Chapter 11
Social awareness/Civic Engagement/Social Change
Social Awareness:
•Social consciousness, or social awareness, is defined as consciousness shared by individuals within a society. It essentially means to be conscious or aware of the problems within a society or community.
•Being aware of different problems in society, being especially sensitive to the needs of the less fortunate.
•The recognition and realization that we are ALL connected.
Civic Engagement:
•Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.
•Civic engagement is the broader motif, encompassing service-learning but not limited to it.
•Civic engagement refers to the ways in which citizens participate in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future.
Social Change:
•Social change as a broad umbrella encompasses a range of typical social and civic outcomes from increased awareness and understanding, to attitudinal change, to increased civic participation, the building of public will, to policy change that corrects injustice.
Media and Social/Civic Engagement:
The worlds of print, television, and radio have collided on the Internet, blurring the segmentation of “traditional media,” allowing anyone to access all these industries have to offer at the click of a button or the swipe of a finger. People still read the New York Times, watch CNN, and listen to NPR. But now some are listening to podcasts of NPR at the gym, following the New York Times on Twitter, or catching blasts from CNN on their
smartphones.
With this collision, the lines between traditional media and social networking have all but disappeared, leaving a new media landscape that everyone in the merging fields of advertising, publishing, marketing and PR must learn how to navigate in order to stay relevant.
Savvy organizations are now developing their own original, compelling content that lives on their websites, Youtube channels, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, creating sources of timely and accessible information that they have total control over and spreading awareness and sparking action in target audiences, without having to depend on traditional media to get the word out.
Great example of Social /Civic engagement and change for a cause that was created by media was the Ice Bucket Challenge.
48 percent of 18-to-29 year olds decide to learn more about political or social issues because of what they read on social networking sites and 57 percent engage in political activity on social networking sites and nowhere else.
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The approach/goal is to take advantage of all of the communications tools at our fingertips, and use them as drivers for positive social change.
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Using All relevant social media, Youtube, blogging, and creating authentic and interesting content(Good Storytelling)
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Creating a NICHE
Mining the Digital Niche:
•In an emerging global economy, the concept of niche is becoming increasingly relevant in the way we think about business and culture.
•Niche organizations are becoming more apparent as the world becomes more complex and dependent on technology
•The Internet has given people unlimited and unfiltered access to culture and content, and audiences have begun to absorb content that isn’t necessarily best selling
•For non-profits, marketing campaigns have to be direct and focused in order to target the appropriate audience
•Niche marketing is a creative way of analyzing marketing data so that your campaign captures the attention of the relevant audience
•Developing a niche allows people to gain an insightful understanding of who you are as an organization.
Niche Markets:
A niche market is a segment of the market on which a specific product is focusing.
For non-profits, marketing campaigns have to be direct and focused in order to target the appropriate audience.
Once you figure out a specific niche, it will determine who will be reached by your marketing efforts
Niche marketing allows non-profits to focus on doing what they do best because it lets the product speak for itself. When presented to the right audience, a thoughtful non-profit should sell itself.
Psychographic analysis gives you insight into the personality, lifestyle, values, interests, and attitude of your niche market.
With this data in hand, you can work to identify the needs within the niche community so that you can develop ways to meet those needs.
People will respond to an organization that offers solutions and answers to the issues that they face in their normal lives.
As a non-profit, your ultimate goal is to make a sustainable difference in the world. In order to enjoy success in niche marketing, you must create obtainable goals that will show your audience that you are truly invested in bettering their lives.
Examples of Social Awareness Projects:
INTERACTIVE SOCIAL ACTION: HOW VIRTUAL REALITY IS BEING USED TO EDUCATE AND EMPATHIZE
Video:
Interactive Documentary:
Interactive Documentary:
Virtual Reality and Social Awareness:
Project:
Find a non-profit, social awareness or civic engagement organization that has media good representation. Tell us about this organization, what they are doing right, what they could do better, describe their "niche" and are they connecting with their niche in the right ways? What more could they do?-Directions on this page.
References:
http://animatingdemocracy.org/place-start/what-social-change
http://www.ripplestrategies.com/use-media-social-change-report/
http://jeremyreis.com/marketing/why-niche-marketing-will-work-for-your-non-profit/
