Case Study research and case study draft
Unemployment and underemployment for women of ethnic minority background
https://www.womenforwomen.org.uk/what-we-dohttp://www.unwomen.org/en
Case Study
I aim to raise awareness about inequality for women
of ethnic minority backgrounds. Prejudice and sexist attitudes need to be
challenged. To do this, I will make a range of print and online media, three
posters and a website.
In this case study, I will be exploring and
comparing two organisations.
One of the organisations that I will be analysing
is the Women for Women organisation. The second one is the UN Women
organisation. Women for Women is an international campaign that was founded in
1993. This organisation helps women that have struggled and experience
instability because of war in their country. They help them regain their
justified freedom and build a better life. To help, people donate money to the
organisation. Their target audience is everyone except children, but they
mainly focus on reaching adults ages 20 to 80. I think this is evident in the
media they produce, and I will discuss this in my analysis of their media
products. I believe they aim to reach both women and men due to the images on
the website of the people that are part of the organisation. The target
audience is also men because the people that work for them and support them are
also men and because there are many men worldwide that support organisations
that provide help for women in need and fight for their rights. My
understanding of men also being the target audience stems from the images used
on the website that feature men and they even have a page dedicated to men
helping and raising awareness.
Persuasive techniques are important in
marketing and for every organisation. One of the many persuasive techniques
that this organisation uses is an emotional appeal. This is shown in an image
of a woman on a banner on the website. The audience knows that she is living in
Afghanistan because of the literacy code language. Additionally, she looks
upset and anxious and it makes people feel sympathetic towards her. This
creates a visual code and the words and image together, create a synergy. Given
the context, we know that she is upset because she is living in a war-torn
country.
It is evident that this organisation uses videos to
send the message across to people. On their website, they also used celebrity
endorsement on one of their YouTube videos. They had a few female celebrities
that support the organisation tell the audience what 'Sisterhood' is and give
inspirational messages.
I also watched a video on their channel ‘Women for
Women International’. The video is called '#SheInspiresMe'. The title of
the video includes personal pronouns like ‘She’ and ‘me’. This technique of
persuasion is used to create a connection with the viewer and the subject in
the video. In the video, the emotive appeal is apparent. The reason for its
use is to make the viewers feel sad and empathetic for the women in
the video. One woman shares her story. It is very heartfelt and makes the
viewers emotional because she is describing her suffering with tears in her
eyes and expressing her feelings through facial expressions.
Towards the end of the video, the same woman in the
video is seen tilting her head to the side to portray her immense hurt. This is
a use of visual and aural codes which creates a synergy.
The video editor(s) add lines next to her and they
use personal pronouns such as ‘Her courage will inspire you.’ The technique of
personal pronouns makes the audience feel even more empathetic because it links
the viewer with the person/people that are in need. This is a powerful
technique because a person subconsciously makes someone who’s life situation
and social ranking in society as someone who is different, and people start to
use the term “us vs them”. The reason it is so powerful is that using personal
pronouns helps make the audience view the person in the video/leaflet/poster
etc. as someone that isn’t so different after all and that makes the viewer
feel a sense of responsibility to help.
On the post-production, the editors of the video
have made the background colour dark grey with black lines that portray fences.
Fences typically suggest war, prison and injustice. The convention of the
colours that they’ve uses insinuate misery and death. Black and dark colours
are not happy colours; the colour is typically associated sadness rather than
happiness. A colour of hope and happiness would be bright like yellow.
Furthermore, another visual and colour code used in
the video is evident when there is a transition with the colour orange. It is a
fiery colour, the same as the colour of the fire that spews from bombs and
gunshots. The audience thinks of the colour as that because we’ve been given
the context of the video from the aural, visual and literacy codes.
They also use loaded words in the video, such as
'Hope'. It is a positive word with a strong connotation and it is written in
bold and flashes to convey its importance. In addition, there is a moment in
the video that clips of women in grief are shown. There are also clips of
soldiers in war, bombs and people running away from a bomb visibly scared.
These clips create a strong synergy. The people in the videos are of different
races. This moment in the video reminds the viewer that this is the reality for
many women worldwide and subsequently, makes the viewer want to donate to help
the women.
On the homepage of their website, facts and figures
are stated. The facts are about women that are facing the issues in war-torn
countries. They’ve also written how much money goes into helping the women. On
the sponsorship page, there are more figures about the change that the
sponsorships are producing. This is an example of Public relations in the
promotional mix.
The organisation uses direct marketing which is a
form of the Promotional Mix. Direct marketing means that people will act by
signing petitions and donating and by receiving news and updates via email,
phone calls or messages on the mobile phone. This is a persuasive and
interactive method. The use of it is evident on their website, as they have a
newsletter. People write their name and email address and receive newsletters.
The email usually starts off with addressing the reader. For example; “Dear
Rade,”. This makes the reader feel a sense of interactivity.
The other organisation that I'll be focusing on is
the ‘UN women’. It is an international organisation that was founded in 2011 and
aims to raise awareness and gain the help of people to decrease the amount of
gender inequality and other issues that women all over the world face. They
produce multiple campaigns about women's' rights and issues. Such as gender
equality in the workforce and generally in society and issues such as and
domestic violence.
On their website, it is apparent that they host
many charitable events. This is a use of Public relations.
One of their campaign ads was the reason that I
wanted to make posters. They use visual, literacy and typography codes. The
posters are very powerful for many reasons. One is that they have used women of
different ethnic backgrounds. This is a good use of representation.
Representation of the women in society worldwide is important because it allows
the audience to relate to the subject in the campaign ad, making them feel
empathetic. Additionally, it makes people that aren’t facing these issues feel
sympathetic because some of the women might remind the audience of women they
know in their lives. This is a good way of using emotional appeal. Another
factor that makes these posters powerful, is the fact that the background is
black. This makes the women stand out. Moreover, when used in context, black is
the colour of misery and inequality. Furthermore, they have used a close-up
shot of the women. This brings the focus of the audience on the women’s facial
expressions. Additionally, and the women look serious and as if they’ve been
through a lot. This makes me realise that having a good set of models that know
how to express feelings through facial expression is important to make it seem
believable, and that makes the audience feel something that can lead to them
helping decrease the amount of inequality that many women face internationally.
The third reason that they’re so influential is that of the positioning of the
Google search box. It is placed on their lips and that it a place where words
come out, so this suggests that they are unable to voice their opinions and
fight for the rights that they deserve. The typography is the Google font and
the slogans below each google search are different for every woman, however,
they all share the same, simple, small font. This brings the focus on the text
in the Google search box.
Overall, it is clear that both organisations use a
variety of ways to raise awareness on the issues that they each focus on. For
example, they use posters, videos and the Promotional Mix.
Bibliography
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/18500/MinorityEthnicWomen#a1 [Accessed 27/11/2017] Page last updated in April 2006. (Scotland)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/07/ethnic-minorities-jobs-gap-bame-degrees [Accessed 27/11/2017]
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