Created: March 2017
Last Updated: April 2020
This learning experience is part of a playlist — two or more learning experiences focused on specific areas of the digital world. You can find this playlist, Creating the Change You Want, here. This particular learning experience is the third in a sequence of six. Learning experiences in a playlist build off of each other, but they were designed so that they can also be completed on their own!
| Estimated time: | 40 minutes
|
| Group or individual activity: | Individual |
| Ages: | 13-18 years old |
| Grades: | Grades 8-12 |
| Online / offline elements: | This learning experience contains an offline activity and a challenge that requires the use of a computer or mobile device. |
| Areas: | Main area: Civic and Political Engagement Additional areas: Content Production, Digital (Literacy), Information Quality, Media (Literacy), Positive / Respectful Behavior |
| License: | This learning experience has been created by Youth and Media and is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 International license. For more information, please visit https://dcrp.berkman.harvard.edu/about |
Learning Goal
Identify ways in which various types of media can be used to promote awareness around an issue.
Materials
Computer or mobile device with Internet access
[Optional] Paper
[Optional] Pen or pencil
Resources
Video: HitRECord: Shifting the Agenda - by HitRecord, Pivot, and Youth Participatory Politics
Video: Amandla Stenberg: Don’t Cash Crop on My Cornrows - by Hype Hair Magazine
Video: Rallying Support 1: Press & Social Media with Maureen Johnson - by The Harry Potter Alliance
Video: The Storytellers High School Campaign - by To Write Love on Her Arms
Activity
Media is an awesome tool for sharing ideas with others, and can be a powerful way to spread messages around causes individuals care about. Sometimes young advocates use digital media to target specific problems. For example, Amandla Stenberg is a young actress and activist who released a video in 2015 about black culture and cultural appropriation for her history class. By releasing the video, she acted as an advocate and raised awareness about an issue she is passionate about. Other people prefer to use analog, non-digital media platforms like TV, radio, or newspapers to tell an audience about their ideas.
As advocates for change, media of all sorts can be powerful tools for achieving our goals. In this learning experience, you will explore this idea by creating a message and spreading it across various types of media to reach a large audience.
In the “Awareness Through Hashtags” learning experience, you can explore a specific way to facilitate online coverage of an issue you care about.
Challenge
Think of an example of media (e.g., a YouTube video, a social media post or account, a visual meme) that is inspiring and might be a good way to help spread a message about a cause you care about. Feel free to search online for examples! Write a paragraph where you specify three types of media that you can use to discuss your concerns about, and solutions to, the problem. These platforms can be digital, analog, or a mixture of both. In your paragraph, also include an answer to the question: Why would the media platforms that you selected be an effective way to spread this message?
If you’d like, you can also create your own media content about an issue you care about. This might include:
A text-based post to communicate your cause and why people should take action.
An idea for an image or graphic (or an image / graphic itself) to communicate the cause and how others can help support it.
An idea for a video to raise awareness and encourage action around the cause.
Next Steps
Great job on completing this challenge! We bet that others are excited to see what you learned! We encourage you to share your write-up (and / or the media you content you created, if you decided to do so) with an educator, mentor, or advisor, or a family member or friend. Feel free to also share your write-up with the Youth and Media team through email (youthandmedia@cyber.harvard.edu). Please indicate the title of the learning experience in the subject line of the email.