although I used to have negative opinions and view about the subject, I realized that in the right hands it can be used for so much positive change.
Works Cited
Hobbs, R. (2013). The blurring of art, journalism and advocacy: Confronting 21st century propaganda in a world of online journalism. I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society 8(3), 625 – 638.
Hobbs, R. & McGee, S. (2014). Teaching about propaganda: An examination of the historical roots of media literacy. Journal of Media Literacy Education 6(2), 56 – 67.
Holiday, Ryan (2012). Trust Me, I’m Lying. Part I. New York: Pearson.
Jack, Caroline (2017). Lexicon of Lies: Terms for Problematic Information. New York: Data and Society.
The Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-warming-climate-change/help/10-climate-change-facts.xml)
