Public service announcement

Unit 3 Learning Adventure Prompt:

Objective:

Students will produce an online multimedia public service announcement (PSA) that promotes the significance of representation in different domains of society, such as education, media, politics, and the workplace. The objective is to educate communities on the harms of book and curriculum banning. Using the Unit 3 course materials as a reference, learners will delve into the effects of representation on the American collective and individual experience. The final product will be a multimedia presentation.

Materials:

• Unit 3 Course Content
• Access to multimedia creation tools (e.g., Canva, Adobe Express Video, CapCut or any other media creation tool)

What is a PSA?

A strong public service announcement (PSA) is a short (media) message designed to raise awareness or promote action on a social issue or cause. The most effective PSAs share certain key elements, including:

1. Attention-grabbing visuals and sound: A good PSA uses visual and audio elements to capture the viewer’s attention and create an emotional impact. This can include dramatic music, striking images, or provocative slogans.
2. A clear message: A strong PSA delivers a clear and concise message that is easy to understand and remember. The message should be focused on a specific issue or problem, and should offer a solution or call to action.
3. Emotional appeal: A good PSA appeals to the viewer’s emotions, such as compassion, anger, or empathy. By creating an emotional connection with the viewer, the PSA can motivate them to take action or change their behavior.
4. Credible sources: A strong PSA relies on credible sources of information, such as statistics, expert opinions, or real-life examples. This helps to establish the legitimacy of the message and increase the viewer’s trust in the cause. (In our class, our sources will be from unit 3).
5. Target audience: A good PSA is tailored to its intended audience. The message should be relevant and relatable to the viewer’s experiences and interests, and should use language and visuals that are appropriate for the target demographic.
6. Call to action: A strong PSA includes a clear call to action, such as making a donation, signing a petition, or changing a behavior. The call to action should be specific and achievable, and should provide the viewer with clear instructions on how to get involved.

Overall, a strong PSA should be memorable, impactful, and inspire viewers to take action or change their behavior. By using the above elements, a PSA can effectively raise awareness and promote positive change on important social issues. The length is relative. However the criteria must be be.

Messaging & Tools

1. Use Unit 3 Content: Students will review the complexities of representation, focusing on its importance and impact on various aspects of American democracy/fair representation from Unit 3 and create an online/sharable multimedia public service announcement educating communities on the harms of book and curriculum banning while showcasing Unit 3 evidence

   How To Post

1. You will have a week to think about, plan out, strategize, and create the PSA.
2. Once the PSA is complete, post your media project by carefully reading the how do I add a video Discussion Post.
3. After creating a public service announcement (PSA), here are 5 questions we must answer, evaluate its effectiveness and clarify its impact. Answering these questions can help you assess the impact of your PSA.:

1. Did the PSA clearly and effectively communicate its message? How? BE SPECIFIC.
2. What emotional response from viewers do you want your PSA to evoke an emotional response from viewers? If so, what emotion(s) and why? BE SPECIFIC.
3. Did the PSA provide unit 3 sources of information to support its message? Which ones ? How? BE SPECIFIC.
4. What is the call to action in the PSA? BE SPECIFIC.
5. Overall, do you believe the PSA was effective in achieving its intended purpose? If you could, what changes could be made to improve it? (This enables you to share what you could have done if time permitted. This question enables you to at least share how the overall project could have been better.) BE SPECIFI

   MY NOTES: “YOU DONT NEED TO MAKE A VIDEO, INSTEAD MAKE A 2 MINUTE SPEECH SCRIPT FOR ME TO USE BASED OF THE FOLLOWING CONTENT I PROVIDE. AND ANSWER TO THE 5 QUESTIONS ABOVE”

   Characteristics of Stereotypes

   There are cognitive processes underlying stereotyping, as well as the effects of multiple social categories in impression formation.Sound complicated?Re-read this statement.There are cognitive processes underlying stereotyping, as well as the effects of multiple social categories in impression formation.

   Cognitive Processes:

   Stereotypes can be seen as a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people.A stereotype is equivalent to a belief – a cognitive understanding of a group. Individually, someone makes a judgement based on what they know.How they come to terms with what they know is based on impression formations.

   Impression Formation:

   When stereotypes become a result of a collection of trait-names upon which a large percentage of people agree as appropriate for describing some class of individuals,” stereotypes focus on consensus as a defining feature of the stereotype.In other words, the stereotype forms an impression based on what a groups of people think is “true.”.A generalization made about an ethnic group, concerning trait attribution, which is considered to be unjustified by an observer propose that stereotypes are best understood as predictions that distinguish the stereotyped group from others.In other words, stereotypes are predictions that are arbitrarily created to serve a purpose of a dominant group.The process of forming an impression of a target person begins with an act of categorization, and stereotypic processing begins with categorization. Any person can be categorized on a number of dimensions, including age, sex, and ethnicity and stereotypes associated with these distinctive categories. So, who forms the impressions?It is a dynamic called The Dominant Gaze.

   The Dominant Gaze:

   Dominant gaze describes the tendency of American popular culture/narrative/representation to objectify and trivialize the racial identity and experiences of people of color, even -when it purports to represent them. The dominant gaze subtly invites the viewer to empathize and identify with its viewpoint as natural, universal, and beyond challenge; it marginalizes other perspectives to bolster its own legitimacy in defining narratives and images.Dominant gaze functions in 3 ways: (1)in the proliferation of degrading stereotypes which serve to dehumanize ethnic minority history; lives and experiences; (2) in the marginalization or complete absence of core perspectives on lives and experiences; and (3)in the co-optation- or “Hollywood-ization – of ostensibly “racial” themes to capitalize on the perceived trendiness or fashionableness of such perspectives. In marginalizing minorities from popular discourse, the three trends frequently overlap in the context of American popular culture/narrative/representation of a group.

   Obstruction of Identity

   A stereotype lens constructed by the dominant gaze creates an obstruction of identity.This obstruction of identity is personified in popular culture mediums like film and television.For example, in Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film, author Judith G Curtis explains that Native American females are portrayed as sexually promiscuous, deserving of abuse from both cultures for their choices, and even responsible for their own deaths, are dangerous.In Luscious Latinas: The pros and cons of an evolving stereotype, author Valerie Menard states that “The luscious Latina role was just as denigrating at the time because the roles usually called for the Latina to be sexually easy as well.”This causes Latina actors to become limited to what they can and can not be cast in.In Reality TV plays into stereotypes ; Portrayal of black women fails to reflect real life, Maureen Ryan explains how TV desire black women to be unstable characters because they create good drama.Yet Jan Nguyen article “Breaking Through The Stereotypes explains how the goal of Asian American producers of content are trying to widen the audience for Asian and Asian-American art, and to increase understanding of it. Other goals are increased employment and educational opportunities for Asian and Asian- American women, as well changing common misperceptions.She explains the power of challenging the dominant gaze to influence the impression formation to once and for all challenge the cognitive process toward Asian American women.

   Intersectionality and Stereotypes

   All of the articles for week 5 will be encountering a similar barrier when dealing with stereotypes – intersectionality & stereotypes.Not only do ethnic minority women carry the burden of racial stereotypes, but they also carry the gender and sex stereotype.The situation facing women of color is more complex than that faced by White women. Chief among the causes of additional complexity is the manner in which sexism has been emphasized without consideration of other forms of stereotyping. White females, who share the same skin color as most male leaders, can more easily focus exclusively on gender stereotypes. Women of color can also face “gendered stereotypes” when they are unable to separate the individual effects of each aspect of their identities. A woman who feels that she is experiencing a stereotyped categorization must decide if this cognitive process is due to race, ethnicity, gender, or some other dimension of her identity. If the woman is disabled or lesbian, the cause of stereotype becomes even more complex. As a result of such complex attributions, women may be unsure of which aspects of their identities are responsible for the reactions of others and, as a result, may have difficulty determining an appropriate response due to stereotypes.Women who have experienced oppression that is due to multiple aspects of their identities carry the burden of complex construals about self that more privileged women do not need to bear. If a woman of color believes that she is experiencing stereotyped categorization, she must document and identify the specific form of impression formation (gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) in order to pursue legal redress. White women can afford to focus on gender differences, whereas women of color must often focus on all of the areas of minority difference for them and how these sources of identity influence their struggle to achieve success and feel comfortable in majority-dominated organizations.An interesting debate in the intersectionality and stereotypes is whether individuals with multiple subordinate-group identities (ethnic minority women, White lesbian women) experience more prejudice and stereotyped categorization than individuals with single subordinate-group identities (ethnic minority men or White gay men). It has been argued that androcentrism (defining the standard person as male), ethnocentrism (defining the standard person as a White American in the United States), and heterosexism (defining the standard person as heterosexual) may lead individuals with intersecting identities to be regarded as non-typical members of their group’s identity and thus cause them to experience intersectional invisibility – meaning… they are different and don’t represent the whole.