The document discusses considerations for researching social action campaigns. It notes that three diverse campaign artifacts should be analyzed to cover different purposes, techniques, and impacts. Sensitive topics could bring strong emotions, so care needs to be taken. Potential problems include finding campaigns in English, quantifying impacts, unintentionally causing offense, and not finding examples for some issues. The finished research may be displayed online, at transportation hubs, or through mainstream media if a campaign gains traction. Funding issues for organizations like Surfers Against Sewage include reliance on multiple income sources so a problem in one area does not cause overall failure, and potential loss of support if campaigns do not have their intended effect or include unethical elements.

1. Aims and Considerationssheet
ExistingProducts:
How many existingartefactsdo you feel you will needto look at?
I feel thatI wouldhave tolookat, at leastthree differentartefacts, which would help me to cover
a wide range of the purposes, aims,techniques, and impacts they have. For example, there could
be a campaignadvertisementof twomenholdinghands,thiscouldbringupsay 3 of the purposes,
I’d then need to find a campaign advertisement that is completely different – something like an
environmental campaign - to the one I just used, so that I can include different purposes and
compare and talk about how it affects people/the aims differently.
What kindsof artefacts are you expectingtolook at?
I’m expecting to look at a wide range of different artefacts, something like: a political campaign
where the campaignersare tryingtoget the publictovote for a party, an environmental campaign
where the campaigners are trying to raise awareness for a certain species of animal or plant
and/or a human rights campaign where the campaigners are strengthening a community against
harsh oppositione.g.homophobicpeople.The reasontolookat all of these differentartefactsisto
make sure I’m not just focusing on one, I’ve got a lot of different ground to cover and a lot of
diverse thingstotalkaboutforevery different artefact. I’m ensuring there’s a chance to compare
and contrast two different artefacts to show the differences.
What elementswill youlookat to helpyou withyour research?
There is a wide range of elements to look at when it comes to the research, with all of these
examples,Icanfocuson the same thingbut as I mentionedbefore,eachone differsfromthe other
in things like:
Colour – lookingatthisaspect givesme alot to talkabout,the use of colourgivesa clearindication
to the viewerof whatthe tone of the advertis.If the colourchoice isred, it shows danger, caution
or fear,it basicallyoverallmeansit’sbad.If there isa use of white, it shows innocence and clarity,
which is the complete opposite to red; it’s things like that, which are easy to pick out and talk
about.
Copy – this is everything to do with the text included within the artefact, if there is a lot of
informationwithavarietyof differentcoloursandfontsizes,it’sgoingtointrigue the viewer – but
a lot of informationcanalsosendthe viewerinthe opposite direction,if it’sshortand sweet and a
photographtakesupmost of the space instead,it’s still goingtointrigue the viewer. This gives me
a lot to talk about; maybe on one artefact there is a lot of writing, whereas on another, there is
verylittle. Language isalsoveryimportant,are theyusingemotive language?Why?Are theybeing
quite blunt? What does this mean? And so on.
Photographs/illustrations – As the artefacts I’ve chosen are quite diverse in comparison to each
other, there will be a lot to talk about, I feel this will really help me with my research. Every
photograph will be different one way or another, in the political campaign there might be an
inspirational picture of the party, in the environmental campaign there might be a picture of the
animal or an interesting way of getting the message across like a leaf with images cut out of it to
furtherexplainthe pointorforthe human rights campaign there might be a very dark picture of a
child,disabledpersonora brightpicture of twomenholdinghands, the diversity and possibilities
are endless.
Font – Changes in font seem quite a small thing, but it can actually have a deeper meaning, for
instance using large, bold, dark font to get a point across quickly is very effective whereas using
large, multicoloured font can have a different effect. Different fonts altogether also have a big
impact, using a san serif font in a small, white font can be hard to decipher for some people,
whereasusingaserif small fontiseasier.It’s all about that and how well it fits in with the design;
doesitget the point across? Didtheyuse a fontto make somethingscaryor intriguing? And so on.

2. Considerations:
Whymight you needto be sensitive whencarrying out research on social action issues?
Talking about some topics and issues can bring about quite raw emotions and feelings, when
carryingout researchit’sveryimportanttobe careful aboutthe topicsthat are beingtalkedabout,
if something was written that could be seen as offensive, it could cause quite a bit of upset and
damage. For example: if I was talking about homophobia and I said something that insinuated I
was homophobic too, or I brought up a particular issue and went really in depth on how that
makespeople feel usingreal examplesratherthanone’sImade up, it could cause quite a bit of an
issue. It’s very important to be cautious when explaining things or using examples.
Couldyou face any problemswhen trying to research social action issues?Ifso, is there a way to
overcome these?
I founditquite hardto findEnglishcampaignsor campaignwebsitesthatinclude anEnglishoption
that changes the whole text from one language to another, the only way I could effectively
overcome this was to look at a different campaign.
There wasalso lookingatthe impactsa campaignhad, it’squite hardto findthese resultsforsome
campaigns, some don’t even include them – if they did it was mostly written accomplishments
rather than them being put in to a graph I could easily look at. The way to overcome this was to
justeffectivelyuse the written accomplishments to my advantage and further explain what they
mean.
There couldalsobe the problemof sensitivity, I might say something that makes sense to me but
to othersit could be offensive or seen as rude or demeaning, even if it’s not what I meant to put
across, itmighthappen.Toovercome this,I’ll make sure that I always check what I’m going to say
before I say it.
I couldwant tofocus on one type of Environmental campaigning but not be able to find anything
related to it, either in English or at all, to overcome this, I’d have to set my sights elsewhere, for
example: I want to find something on deforestation but the website doesn’t include an English
versionorI justcan’t findan example,soIsetmysights on something else, like the problem with
litter and garbage, which might be easier to find.
There might be a vast majority of the public or viewers who disagree with what I’m trying to do,
the campaign might not even take off or it might be a total bust. I’ve got to make sure I cater to
everyneed,if it’sanenvironmentalcampaign,I’ve gotto make sure all of my research is the truth
and all of my statisticsare clearand real,nothingmade up.It’sgot to be interestingandhave good
points to make sure I entice the viewer from first glance.
Where wouldyou expectyour finishedpiecestobe displayedand distributed?
I’dprobablyexpect my finished piece to be posted all around in a different variety of displays, it
couldgo fromadvertisementspace onthe side of a bus,at a busstop or a train platform/stationto
places like billboards, TV and other forms of mainstream media.
The place I think it will be most seen is most likely on the internet or at places like bus stops and
trainsstations/platforms,thisisbecause the internetisahuge form of mediaandit wouldbe quite
easyto getthe campaignoutthere,get it seen and promote it to as many people as possible, if it
becomes quite a big thing, like millions of likes on a Facebook page or an actual community is
formed from it, it will definitely gain mainstream media coverage and I’d be able to get a TV
advertisementor a radio segment. As for the train stations and bus stops, millions of people still
use public transport to get around, in fact the vast majority of people – and if people are
commuting on trains or buses, it could be because they’re doing it for the environment, like so
manypeople do,therefore they’dbe interestedinthisadvertisement,otherpeople onthe form of
transport could be interested too, whether they are a big environmentalist or not.

3. What fundingissuesmightan organisationlike Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) face?
SAS and organisations like it use membership subscriptions, donations, sale of merchandise,
fundraisingeventsandsponsorshiptogenerate theirincome,thisisalotof sources of income and
if one of them fails, others might follow.
Theymay have a problemwiththeirsponsorshipagreement,somethingtheydo could be deemed
as unethical whichmeansa sponsor or a few sponsors could pull out and stop generating income
for them,if thisisquite a large sponsor,itcouldseverelydiminishtheirmoneyandtheycouldhave
funding problems that way.
If they do something bad or slip up, a lot of memberships could be revoked and individuals or
companiescouldstopsendingindonations,whichcouldalso severely diminish their income, this
goes for sale of merchandise and fundraising events too.
Theycouldbegintostruggle if theyrelease acampaign poster or something along those lines and
it doesn’t generate the kind of response that SAS or organisations like it had hoped for, say they
were strugglingforfundinganywaysandthenthishappened,itwouldonlymake the problem that
much worse.
Volunteers or other staff may pull out of the company and go elsewhere, this could be due to
manydifferentthingslike: changes within the organisation/campaign, a better offer somewhere
else, not including them and so on.
Say someone organised a fundraising event but didn’t have the skills or the money to make it
good, if it’s very bad this could set a permanent view on the company, especially for those who
attended, this could lose them memberships, sponsors, donations, sale of merchandise and
prevent people from coming to fundraising events in the future, thus not creating the efficient
funding needed to make the campaigns/organisation thrive or be successful.