The purpose why a social action and community media production might be created is because there could be a specific social issue that is happening at that moment in time. People might need to become more aware about this in order for this social issue to either decrease in the amount of activity that happens, or to completely stop this social action from happening. An example of what a social action and community media production might be about is:
- Crime
- The amount of people that are homeless
- Politics
- Green peace
- Racism
- Addictions
The way that this impacts people is by showing the negative affects of all of these things and what harm could be caused from these things. They would also show examples of these things and how it has affected those people that they have used as an example there to show what could happen to you if it is about something that you do. The reason why they will do this is so that it makes a bigger affect on you and makes you think about what you need to do if you don't want this to happen, and then make a change to a community that is affected by this. For example recent social action documentaries about smoking have shocked a vast amount of people physically and mentally about what doing this could cause if you continuously do it or do it in a regular bases. But as technology increases and new things are being created, more of the audience are aware of software such as photoshop which is able to create very realistic effects which could be used in these documentaries. Even tho this could make a social action documentary fail in why it was created, they normally become most effective after people have watched them and seen and realised what could happen from it.
Example 1
An example of a social action and community media production that I have annotated is 'The Truth about Sugar'. This documentary is very effective as it tells and informs people about how much sugar they are eating without them even noticing how much sugar they are actually eating. It also shows how bad it is to be eating a lot of sugar and what could happen if you continued to eat a vast amount of sugar. It is also a effective social action documentary because it uses some persuasive factors such as using actual people as examples of how much sugar people might eat, and the way that they did this is by picking some volunteers and looking at what they normally eat and then showing them how much sugar they are really eating rather than how much they think that they are. This is a very good persuasive way to make people stop eating to much sugar or realizing how much sugar they are actually eating because you personally could be eating the same amount of sugar that they are or it might help you work out yourself how much sugar you are actually eating personally.
I think that this documentary is very effective and interesting because it made me think about how much sugar i was actually eating and what products do have a lot of sugar in them without me even realizing that there was a lot of sugar in them. I found this really interesting because I learnt a lot about sugar and eating sugary foods. It surprised me how much sugar there was in most foods. It also showed me that I had no idea about how much sugar I should and shouldn't have. It also showed me how much sugar there really is in food, and with foods that I didn't even relise had sugar in and how sugar there is in them.
Example 2
Another example that I have is called 'CDC Tips form Former Smokers Terries AD (tips for stop smoking)' . The reason why I have chosen this as another one of my example is because i feel as though it has a big impact on how people will feel and think about smoking because in this short social action and media production you can see what the out come is of smoking on a regular bases. Another reason why I chose it is because this is showing what her morning routine is and what she has to struggle and put up with every morning in order to get ready for her day. It also demonstrates what the impact of smoking is as you can physically see and hear the changes that have happened to her. Even after watching the first 5 seconds of it could stop any one from smoking. It also makes you realise and think about if you really what to end up doing like her and having to be put through the same things as she has been put up with for the rest of her life. All of these things are what makes a social action and media production good because it achieves what it was meant to do, which is persuade people to stop smoking and stop beginning to smoke. Even though this is only a 30 seconds social action and communication media it is still able to achieve all of this.
