Campaign Evaluation

For our activism campaign we aimed to increase public awareness of the lack of corporate recycling. To exersize this we simply talked to people asking weather or not they new about this issue. Most people were not aware of the mass wastage that is produced by large companies and organisations.

Part of our campaign was to attempt to make a stand against these corporations. We demonstrated our cause by showcasing our campaign material which consisted of illustrative work in poster form. We took the names of certain corporations and in a grafitti style changed and added words to them to make a point that they dont recycle.

Example campaign material

Campaign

Objectives

1/ Raise public awareness of lack of corporate recycling

2/ Campaign for legislation to penalise corporations that don't recycle

Target Audience

1/ The consumers of the products that corporation sells

2/ The political elite

Method

Early Ideas
guerrilla stunt

recycling there waste into our propaganda
social network awareness
secret cam mission

IPCC Policy Reform

In 2007 the UN panel of climate scientists claimed that global warming would cause all Himalayan glaciers to melt by the year 2035. In january 2010 the panel of scientists admitted that this claim was unfounded and it was unrealistic to say that the glaciers would melt in a matter of decades. Yesterday (14/10/2010) the same panel of scientists agreed to change its practices in response to the error made in 2007. These actions have been spurred by a publicised attack on the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). It was suggested that the chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri should step down. On the 30th of August the InterAcademy Council who are a group of experts from national science academies called for a fundamental reform of IPCC management. They said that panel leaders should serve only one six year term instead of the current maximum of two. Pachauri who has now dismissed suggestions of him stepping down as chairman was re-elected in 2008 and is due to step down in 2014 after he has presented his next report. In 2007 Al Gore shared the nobel peace prize with the IPCC after the release of his film 'An Inconvenient Truth' in 2006.

When Al Gore's film was released in 2006 it raised a lot of public awareness on global warming and it could be said that he acted as an advocate to spur the IPCC to place the bold claim that the Himalayan glaciers would melt in the year 2035. The false claim will ultimately result in policy changes in the IPCC to amend the way in which information regarding climate change is released into the public sphere.


 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/14/rajendra-pachauri-ipcc-reforms)
John Vidal, 14th of October 2010
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7177230/New-errors-in-IPCC-climate-change-report.html)
Richard Gray and Ben Leach, 6th of February 2010

Evolution of Independent and Participatory Media

With every media context, there is always a flip side to any statement/s made. Through the power of the media people began to speak out about their own views on the climate change and on Al Gore’s speech.

Even negative opinions become a part of the evolution of an independent and participatory media. People are still becoming involved to voice what they think is right.

A host from the American news company CNN, Glenn Beck, became such a critic back in June 2006 where he compared Gore’s speech to one of Hitler’s. Beck dismissed many of the conclusions drawn from the documentary by stating that “when you take a little bit of truth and then you mix it with untruth, or your theory, that’s where you get people to believe. You know? It’s like Hitler.” (The Glenn Beck Program, 7 June 2006).

On the media critic website, Rotten Tomatoes, the audience are able to rate and voice their opinions of the film. Overall the audience’s view of the film was a remarkable 75% of who liked it. Some of the user generated comments include those believing the films important and urgent message, and some left wondering what the whole thing is about.

Examples of some of the comments:

“Just because truths are inconvenient is no reason to suppose they are not real” (Peter Rainer, ‘Rotten Tomatoes, 14 October 2006)

“Powerful, intelligent and surprisingly entertaining. Gore presents a compelling case. You’ll believe a film can change the world” (Helen OHara, Rotten Tomatoes, 23 September 2006)

“If Gore’s purpose is to seriously spread the word and wake the world up to the dangers of Global Warming, then he would do well to not alienate half his audience. But then, since I don’t really believe the point of this movie is to spread the word about Global Warming but rather to spread the word about himself, it does him no harm to try to score a few points against the Republicans.” (Scott, Three Movie Buffs, 25 November 2006)

In a way Al Gore’s mission to raise awareness of Global Warming was successful. Whether there were positive or negative feedback within the media, the word was still out there. People were still becoming involved and forced to decided which side they thought was “right”.

Media Matters (CNN speech): http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200606080005

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inconvenient_truth/

Three Movie Buffs: http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review/inconvenienttruth

The Affects

The impact of “An Inconvenient Truth” has affected many people in many ways including “governments, leaders, organisations and individuals”. It has caused people to be more aware of and take action towards climate change and the extensive affects it is having.

Since the film:

· 4200 plus tons of Carbon were reduced by people merely switching off their light bulbs

· The United States House of Representatives established a Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

· 5 countries – England, Scotland, Czech Republic, New Zealand and Germany – and the Canadian province of British Columbia incorporated ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ into their secondary schools’ curricula

As Al Gore is an influential person in society already, it was easier for him to make a wider audience appeal to allow himself to influence his views onto his audience.

The film bought a widely publicised issue to light where it reached more than a billion people worldwide. This proves that the power of the media is truly affective and can engage a wider audience by means of advertisement, power of position in society and a passion for the wider good.

Information obtained from: http://www.climatecrisis.net/an_inconvenient_truth/the_impact.php

An Inconvenient Truth

 

2006, Guggenheim, Davis, Paramount Classics

Trailer

Assignment 1

For our first assignment we have been asked to choose an example of 'media activism' and research the ways in which the media industry reacted and was effected. We have decided to research the film 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The film features Al Gore who ran a major campaign in which he raised awareness for global warming by presenting a comprehensive slide show. Among other things we will be focusing on how the film influeced media content and practice and how it changed the relationship of audience and media.

Welcome to our blog

As part of our course at Bournemouth University we will be studying Activism and how it effects the media. As a group, over the next five weeks we will be carrying out five different assignments relating to media and activism. This blog will display our progress for each of the assignments in the form of our resaerch findings and our general thoughts about the subject.