Social Action

LO1: Understand the purpose and impact of social action and community
media production work.
Hi everyone, my names Edie and youre watching That News Show. Today I
am going to be talking about social action.
Social action productions can do many things; change attitudes toward
something, spark a local, national or global change, or raise awareness of
any situation. This is often done with the use of strong emotive techniques
and by personally relating or talking to the audience, so they feel more
entitled to react in the way the producer wants them too. For example,
many presidential campaign videos are often directed at the viewer by
using words like we you and us. Shocking footage is also often used to
catch the viewers attention and make them feel more entitled to help.
Social actions main purpose is to make a change. Examples of social
action videos you may have heard of are KONY 2012, blackfish, or more
recently, Donald Trumps presidential campaign video. Videos like this
often become very popular and receive many views, meaning more
people become aware of the situation.
I will be discussing three social action videos today, Blackfish, Jamies
Food Revolution and homelessness in Oxford.
Blackfish is a social action film about the treatment and fairness of sea life
kept in SeaWorld Orlando. It showed shocking footage of orcas getting
aggressive towards trainers due to the frustration of being kept in such a
small environment all its life.
Jamies Food Revolution is about the healthiness of school dinners in
schools over the UK. He worked on changing menus in schools to ensure a
healthier diet for young people in order to help battle the obesity levels of
the UK.
Homelessness in Oxford is about the amount of homeless people there are
in Oxford city and the conditions they have to live in, it will also explore
what charities are there to help these people survive.
Blackfish was made with the intention of changing peoples minds towards
visiting SeaWorld and trying to discourage them from buying tickets so
that the orcas can be released back into the wild. This was done by
showing shocking footage or orcas at Sea World and comparing their lives
in Sea World to their lives in the wild. It also showed facts and footage of
how the orcas behaviour has changed by being kept in captivity. (0.30) In
this clip we can hear someone explaining that an orca had eaten one of
the trainers and that it was a shock to have happened.
Jamies Food Revolution is made to try and persuade schools to change
their menus to a healthier choice by showing the health issues of current
school dinners. (0.37) in this clip, Jamie Oliver asks a boy to count the
amount of ingredients in a bag of chicken nuggets. By doing this he is
teacher not only the students he is with, but the viewers of the
programme the health issues of eating chicken nuggets.
Homelessness in Oxford is to change perceptions of homeless people and
try to gain help and support from the public for them.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite said she made Blackfish to explore and
investigate why ocras, who were known to be happy and generally
harmless animals and had suddenly been turning against their trainers,
the people who fed them. She wanted to ensure that these animals had
fair rights and were being treated in a nice way.
Jamie Oliver created his campaign to help improve the health of young
children in schools. Around 19.8% of children in primary school are
considered at obese and around 14.3% are over weight. Jamie Oliver saw
these figures and decided to make a change.
Homelessness in Oxford has increased by 50 percent in the last year with
around 39 people sleeping on the streets and the homeless shelter being
full. Making a social action awareness video on this issue can make people
aware of this situation and encourage them to try and help.
Blackfish is a film which went viral and therefore became globally relevant
as people from all over watched it and wanted to help make a change.
Although this documentary focuses primarily on Sea World, Orlando,
issues to do with animals kept unrightfully in enclosures is an issue across
the world.
Jamie Olivers school dinners was made for national change as it was
focused on the school dinners of the UK. It was broadcast in Britain only
and appealed to the parents and teachers of British kids. (0.00) in this clip
we can see Jamie Oliver giving a food tech lesson to a class of very British
teenagers on chicken nuggets and why they are bad for you. This clip can
appeal to the people of the UK and they can relate to these students and
Jamie Oliver as they are more similar to them.
Homelessness in Oxford is focussing on a local issue, as it is specific to the
people living on the streets in Oxford. Although homelessness is an issue
globally, this social action video will focus on the charities and
organisations in Oxford and the people who live in Oxford.
Blackfish was made to raise awareness of what is going on at Sea World,
the treatment of the animals and the comparison of how their life would
be if they lived in their natural environment to how it is while they live in
captivity. It does this by showing shocking images and explaining the facts
whilst using emotive language to make viewers want to help. (1.10) in this
clip you can see the treatment of the orcas as they are being captured
from the ocean to be taken to Sea World. From this clip it not only shocks
the viewer and makes them want to help prevent this from happening in
the future but it also show interviews with ex Sea World trainers talking
about how they would never do this again.
Jamies Food Revolution was also made to raise awareness of the school
dinners being served at primary schools across the UK. It does this by
stating facts about obesity of children across the UK and showing the
current school dinners compared to what dinners he thinks should be
served.
Homelessness in Oxford is about changing attitudes and raising
awareness. It will talk about the issues homeless people face and talk
about what options there are for them. It will also try to change the
negative stigma around them and show that they arent all bad drug
taking people.

Blackfish aims to change the stereotype that orcas in captivity are happy
animals and enjoy performing for human entertainment. It does this by
showing the reaction orcas have to living in such small enclosures for their
entire life and by showing the parts which arent showed to visitors at Sea
World. (1.30 1.50) In this clip people talk about the phsycological effects
of how the orcas were kept whilst at Sea World. It also compares this to
humans living in a bath tub to help the viewer to realise what its like for
them.
Homelessness in Oxford will be made with the intention of changing the
stereotype that all homeless people are dangerous, drunk drug addicts. It
will do this by talking to homeless people and explaining their side of the
story and their opinions on this stereotype.

Blackfish can be seen as a social action which strengthened a community

as people began to work together to help battle the issues going on at Sea
World.
Jamies Food Revolution helped to strengthen the community of schools
and parents so they would work together on making a change in schools
to improve school dinners.
Homelessness in Oxford will help strengthen community ties by making
people work together to decrease the amount of homeless people on the
streets of Oxford, it will do this by trying to persuade people to donate to
the charity featured.

Blackfish provides information about Sea World which most people wont
already know, this includes facts about how the animals are treated and
also contains information about how these animals should be living
compared to how they are in Sea World. (1:20) In this clip and ex worked
at Sea World talks about how the orcas are kept before actually going into
Sea World. This shocking information is shared to make the viewer realise
what goes on and the treatment of orcas that they wouldnt have already
been exposed to.
Jamies Revolution aims to provide information about obesity and the food
that children are currently being fed in schools. It does this so that people
who send their children to school and people who are in charge of schools
can see and try to make a change.
Homelessness in Oxford will provide information on the fact and figures of
homelessness in oxford. It will also provide information about the charities
which are trying to help these people and what they do.

Blackfish isnt a campaign and nor is Homelessness in Oxford however

Jamies Food Revolution is a campaign as it is working towards making a
change in schools with regards to their school dinners.
Throughout blackfish a relationship is build between the viewer and an
specific orca called Tilikum. By building this relationship the viewer feels
closer to the subject and more inclined to want to help and make a
change. This is because they feel like they want to help that specific orca
because they have seen its situation and they want to make a change.
(0.38) In this clip we can hear than the woman is talking about Tilikum in
order for the viewer to feel sympathy and a connection between
themselves and that specific orca.
Jamies food revolution builds a relationship with the viewer by talking
directly to them and telling the honest facts. As well as this, a lot of the
viewers can form a relationship with the students in his programmes as
they might be similar to them and have the same sorts of views. For
example in this clip (1.45) we can see a lot of young teenagers cooking
home made chicken nuggets, the reactions and conversation between the
students may be familiar and much like the conversation of veiwers so
they can build a relationship with these students.
Homelessness in Oxford will build relationships with homeless people to
make the viewer gain a connection and feel more inclined to help them
much like the Blackfish documentary.

After Blackfish, Sea World said that they will phase out the orca shows at
its San Diego theme park within two years and attempt to rebrand as an
animal conservation rather than an entertainment company. Many
petitions were made to free the orcas at Sea World, which received over
70,000 signatures, and many protests were held to support the same
cause.
Jamie Oliver admitted his school dinner campaign failed as most schools
didnt take on his menu for meals as eating clean is a middle class
preserve. However most schools took on a healthier catering system and
turkey twizzlers became banned from schools in the UK.

Blackfish used very emotive techniques throughout the documentary. It

made relationships with orcas to help gain viewers sympathy and make
them feel closer to the subject. It showed shocking footage of orcas
reacting badly to their trainers, who were shown in a negative light, as
they are part of the reason the orcas are held in captivity. They also
shared facts and statistics about orcas and where they should be living in
order to make the viewers realised what is incorrect.
Jamies Food Revolution shared honest facts about school dinners and
obesity. He was also quite insulting towards people who feed their children
unhealthy foods. I think this was a bad technique as he was being rude
about the people he was appealing to which might mean they were less
likely to listen to his points and make the change he wanted.
Homelessness in oxford will follow similar techniques to blackfish by using
emotive language and forming relationships with the homeless.