Hacktivism Intent – CullenS
Assisting Low Income High School Students
This Hacktivism Intent deals with provided meals and donations to low income families in local school systems, through the use of social media and spreading awareness.
I would like to work to assist low income high school students that don’t qualify for completely free meals, but also don’t come from wealthy enough families to have consistent meals.
Growing up in my neighborhood, I knew a lot of fellow high school students who struggled with being able to consistently get meals for lunch. They lived in an almost unfair purgatory of financial situations. Their family wasn’t making enough to be able to regularly provide meals, but they also made too much to be considered poor enough to qualify for free meals. The low-income families and children would benefit, as it would relieve them of a lot of stress, money, and hunger. This is extremely important because no children should be left unfed. Especially in high school, when nutrition is very important for ensuring correct bodily growth and development.
My Solution:
There are many potential solutions for this specific problem. I thought it would be most relevant to look at this from a new media perspective. I’ve decided to focus on pre-existing media and mediums to further improve this dismal state of affairs. The following are two different solutions that could be acted out at the same time.
- Crowdsource The Job – Reaching out to the community would be a fantastic way to tackle this problem. Sending out flyers via email, texts, and general social media posts would be a fantastic way to reach a large amount of people. After reaching out to the people, you could ask them to do two simple things. The community could donate to a local fund in the high school, only accessible for students in need, that would allow them to get “free” money to use to purchase food from the lunch room. The donations could be collected via the internet or just sending in a check. Alternatively, the concerned community could even make bagged lunches and send them to the school. That way, if a student comes in without a lunch or money, they can be provided with a free pre-made meal.
- Tap Into Local Networks – Although it would be much less of a hands-on approach, tapping into local networks could be a very good way to raise funding for low-income families with students in high school. Using a similar technique to my previous solution, it would require spreading awareness about the issue. You could do this by simply making a flyer, or video describing the issue in focus, and spreading it via social media. This would be a slightly less direct approach, and would rely on reaching the right people who have the means to make a major difference. For example, reaching out to specific Maine celebrities, such as Stephen King, and hoping for his monetary support would be an option.
I believe that people would donate to the cause for a few different reasons. The most general answer is just good karma. People like to feel like they are doing good for the less fortunate and would feel good helping this important cause. Secondly, targeting a local market, would give more fortunate people a chance to improve their community with little effort. Simply donating to a website and seeing the overall improvement of the community is a great reward.
The social media campaign would work based off of those same concepts. Not only does it help others, but it betters your community if you are local. And if you aren’t local it gives you the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping those in need. The social media campaign would focus on word of mouth. It would have student’s discuss their experiences, anonymously or not, with how the donation effected them. That way, people could see how their donations were being used. The campaign would encourage others promote the donations and get other people they know to help.
BUDGETING:
Budgeting for these solutions would be fairly simple. Creating a flyer via Photoshop would only take time, and really not cost any money unless you had no access to an editing software such as Photoshop. It would be a similar case with recording a video for outreach, all you would need is the proper software and equipment to make the video. The only monetary cost would come from purchasing or renting any equipment that you didn’t already have. Time would be the biggest cost with both of these projects. Because in order for this activism to work, you would have to give people a well made and well produced material so that they could easily get information off of it, and be swayed to donate or help because of the media.
3 thoughts on “Hacktivism Intent – CullenS”
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Concept
1. what media is the intent/project? 1-1, 1-many, many-many? explain … 1-many, many-many. There is one person who wold like to solve this problem. This project could be done by one person and reach out to many depending on which solution is used. It could also be many-many if the crowdsourcing solution if used or if a team is created.
2. does the idea enlist any of the New Media Strategies? If so which & how? … It enlists both crowdsourcing and tapping into local network which are both new media strategies as well as design softwares.
3. what major issue(s) does the project engage? … Feeding the kids who are above the cutoff to receive free meals but who still can’t afford consistent meals.
4. does the concept interest you? … Definitely. This was a very prominent problem in the school district I came from and in many other school districts especially around Maine.
Design
1. is the design clear and appropriate? … Yes
2. does the design invite attention and/or participation … Yes
Technical
1. what tech is used? is it appropriate? … Illustrator or photoshop, flyer creation, video equipment… yes
2. what is the cost? is it affordable for most people? the planet? is it sustainable? … The cost is very low, it is affordable for most people and gives you the option to participate or not, it is sustainable and ok for the planet.
Audience
1. who is the intended audience? … The local community and the state community
2. how is the project geared to the audience? … It would use local schools and kids and support the local community as well as reaching out to them.
3. would the project appeal to or challenge the audience? how/why? … This project would raise awareness then challenge the audience to make a difference and join the cause.
Creativity
1. does the idea stem from some personal passion of the creator? … Yes, see below
2. can you detect the mark of a particular sensibility? … Yes, this person obviously saw their peers struggle and may have even experienced it themselves, they want to take charge and make a difference.
PROJECT FEEDBACK FORM
Concept
What media is the intent/project? 1-1, 1-many, many-many? Explain.
This would be a one to many medium because it would be one person sending out the same material to many people. There is also some use of many-many as described in the second strategy of having people rally others for support and donations.
Does the idea enlist any of the New Media Strategies? If so which & how?
It enlists Crowdsourcing and Local Networks.
Crowdsourcing – Sending out flyers via email, texts, and general social media posts would be a fantastic way to reach a large amount of people.
Local Networks – Reaching out to specific Maine celebrities, such as Stephen King, and hoping for his monetary support would be an option.
What major issue(s) does the project engage?
Assisting Low Income High School Students
Does the concept interest you?
Yes, being stuck in a “financial purgatory” as you put it so well, probably includes most Americans and also was my life when I was in Elementary and Middle School.
Design
Is the design clear and appropriate?
Yes, the bold letters and icons are attractive and easy to read.
Does the design invite attention and/or participation?
Yes, people around the community could easily get involved with making paper bag lunches or donating just a couple dollars a day to the young people. If most households can donate a dollar a day to a starving child in Africa, I think they can manage for a kid down the street.
Technical
What tech is used? is it appropriate?
Social Media, and printers for sending out flyers. Email could also be a thing.
What is the cost? is it affordable for most people? the planet? is it sustainable?
It’s sustainable, it’s cheap, and it’s effective. Like you said, it just takes a little time.
Audience
Who is the intended audience?
The local community. Families in general, probably more aimed at parents and grandparents. Stay at home moms, etc. People with a little extra money and a lot more time.
How is the project geared to the audience?
Through use of flyers and facebook. Stay at home moms love browsing facebook.
Would the project appeal to or challenge the audience? How/why?
It would appeal to the audience because these are kids that they probably know around the community. It would affect them emotionally.
Creativity
Does the idea stem from some personal passion of the creator?
Absolutely, when I first spoke to Cullen he talked extensively about this topic. He told me this is actually his life’s passion project.
Can you detect the mark of a particular sensibility?
Yes, he seems caring and angry about how this problem is affecting his community. But passion-angry, not mean-angry.
This is a real & critical topic for Maine students!
To improve:
1-Can you “prime the pump” by create a few samples of what you intend: ” flyers via email, texts, and general social media posts” these should be present 2-3 now; and 4-6 of them, especially in an approach
2-Can you be more specific about how the social media campaign would work; people are inundated with campaigns; why fund this one?
3-can you link current resources to fund this problem rather than creating one more cost to funders? i.e., where is there good, leftover food that might be re-purposed? Cafeterias? Families that could send in 2 lunches (one for child, one for another free lunch), Farms, Farmers markets.
4- Research resources like: Research farm to school programs to see if this could help.