Introduction
I am looking at the purpose and impact of Social Action & Community Media to find what it is and what people do for their communities. Social Action & Community Media raises awareness of public issues and what people can do to help and/or prevent these issues. Due to how people use Media today (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter) most companies or people use videos that can be easily shared around these social media giants to spread the word of these causes and try to persuade people to change.
What is Social Action?
The purpose of Social Action is for an area, community or individual to raise awareness of a cause, the range of these "Actions" can range from a local area to global an example of the range is something such as, in a local area it might just be "anti-graffiti" with a community wanting rid of graffiti vandalism in their area or can be global with something like "anti-smoking" which and to come together and/or bring people together and do things for their benefit and the benefit of others. Social Action uses media as a tool to increase people's knowledge and awareness of the different causes or subjects.
Example 1
The first example I have chosen is "The Syndicate Project" a Youtuber who is raising money for the 'Motor Neurone Disease Association'.
Tom Cassell (The Syndicate Project) began putting videos on Youtube in September 2010 and has since gained over 8.5 Million Subscribers. He uses the livestreaming website "Twitch.tv" as a mode of communicating with his audience and getting donations for the charity. Tom gets donations in several different ways from his Twitch watchers, Subscribing to Tom's Twitch channel is $4.99 a month, he runs adverts every 30 minutes and all Ad Revenue goes towards the charity funding. The donations are run through a website called "Justgiving" you can donate to the cause directly from the site with a Paypal account or text in donations.
Since starting the fund raising in late 2014 Tom has raised 95% of his targeted amount:
Example 2
My next example is "British Heart Foundation" they are a charity who raise money to help find a cure or prevent 'Cardiovacular Disease'. They have several shops around the UK, these shops are used as a charity funder as the public are free to donate things to these shops from there the items will be sold again and the money goes towards the cause.
They also have a donation page on their website where people can donate straight to the cause without donating any items to the shops. BHF are also an example of using videos to help their cause, the video below gives some statistics about Cardiovacular Disease and how it's changed since they began, it also tells us their strategy to work towards preventing the risk of the disease and having heart attacks.
Example 3
My final example is "NSPCC" a children's charity fighting to end child abuse in the UKs. They help children who’ve been abused to rebuild their lives, protect those at risk, and find the best ways of preventing abuse from ever happening. To help the cause of preventing child abuse people can donate to the charity to help children find a way out.
NSPCC do more than just fight to stop child abuse, they also help parents if they are finding things tough and work to change laws and government to make things easier for both children and parents. NSPCC's most recent advert/video is one that could effect a lot of children, even teenagers. It tells the story of a boy who took a picture of his "willy" and it got spread around, seen by peers and even strangers. Since most people today now have camera phones with apps such as Facebook & Snapchat it isn't hard for a picture to be spread so this ad by NSPCC should make people think twice before doing such things.
What is Community Media?
Community Media is a type of Media created by a community to help that community, generally this media is Radio but can also be other things. These 'Community Projects' are usually created by members of the community instead of larger companies. A lot of these projects grow their community with volunteers instead of having paid employees people just volunteer to help their community, although there are some who do have paid employees.
Example 1
My first example is a local radio station that is based in Stockton-On-Tees and runs from Hardwick called "Ignition Radio". Ignition Radio began in November 2013, it began as a 'Hospital Radio' which then expanded into the community radio station it is today, they have a variety of shows on the station that vary from local news and music hits.
Example 2
My second example is "Rediscover Stockton" this is a community project to get Stockton High Street "back on it's feet" Stockton has one of the highest rates of closed shops on a high street in the UK, Rediscover Stockton are trying to change that by improving the look of the high street to try and attract more people and turn Stockton High Street from a 'High-Unemployment rate' and bring it to a 'High-Employment rate'.
The Impact They Have
Today a lot of people are desensitised to the media so aren't bothered by the images they see, they watch them and forget them almost immediately. That is not everyone though some people are still affected by what they see, an example of a hard hitting video is this anti-smoking video by the NHS:
NSPCC who I previously wrote about also have some strong videoes which make people think about things and not just let them pass through, here is an example of one:
Conclusion
To conclude I think using Media as a means of advertising for causes is a good thing today as most of the time people are on Social Media and click any links that attract their attention, although I feel like most people today are desensitised they will still watch a video and if it makes them think even a little they will share it which helps to spread the word of a cause and helps them. Community Media is something that needs to be used a lot more today to try and help bring communities together, their is a few lines between communities today, adults see aggressive disturbing younger people and so seperate themselves from most of the younger generation, then the quieter younger people keep themselves apart from the aggressive disturbing ones also. So if community media can someway break those barriers and bring a community together then more power to them.
