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Senior Seminar: Final Communication Product Essay

Sawyer Veseth

Senior Seminar
Barb Spies
Spring 2015

Abstract
SE WI NORML is the South Eastern Wisconsin branch of NORML, or the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. Our goal is to demonstrate the failure of the
prohibition of cannabis in regards to its benefit to society, communicate the need for
rescheduling of cannabis as a schedule II narcotic, and to convey the fact that the responsible use
of cannabis is safer than that of alcohol and tobacco. My mission with SE WI NORML this
semester was to create an effective social media branding campaign that increased attention on
the regional nonprofit, as well as to foster support for their Milwaukee Cannabis Freedom
Festival during summer 2015.
There are an overwhelming number of influential factors that have contributed to the
choices I have made in the work I have done for this organization. The research I have done with
regards to online communication and the flow of political information online has been the
primary focus for my discussion on how to properly address this project. I have studied the
communication analyses of several authors and have found the internet to be my greatest weapon
in the war I am waging. SE WI NORML needed boots on the ground in Milwaukee. When you
are fighting to end a drug war, the most important thing you need is soldiers. In political
communication, it takes bodies to make change in existing legislation.
From the jump the leadership at SE WI NORML was extremely receptive of the energy
that I brought to the table. After I showed what I had to offer, we have stayed in regular contact
via email, text messaging and bi-weekly meetings. They needed someone who was willing to

create graphic design content to better brand the existing thematic of the organization. My joy in
all of this work is that I hope to further my activism post graduation. I am simply heating up.
The Why?
The summer after graduating high school was my first real life experience with
Marijuana. Smoking weed was something very foreign to me. I was introduced to marijuana for
the first time by my two longest childhood friends: Ethan and Tamir Klein, a pair of Jewish twins
whom I had grown up with in school. At the time, it meant little to me. I was curious and even
after this encounter, I still had questions. I did not actually get high from smoking marijuana
until I was well into my first semester at college, but after that my life was changed forever.
My journey with cannabis since then has been a dramatic tale of twists and turns. I have
made great mistakes and grown significantly from each step I have taken. My own personal
downfalls pale in comparison to the disservice that the public education system has done me
when it comes to teaching kids about drugs. It took eighteen years for me to realize how much I
had been lied to with regards to the dangers of cannabis. As my enlightened mind discovered
more ideas regarding the societal and medicinal utilities of cannabis, a fire lit inside of me. It was
a fire for justice. I needed to share what I had learned.
I am thankful for being influenced by marijuana because it has shown me aspects of
myself that I want to greater embody. Fostering peace is important to me and is at the center of
everything I do. Love and empathy have been shown to me in many ways over the last five years
and because of that my heart wants to give back. These are not virtues that I wish to implement
into specific areas of my life, but they are values that I want to impress on all areas of my life

especially my professional career. Growing through what I have learned with SE WI NORML
has given me hope that there is a place for me in the real world. I see a job that matters to me.

NORML has been a voice for the voiceless for over forty years. They are the big name in
cannabis activism. This is a description of NORML taken from their website NORML.org.
A Voice for Responsible Marijuana Smokers
Since its founding in 1970, NORML has provided a voice in the public policy debate for those
Americans who oppose marijuana prohibition and favor an end to the practice of arresting
marijuana smokers. A nonprofit public-interest advocacy group, NORML represents the interests
of the tens of millions of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly.
Today NORML continues to lead the fight to reform state and federal marijuana laws, whether
by voter initiative or through the elected legislatures. NORML serves as an informational
resource to the national media on marijuana-related stories, providing a perspective to offset the
anti-marijuana propaganda from the government; lobbies state and federal legislators in support
of reform legislation; publishes a regular newsletter; hosts, along with the NORML Foundation,
an informative web site and an annual conference; and serves as the umbrella group for a
national network of citizen-activists committed to ending marijuana prohibition and legalizing
marijuana.
This is NORMLs official mission statement: NORML's mission is to move public opinion
sufficiently to legalize the responsible use of marijuana by adults, and to serve as an advocate
for consumers to assure they have access to high quality marijuana that is safe, convenient and
affordable.
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Adopted by the NORML Board of Directors, June 29, 2013

NORMLs target audience is Americans who wish to see a more functional society. I do not
know how to put it bluntly. NORML wishes to educate everyone, whether you wish to smoke
weed or not. Their mission is not to condemn those who wish to not have marijuana in their
lives, but rather to demonstrate how much better it is for the greater good if we accept each
others differing beliefs.

After all, the aim of ending marijuana prohibition is to return freedoms to the American
people that have been taken from them for far too long. The changes in legislation that NORML
wishes to take place are inherently related to how the founding fathers viewed the federal
government to be. Our nations founding fathers would have never suggested the notion of the
federal government holding so much judicial power over an individual. This mentality is
contrary to everything that the creators of this great nation were trying to accomplish.
A Personal Code of Ethics
An ethical dilemma that I run into often during my cannabis activism work is my own
tendency to get too worked up over the issues at hand. There is no doubt I have passion, but
sometimes this passion is channeled out of personal frustration rather than out of the
representation of an entire sub culture. What I mean is that many times I am caught up by how
much of a hole the powers at be have left us in. I get sick and tired of continually trying to boost
my in group out of the hole of prohibition that I forget that there are people out there who have
suffered far worse losses than me in the war on cannabis.
Humility is the answer to this issue of frustration that I have. Instead of getting angry
about my own thoughts, I have begun to practice meditative forgiveness and forward looking.
Instead of dwelling, I now move forward. Successful cannabis activism comes from being
proactive rather than reactive. I learned much of this from my time with SE WI NORML.
Over the course of this semester I have met people who have had their lives ruined by
cannabis prohibition laws. Their criminal history will follow them for life, and as non violent
drug offenders they must wear a shameful descriptor that does no justice at characterizing them
as human beings. These people I have met have trouble finding jobs, cannot apply for student

loans or financial aid, and have wasted countless years and much money during their time
battling the legal system. This all becomes so very ludicrous that all this happened because of
possession of a plant, a flower for that matter. These people who have suffered have helped to

put into perspective how lucky I am to have only been affected in a minor way by the war on
cannabis.
My dilemma from being so fired up about marijuana prohibition is that I want to portray
this movement professionally and respectfully. There needs to be a humble approach from a
community of people who have been oppressed for decades. Of course, in life there are people
who ruin it for the rest of us. The marijuana subculture has most certainly been subject to
individuals misrepresenting what the movement really needs. My goal was to represent cannabis
on a down to earth level. Cannabis is as cannabis should be. NORML.
Literature Review
Political communication researchers: Yushu Zhou and Bruce E. Pinkleton conducted a
joint study on political communication in three channels. The three categories were conventional
hard news, opinion-based and social media, and public affairs websites. For people who consider
themselves active in the political realm, these three mediums are the basis for the material
consumers ingest every day.
In order to assume any sort of voice nowadays, it is crucial to use the internet to reach
people. Online communication is second hand within voters minds, and the political rallying
done on the internet trumps any physical rallying. Political news and information thrive on the
internet given the free range possibilities within freedom of speech and expressing ones opinion.

In the last five years our world has seen handfuls of progressive social movements fueled by
social media. The attention to which you can give an issue is overwhelming. It seems as if each
coming year is greater defined by a new politically motivated online trend.
I needed to use the internet to my advantage. Zhou and Pinkleton concluded that the
study populations success in communication was largely due to their widespread access to the
internet. In my mind, the work I do with NORML will be first and foremost online based, and
then concentrated on a more interpersonal level later. Strength in numbers, steady flow of
information, and ample support of claims; these are all factors I have seen influence my success
in cannabis activism.
Dr. L.J. Kensicki was even ahead of her time in 2003 when she conducted a research
study of two hundred twenty six college students enrolled in an Intro to Mass Communication
course. They were selected due to their demographic information that correlated with the large
majority of internet users at the time. Their beliefs regarding credibility of website design
correlate with that of aspiring nonprofit organizations that wish to branch into the current
generation of communication technology.
The researcher identified three main areas of interest when deciphering credibility. First,
the audiences perceptions of the source itself are important to whether or not people take this
site seriously. Students were concerned with what the organization was about first and foremost.
Next it was identified that influencing opinions about the medium was critical for credible
reception. What does website communication as a medium mean for the message itself? Lastly,
the qualities of the messages themselves were valued among the participants. Internet users want
to feel connected to the message that they are spending time with.

I did not choose SE WI NORML. I feel like the organization chose me for this project. I
know I can enhance the credibility of the web interface of SE WI NORML. It is an organization
that NEEDS to enhance its credibility because of the movement that it is part of. I believe that
representing the cannabis legalization movement requires an effort to restructure the way that
people view cannabis users. I see similarities between doubts over a sketchy website providing
accurate credibility and people not trusting the words of a pothead. If we can restructure the
appeal of the message then hopefully well improve its effectiveness.
Facebook, despite its apparent faults, is still the number one most popular social media
site with internet users. The site users have never been afraid of sharing their thoughts, as much
of the content we see on Facebook is political and ideological. This content is being shared in
varying degrees. The important conclusion to draw is that people share their beliefs on Facebook
because they want to tell others how they feel.
Researchers Pena and Sandlin conducted a comparison between the differing cultural
beliefs between some users. What they found is that more intense users expressed great
individualistic qualities. These intense users also had less collectivistic beliefs and were more
intolerant of uncertainty. Thus, hard core Facebook users are not afraid to share their beliefs.
Our online campaign for SE WI NORMLs Milwaukee Cannabis Freedom Festival has
been primarily on Facebook. Theres an event invitation open to public RSVP and there have
been over ten thousand users invited. While this data is not concrete, there is something to say
for the willingness of people to commit to something on Facebook. The social realm that this site
dictates holds people accountable for remaining transparent and discussing what they do. If

Facebook has done any good, it would be that it has contacted a widespread population of people
that are willing to express their views, and also wish to persuade others to join their cause.
During my time in Communication Theory last semester, a course which taught me much
about communication across cultural groups, I paid particular attention to Marshall McLuhans
theory of media ecology. I could not stop thinking about the online cannabis community as it
relates to the theory. The internet is the cannabis communitys strongest ecosystem. The
technology has expanded the movement exponentially.
The theory of Media Ecology defines each channel of communication (type of media) as
an individual ecosystem. Each media type, each ecosystem, has distinct characteristics. These
characteristics can come in the form of word choice, subject matter, censorship, audience
involvement, message frequency, and various other dynamics of media ecosystems. For the
purposes of my desired work in Senior Seminar, my ecosystem is the internet.
There definitely exists an internet culture while it varies in different sectors of the web.
For my work with WI NORML, I will draw upon what I view as the strengths of the internet in
order to enhance the NORML brand and distribute information to those already connected with
NORML.
One of the facets about the internet that is neither inherently good or bad is its ability to
persuade people. Put enough credible information in front of their faces and they will listen.
Hopefully I can garner the laws of persuasion and appeal to my audiences sense of not only
logos, but pathos and ethos as well. There exists ample evidence in the claims we make at
NORML. It is all about the packaging of the message.

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The early years of the twenty-first century have been characterized by an explosion of
new configurable cultural forms and practices, such as mashups, remixes and machinima,
enabled by rapidly proliferating global digital network technologies. These new cultural forms
blur the distinctions between traditional production and consumption and have come increasingly
into contrast with the letter of copyright law. In the absence of functionally relevant economic
and legal frameworks, communities around the globe have developed their own ethical criteria to
distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate configurable practices.
Mark Latonero and Aram Sinnreich aided my understanding of the importance of
recognizing these cultural forms. The state of media does not conform to the cultural class
systems of the twentieth century. Their article, titled The hidden demography of new media
ethics, describes the phenomenon of the production of isolated yet very intimate online
subcultures. The online marijuana community is one of these subcultures that the mainstream
media must now take seriously.
The success of viral internet information is directly correlated to its ability to be easily
dissolved in the minds of the public. Intense scholarly theses do not trend because this
information is not as easily disseminated as an insightful meme. It is possible to enlighten people
through a picture and a single word caption. This world that we live in is constantly being
documented, analyzed, and quite literally LIVED through the internet.

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Description
For SE WI NORML I was willing to do whatever I could. Im confident in my writing
skills so I drafted letters to potential sponsors and advertisers without hesitation. After consulting
with the leadership at SE WI, I got a sense of the kind of event that SE WI NORML wanted to
present at their Milwaukee Cannabis Freedom Festival. I took these ideas and tried to represent
them in my letters and emails to potential sponsors.
I had kindled an interest for graphic design while learning about the concepts in a 2D
digital design course I took last semester. After polishing my adobe illustrator and Photoshop
skills, I began to see how I could implement these technologies into my other academic work,
namely senior seminar.
With no prompt from my superiors I went ahead and started to create graphics for WI
NORML. Some of the work I did stuck and some of it did not, but the important thing that I took
away from this was that simply putting my effort to task gets results faster than doing nothing.
SE WI NORML went ahead and let me distribute the flyers that I made advertising the
Milwaukee Cannabis Freedom Festival. I walked these flyers to four Milwaukee glass shops in
an effort to communicate to the largest number of marijuana enthusiasts I could. The managers at
each establishment were enthused that I brought them some advertisement for a worthy cause.
Discussion
We are pretty far from any sort of celebrating with regards to our current cannabis laws in
Wisconsin. With the exception of Dane countys decriminalization initiative, the majority of the
state carries harsh penalties for possession and distribution. There is a long road ahead of us, but
there is hope in our momentum. I noticed the work of SE WI NORML before I attended Cardinal

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Stritch University and in the last three years the efforts and backing have gone up significantly.
The amazing thing about the cannabis movements momentum is the fact that there are so many
levels of identity within the individuals. We love to hear shared success stories from the western
United States and how great of strides they are making with regards to changing cannabis
legality in those areas. Not enough people realize just how much work had to be done in order to
allow the United States to have four states, as well as the nations capital, to have legal
marijuana.
My own impact on a small scale has been phenomenal with the infectiousness of my
communication. Friends and family will bring up my cannabis activism because of my
consistency with regards to communication over social media. People are noticing how serious I
am about this cause and it feels good to be taken seriously. I feel a sense of pride knowing that I
really believe in what I am trying to accomplish. My love for the cannabis movement is one that
need not be influenced by financial stimulation.
Future work for SE WI NORML will be a year round thing. This summer, I want to
launch an initiative to start an annual cannabis event on 4/20 in Milwaukee. In the marijuana
subculture, the number 420 is a sacred representation of the ritual of smoking weed. It is an
internationally known symbol for marijuana and unites us all. If Milwaukee were to have an
annual 4/20 festival it would be a great achievement. I believe that planning this event is
necessary because the holiday of 4/20 is all about unity and solidarity as people. Every time I
turn on the local news, I develop a greater sense of how greatly my city needs unity. Milwaukee
is hurting, and I think I can help heal this particular wound using one tool. Empathy.

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References
Pena, J., & Sandlin, A. (2010). The Facebook Paradox: A Comparison of the Cultural Beliefs of
Facebook Users. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1. day.
Kensicki, L. J. (2003). Building Credibility for Non-Profit Organizations through Webpage
Interface Design. Journal Of Visual Literacy, 23(2), 139-162.
Latonero, M., & Sinnreich, A. (2014). The hidden demography of new media ethics.
Information, Communication & Society, 17(5), 572-593. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2013.808364
Media Ecology Theory. Marshall McLuhan.
The Culture High. The Union. Films by Adam Scorgie.
Zhou, Y., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2012). Modeling the Effects of Political Information Source Use
and Online Expression on Young Adults Political Efficacy. Mass Communication &
Society, 15(6), 813-830. doi:10.1080/15205436.2011.622064