Critical reflection – Sea the truth - Rosetta Taysom

In this critical reflection I will explore how our chosen social justice issue based on sea
pollution came together through our main content pieces, the documentary, podcast, blog and
exhibit, as well as other tasks within our project. Our campaign follows our goals of sharing
commitment to establishing safer seas and our aim is to demonstrate the challenges of seas
and what can be done socially and environmentally to urgently stop sea pollution.

My involvement in this project begins in week one in which our group, our exhibit topic, logo
and our roles were decided and distributed. After exploring different ideas for our social
justice issue, I explored the importance of group communication. Group communication from
the start of our project and throughout our entire process together was the key to our success
of meeting deadlines and being aware of our objectives. Success in Group Work written by
Peter Hartley (2022) explores how important the first group meeting is in setting objectives
and standards. This was driven by creating a technological map which allowed our group to
find a digital communcation app that was readily accessible to all five of us in our group and
allowed a shared commitment (we chose WhatsApp). This commitment continued through
setting ‘ground rules for communcation and attitudes’ (Hartley, Dawson, 2022, p24). These
ground rules included agreed principles of respect to each other and to follow consideration
of all involved. This included considering Bailenson’s (2021) causes of ‘Zoom fatigue’
(Hartley, Dawson, 2022 p31) in which we explored how to use online communications
effectively, putting this into place in our first meeting after week one in which I set up a
Zoom Call to discuss further ideas more openly. We also shared a google drive across the
screen, which allowed us to all access and type out our ideas as we discussed, to come to our
main conclusion of our social justice issue being sea pollution. This was chosen as it is an
urgent social justice issue that needs to be addressed, seas are continuing to be neglected and
as a result both humans and animals, wildlife and local coastal environments are being
negatively affected. Through our decision of this social justice issue, we set up a WhatsApp
group to discuss our future plans. However, I discovered that WhatsApp is quite limited in its
ability to speak on opinions in a quicker time period. I brought in skills of leadership to
suggest further meetings online in future weeks so not to rely on messaging ideas, as they can
sometimes be overlooked. Taking on the role of a researcher, I focused on what could be done
to save our seas. Our main research points came from the website Surfers Against Sewage
(2024) which addressed how sea pollution can be resolved. While researching in week three,
as a group we put together our presentation where we asked the audience to vote for our best
logo and name. This feedback was helpful to review our progress and help our descion
making with crucial details such as our project name ‘sea the truth’, which immediately hints
so many different issues involving seas globally and in the UK.

Our next main task was our podcast, we consistently began writing out many emails and
messages through instagram in order to reach out to anyone who was knowledgable on our
issue and would be happy to be interviewed at a later date. While we all took a role at
reaching out to various different people, its important to note that a fair number of
companies, charities and organisations were unavailable or did not respond. This was
disheartening in the process, and it created tensions as we struggled to find someone to fit our
podcast interviewee position. These tensions were quickly settled as we realised the
importance of commitment to finding someone knowledgable on the subject of sea pollution,
and I recognised that staying strong in the face of this challenge was highly important. The
patience of our group was also commendable, a week before our exhibit was to be presented,
we still had no luck with a candidate. However, we continued to explore other options that
related to not only coastal environmental charities and wildlife trusts but rather individuals
with the knowledge of water pollution and general interest in the subject matter. This opened
up more opportunities to find an ideal candidate in which we did, Clive Roberts who works
with the West Wales River Trust. He spoke on his experience working with rivers in Wales
and the importance of taking action and providing more help with river safety and
cleanliness.
For our team roles for the podcast, I chose to be the production manager, I made sure to
continue to actively express in our face-to-face meetings and over message the importance of
this role for the podcast. This was key because coordinating everyone in the group and
hearing their responses/messages from possible contenders for our podcast was challenging
to navigate. Through this challenge we decided to create a social media platform. I suggested
this should be through instagram as it was accessible for us all to use and continue to reach
out to organisations through this. As a group we also had the task of sharing participant
consent forms which were made aware to all possible contenders throughout the process of
aiming to find a podcast interviewee. The role of Production manager had its challenges in its
commitment to continuously balance all content pieces, but it was rewarding to see our
progress.

Another important role I chose was for the infographic task, I chose to be the communcation
director. Taking on this role I considered everyone’s roles within this task specifically and
zoomed in on what exactly their role was, for example I identified the content of creating a
poster or multiple posters with the intention to bring them together as a group and create the
infographic with lots of shared ideas. I directed and used my leadership skills and
communication skills to begin each week with a task list for each individual. This involved a
set of directions based on work surrounding creative tasks, editing, researching and
organising, which mainly focused on using Canvas to create our infographic. Although
keeping everyone updated felt like a constant effort within myself but also an effort for others
to reply in our group, I decided to continue to take on the role of communications director
throughout the rest of the project as I enjoyed discussing and directing content for our group.
This I overall took on as I enjoy organisation and it allowed our group to feel reassured that
each week everyone had an important part within our group. I would recommend any future
students who enjoy organisation or want to develop their organisational skills to take on this
role not only in a certain content task but continuously as it is so important to motivating your
group as well as your own involvement.

Throughout this project, as communcation director, I continued to remind everyone of the

different tasks each week. This allowed our group to be informed of any new updates or any
new or continuing tasks that still need to be worked on. This organisation is inspired by
Gerald Cole’s book on Management Theory and Practise which explores organisation in
groups and self organisation. This text inspired ways in which our group organise our ideas
and our content. For example, Cole writes on the idea of having a design purpose, this was
key when creating our documentary. With our chosen social justice issue and the main
purpose of encouraging others to look after our seas, we decided on exploring exactly how
bad seas actually are in terms of pollution. We took a trip to Exmouth beach, and we spilt into
groups. Cole writes, organisation skills being developed within groups by using structural
tools and elements within an organisational design, for example an ‘organisation chart – a
plan of formal relations which the company intends should prevail within it.’ (Cole, 2015
p239) alongside this he writes the importance of; ‘Responsibility – an obligation placed upon
a person, who occupies a certain position in the organisation structure to perform a task,
function or assignment’. (Cole, 2015, p239). These elements for our trip to Exmouth were
consistently used and became an important tool for our structure of the day. Setting out
responsibility allowed us to make the most of the beach clean up and allowed us to
individually share our skills. This involved Jemima leading the camera work. Jacob and I
explored closest to the sea capturing rubbish that had already been swept away. Jasmine
picked up rubbish from the pathways and beach area and Jake was filmed jumping into the
sea to pick up rubbish. All our different responsibilities allowed us to make our documentary.
We also followed our organisational chart which set out a plan to end the trip with finding a
local beach walker to answer some questions on sea pollution. These tools Cole writes about,
helped us organise our day and progressed our filming of our documentary.

Importantly alongside our group work, Coles writing inspired my own organisation
particularly for one of our main content pieces our exhibit. Our exhibit which took place on
Monday the 11th of March was an incredibly important aspect of our project. It provided our
group with an outlet in which to speak on our issues publicly. While in hand with this exhibit,
I took inspiration from our blog posts and gained knowledge from research we had previously
worked on. I was initially worried I wouldn’t be confident to speak out to people, however
this learning of our research confidently brought me the ability to speak out on the day. Our
infographic also helped our confidence within our group as we were supported by such a
creative work piece. When people questioned our project, I liked to ask questions about their
choices in swimming in local seas to Exeter Campus such as Exmouth (the beach we had
previously cleared rubbish from). These questions were usually responded with 99% yes to
swimming in the sea. Shockingly most passers by were unaware of the true dangers. To see
their shocking faces realise the truth but understand the solutions was rewarding. Our design
of our exhibit included a table covered in plastic bottles picked on our beach clean up which
emphasised how much important beach clean ups are. This surrounded by Jemima’s fishing
net covered in shells contrasting the rubbish signified and represented the horrible waste vs
the beautiful seas. This part of our exhibit design was particularly important as it enhanced
our idea of creating an uncomfortable feel for passers by in a way in which they are
immersed in our project and equally motivated to make a change. This worked effectively as
two particular people wanted to have lengthy chats about sea dangers, one speaking on the
dangers of Mexican seas at a marine biology placement he had worked at. These
conversations allowed people to share their experience and I would recommend future
students taking part in serious conversations about social justice issues as they really motivate
you to become an advocate for your social justice topic.

Finally, I will be reflecting on our blog, which was a key aspect of our group project. The
basis of our blog was created on the website Weebly. My own goal for this blog was to relate
and engage the public. Through discovering the history of blogs and their purposes, I
researched the ways in which blogs could captivate an audience based on past blogs that tend
to engage. Henry Farrelll and Daniel W. Drezner write that Hennings 2003 survey of the
blogosphere found that ‘typical blogs’ are ‘written very informally (often in “unicase”: long
stretches of lowercase with ALL CAPS used for emphasis).’ (Farrell, Drezner, 2008). I chose
to create blog posts in a similar way, to captivate the audience reading the blog, such as using
words ‘DANGER’ in all caps, to stand out. This is key as our aim for our social justice issue
was to share the dangers of the sea. Each of us in our group applied this method, although in
reflection, our group could have improved the way in which we structured the blog as our
posts tended to be singular and didn’t flow on the page. Despite this, I felt that my role as
researcher allowed a broader understanding of how blogs work and demonstrated my efforts
to relate our blog to a wide audience. This audience we discussed was anyone globally or
locally as everyone is affected by our seas and rivers. This blog concluded our research and
furthered our groups insights into the importance of saving our seas and seeing the truth.

Hartley, P, Dawson, M. (2022) Success in Group Work. Available at:

https://read.kortext.com/reader/epub/1908862 (Accessed: 5th March 2024)

Hartley, P, Dawson, M. (2022) Success in Group Work. Available at:

https://read.kortext.com/reader/epub/1908862 (Accessed: 5th March 2024)

Surfers against Sewage (2024) Surfers Against Sewage – UK Charity Campaigning for the
Ocean. Available at: https://www.sas.org.uk/ (Accessed: 17th February 2024)

Cole, Gerald. (2015) Management theory and practise. Available at:

https://r1.vlereader.com/Reader?ean=9781473728387 (Accessed: 2nd March 2024)

Cole, Gerald. (2015) Management theory and practise. Available at:

https://r1.vlereader.com/Reader?ean=9781473728387 (Accessed: 5th March 2024)

Farrell, H., Drezner D. W. (2008) ‘The Power and Politics of Blogs’, Public Choice, Vol 134,
(No. 1/2, Jan, 2008) pp. 15-30.