Critical Reflection – Sea The Truth – Jake Otter

As part of the Communications Challenges module, our group agreed upon the social justice issue of sea

pollution. Our campaign sought to expose the devastating impact plastic pollution and sewage discharge

can have on our waters. Throughout the module, our team was tasked with the creation of a portfolio

including three key pieces of content: a podcast episode, a documentary-style video, and an infographic

as well as an exhibit towards the end of the module. On route to completing the portfolio, we

encountered various challenges as our communication, adaptability, and problem-solving skills were

tested individually and as a team. Throughout this critical reflection, I will evaluate the effectiveness of

our collaboration, outlining how we utilized the theories featured in Hartley and Dawson’s ‘Success In

Groupwork’ (2022) to improve our odds of working well together. I will also reflect upon the process we

took as a team throughout the project, detailing the individual roles played within the project, outlining

the key takeaways, and stating what we would do next time.

After attending the first lecture for the module I was initially apprehensive about the start of a group

project. It was highly likely that the members of my group would be people I had never worked with

before, making me slightly anxious as to whether we would be able to function effectively as a team. My

concerns, Tuckman (1965) argues are typical for the beginning of someone about to start group work.

Tuckman proposes that initially, all new groups enter a “forming” stage. A stage of uncertainty where

group members may have insecurities about how the group may function and whether it will do so

successfully. Luckily, my initial concerns were put to rest as I met the members of my group during the

first seminar later that week. All members of the team seemed keen to collaborate and committed to the

project straight away, making me optimistic that our project was going to be a success. Within the first

seminar, we decided a campaign focused on spreading awareness would be most suitable for the

project. We also established that all five members of our group had a key passion for wildlife and
environmental issues. With this in mind, we brainstormed various potential environmental campaigns. At

first, it looked as if our campaign was destined to focus on the ethical issue of animal captivity within

zoos. A campaign that we appropriately named ‘Boo To The Zoo’. However, concerned that this campaign

had the potential to turn into a critique rather than an awareness campaign, we decided to abandon this

idea. However, still keen on pursuing an environmental issue we opted to redirect our focus toward

addressing the sea pollution crisis. The name of our campaign ‘Sea The Truth’ perfectly encompassed the

ideal tone we wanted our campaign to take: laid back, genuine, and informative. The pun and inclusion

of the word ‘Truth’ demonstrate how our campaign is intent on spreading awareness with a serious but

non-confrontational approach. Considering the coastal environment of Devon, the topic of sea pollution

also seemed the most fitting social justice issue to choose, as it presented an opportunity for tangible

change via localized awareness. I was personally thrilled we had chosen to pursue sea pollution as the

focus for our campaign, as growing up in Cornwall I had seen first-hand the devastation sea pollution

causes.

Now that we had decided on our chosen social justice issue, it was time to allocate the roles we would

individually take for each piece of content. While most of these roles remained consistent with our

initial plans, some deviations were needed as the project progressed. Before deciding who would take

on which role we made sure to follow the advice of Seethamraju and Borman (2009) by taking into

account the individual skills and abilities of each group member. In retrospect, I believe this was a key

decision ensuring our group's success as it provided an opportunity for group members to volunteer

themselves for the roles they believed they were best suited for, allowing members who already had

experience with the more technical tasks such as film and podcast editing to come forward and prevent

an inexperienced member the time-consuming mission of becoming proficient in these skills.

The first role I was allocated was that of the production manager. I carried out this role as we were

preparing for the formative presentation. My role was to coordinate the team for the week and ensure

that we were prepared to present in the upcoming seminar. To organize regular meet-ups I had to first

establish a time when everyone was free. This proved to be a challenge, as once I had gathered

everyone’s weekly timetable I noticed that timetable clashes prevented us from meeting regularly. Lack

of availability for meetings; as identified by Beeson and Byles (2020) a common issue that can lead

student groups to failure. However, luckily we were all able to meet briefly on a Friday to discuss the

presentation. During these sessions, we distributed the content that our presentation was required to

include, ensuring the workload was evenly shared amongst us. In the end, the presentation was

delivered successfully. We received positive feedback and were told we communicated the goals, tone,

and intention of our campaign competently.

The next piece of content on the agenda was the infographic. Within the seminar, we all experimented

with the graphic design website Canva. However, we all agreed that Jemima would be the best person

to lead the effort regarding the design as she had previous experience with Canva. For this piece of

content, I continued in my role as production manager making sure that the infographic would be ready

for the printing deadline. However, If we were to undertake this project again I would like to take on a

more active role during the development of the infographic as the organization of regular meetings

wasn’t required to discuss the progress of the infographic, as Jemima regularly asked for feedback on

designs via our WhatsApp group chat. This left me with less to do than other members of my group and

conscious that fair levels of participation are key to positive collaborative outcomes and reducing the

potential for conflict (Iacob and Faily, 2019), I asked the rest of the group if there was anything else I

could do during this stage. One suggestion was the creation of an Instagram account for our campaign.

We all liked this idea as using social media would expose our awareness campaign to a larger audience.

Ince highlights how successful social movements can harness the power of social media to “promote
their message, articulate their core beliefs, and offer a frame to the public” (2017, pp.1817). With this in

mind, I made sure to make the Instagram page easily recognizable as part of our campaign, selecting the

logo as our profile and using our slogan in the bio. Once the account had been created I ensured all

members had access and it was then utilized by everyone throughout the project to update our

followers on our progress.

The next piece of content we focused our attention on was the documentary. With this piece of content,

we decided to share the responsibility of acquiring footage ensuring everything was documented at

each stage of the project. We also organized a group excursion to Exmouth Beach. This outing proved

very successful as we gained the bulk of our documentary footage from this one trip, capturing all of it

on our smartphones. Upon reflection, I believe that recording the documentary on our smartphones

instead of professional cameras was a brilliant one. While admittedly this may not have been a

calculated decision, it helped convey a sense of realism accompanying the serious tone of the

documentary. Now we had acquired a large amount of footage, there was a discussion between me and

Jemima on who would handle the editing of the video as we had both had previous experience in video

editing. Eventually, we agreed that Jemima would be best suited to edit the video, and me the podcast

later on. This was undoubtedly the right decision as the end product demonstrated Jemima’s adept

video editing skills and the video was of higher quality than anything I could have produced.

With the completion of the documentary, it was now onto the podcast. For which, we were yet to

acquire a guest. Concerned by our lack of progress, we agreed that the responsibility of the production

manager should now be spread across multiple members of our group. This way we would have a much

higher likelihood of securing someone for our podcast. Eventually, I managed to secure an interview

with the CEO of the ‘Oceanic Preservation Society’ and Academy Award winner Louie Psihoyos. Excited

by the prospect of interviewing such a big name we wanted to be thoroughly prepared for the
recording. Jasmine had drafted a rough script for the episode and Jacob did his own extensive research

before interviewing our guest. The effort we put into preparation made it the more disappointing when

he didn’t show up to the meeting at the time he proposed. This was a big setback to our project as it was

the first time we looked like we could fail to meet deadlines. Luckily, we were able to secure another

guest quickly. Clive Roberts from the ‘West Wales Rivers Trust’ agreed to talk to us about the projects he

is a part of that help combat river pollution, and while the topic of river pollution wasn’t our campaign’s

initial focus the way contamination of the rivers can further the crisis of sea pollution was discussed in

the podcast. Once the podcast had been recorded, as Production Designer for this piece of content, I

began the edit. While I had experience in using audio editing software such as Audacity this would be my

first time editing a podcast and I had to learn quickly as the deadline was approaching. I began by

trimming and cleaning up the audio removing unwanted background noise, and cutting any mistakes.

The biggest issue I encountered when editing was finding a way to cut the twelve-minute-long original

recording down so it would fit the five-minute time slot permitted. I had to be extra selective when

making cuts to make sure the final edit still sounded cohesive. Once satisfied this was achieved, I began

enhancing the audio. I made use of some of the effects Audacity offers such as a compressor, noise

reduction, Amplification, and EQ. Looking back, this piece of content undoubtedly gave us the most

difficulty throughout the project and I believe that the way we handled the podcast could be improved if

it was considered more of a main priority from the start. This way we may have been able to secure a

podcast guest more aligned with the focus of our campaign and it would have given me more time to

polish the edit.

Now approaching the final stages of our project it was time for the exhibit. Unfortunately, leading up to

the exhibit I fell ill and was later admitted to hospital. This led to me missing the meetings where my

team discussed preparation as well as the exhibit itself. For obvious reasons, this significantly limited my

contribution to the project and I wasn’t assigned a role for this element of the project as a result.
However, still determined to contribute to the exhibit in some way I began doing tasks that could be

completed remotely. This involved me experimenting with graphic design again, producing a flyer as

well as a leaflet which were then printed out and used as handouts at the expedition. While in the

hospital, I kept up communication with the team and was told that the exhibit was a great success, our

campaign garnering a lot of interest from passers-by leading to intellectual discussions between other

students and members of my team. Upon reflection, I am content with my contribution to the exhibit.

The situation was less than ideal and I do feel as if I missed out on a significant part of the module but I

believe I contributed the best I could considering the circumstances.

The completion of the exhibit then marked the completion of our project. During the module, I do

believe our team collaborated effectively throughout, overcoming technicalities and obstacles along the

way. I thoroughly enjoyed the module as I finished it having learned new technical, leadership, and

collaboration skills as well as a greater insight into our chosen topic. I would argue our biggest

advantage came in understanding each other’s strengths, as this proved vital to the distribution of roles.

However, I believe there were weaknesses in how we tackled the project's workload. As a group, I

noticed we tended to work on one piece of content at a time and we may have benefited from stopping

occasionally to reflect on the progress made with each content piece. If I were to give any advice to

students undertaking this module next year, I would stress the importance of regular communication

and tell them to prepare to be challenged collaboratively and technically as they will develop entirely

new skills.

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teamwork in undergraduate software engineering group projects’, Journal of Systems and Software,

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Ince, J., Rojas, F. and Davis, C.A. (2017) ‘The social media response to Black Lives Matter: How Twitter

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