Advocacy & Action

Junior Communications Studio I

How might we design a digital communication campaign to educate & inspire young people in America to vote?

Initial Research

To vote means to:

• reflection of our belief in and commitment to a democratic government.
• citizen’s rights & duty to participate in electing leadership
• becoming part of a collective influence (combined actions of individuals) → relevant to the idea of overseas voting

“ The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. “

What makes an advocacy campaign powerful?

• power of image, graphics, symbols
• visualizing information for advocacy through presenting objective facts & subjective representation (metaphor, analogy, and allegory)
• utilizing rational argument, moral appeal, and emotional appeal to stir empathy and compel the audience

The pile of glasses represents the countless lives lost from the concentration camps. This simple image allows viewers to imagine the cruel environment and horror without directly facing numbers & statistics. (Visualizing Information For Advocacy)

Research

• The most recent 2018 ​OCPA (Overseas Citizen Population Analysis) report states there are around 4.8 million citizens who live outside of the U.S, and more than 2.9 million are eligible to vote. This includes young students who are studying abroad, part of family members in military service, or even international school families and faculties.
• The US embassy estimated “half a million US citizens are in the UK alone,” especially since the UK is the most popular study abroad destination (Mosedale). And yet, there is a “60 percent point voting rate gap” as “stateside citizens are over 13 times more likely to vote than those living abroad,” proven by the low OCPA voter turnout rate of 4.7% (FVAP gov report).

Project Brief

• Target Audience: American college students
• Theme: Fading Voices
• Message: Don’t let your voices fade away.
• Voting is crucial, because the American government will have an international influence regardless of where we live. Understand that we are privileged with the ability to take a stance in America’s leadership, and our choice would eventually make a global impact.
• Raise awareness about absentee voting

Some Interviews

In order to better understand the scope of the audience, I decided to interview some of my friends who have multi-citizenships. I wondered to what degree the country of residence mattered for overseas students when making their votes.

Concept Brainstorming

After a full discussion with my classmates, I realized my idea was still not fully a concept. A concept is how you metaphorically deliver/express the message to the audience.

Brainstorming about what the concept could be

Final: Fading Voices Concept

“Fading Voices” is to convey the idea that the diverse voices and thoughts of overseas students regarding “what America should do right now” will all come to nothing, unless they speak up through voting. Using volume and typography, I want to express the heated emotions within different languages and thoughts from all parts of the world, until they all get flushed down the toilet. All those loud vocal thoughts simply drown in a huge body of water (like the ocean), and they no longer matter anymore. I want to finally juxtapose this with a hectic day in an American city, where in-states Americans have no idea what the far-away overseas citizens are thinking or feeling.

This concept may also be a social commentary that there is no use or value complaining or expressing anger at the ongoing U.S politics by simply watching the television news in your living room, wherever that may be. Overseas citizens must vote, because that is the way of staying involved with the U.S politics that is of international influence. The voices of overseas citizens and in-state citizens would finally become united once they make the vote.

Feedback 9/15 from Kristin

• The Muted Voices would be a strong concept if I am able to clearly articulate the message through typography and pacing for the film.
• Prioritize the type system! Every layout and type design on the screen must be intentional. How will I differentiate the media text vs. voices of the overseas citizens?
• Remove the ocean — this is a different concept. Diving into the ocean to hear the calm and beautiful silence is different from becoming intentionally muted by someone.
• Remove the last American city scene — once the mute button is entered, it is already clear that voices aren’t heard.
• Rather than reinforcing “Stay Muted or Vote,” I could incorporate a tagline showing the overwhelming statistics of overseas voters population that may be more memorable.

Script & Video Process

Writing out the actual script for my video, I decided to take a unique turn into focusing on the pure statistics and facts. Rather than posting article headlines or quotes, I want to express the weight of the issues through numbers that cannot be ignored. While doing the research, I was really shocked at just how many people were suffering from various social, environmental, and economical issues, and I wanted to convey the idea that we would be muting all of these issues if we do not vote.

(First Draft Video here)

Feedback:

• Make an Opening! “The Year in Review”
• Focus on the typography
  - Fix uppercase & lowercase properly
  - Bold and light doesn’t work
  - Center Align & Kerning
• Storyline
  - 200,000 Americans Killed by COVID (placing feels distracting)
  - Add Mute button right after George Floyd Flat-line sound
• Wording
  - Murdered by mass shooting
  - Remove “unattended”
  - Police bullets *Make it into one line
• Work out the ending — need a strong qualifier

(Second Draft Video here)

Feedback:

• Bring the time concept back in towards the end! (Parallel to how George Floyd also lost his time) “No time to waste” (add feeling of urge and emergency)
• Type lockup—refrain from bringing the heart flat line again (Maybe incorporate time?)
  - Vote 2020 (at the end, instead of unmute)
• “2020 Year In Review” should be more visually appealing (Get rid of photos)
• How might I add strength and contrast to the Mute Button again?
  - Explore more sound

(Third Draft Video here)

Feedback from Brett Yasko

This was a critical moment as I got to discuss my project with a professor who has never seen my project. Talking with Brett however, I realized some detailed elements of my video that I didn’t put much thought into previously.

• Transition point from the 8000 statistic to 8 bullets was powerful and I could incorporate more of those glitching numbers previously (since numbers are not fixed/static).
• Is the entire video too partisan?
• Most importantly, he pointed out that my concept is convoluted and I could head in many directions, but I need to figure that out. Right now the tagline “Time is running out” or “Time ran out” didn’t make sense at all.

Thus, I decided to pause momentarily and try to make out what the message I wanted so that I can figure out the ending. Rather than focusing on time, I finally took the route of emphasizing how all of our protest sounds and voices will fade into background noise that people may forget unless we take our stance now to vote.