Intent 1 Crockett-CurrentS, HubbardL, MattesonT
The Change We Wish To See
Loren Hubbard, Tanner Matteson, Sophia C-C
Abstract: Our group is looking to utilize the ‘upstage the man’ strategy to produce a co-opt of a popular news magazine such as the New Yorker or the Economist. This replica will be filled with idealized, good news, as opposed to the often dismal news we are used to seeing these days. We will distribute it by leaving copies in public spaces and by putting up stickers featuring the url to a website showing the same news.
Concept: A newspaper or ‘zine that has headlines of hope and solutions to uplift the people who read it and get them to think about if the contents could really happen or not. We also are considering taking it online and making a website that looks very similar to a major newspaper or magazine, like Time, People, New York Times, and/or a more local publication like the Bangor Daily News.
Why is this important and who is it for? It is for the common civilian to try to stir their mind as to what really is and isn’t possible. Seeing a physical news headline (digital or print) of news we dream of hearing can make the possibility seem more tangible. This is important as political apathy is much too common as it’s easy to feel helpless against corporate and government kingpins.
New Media Strategy: This idea employs the “upstage the man” strategy, where we are impersonating something bigger than us to get our “smaller-person” message out there.
Audience and influence: The audience in mind is the everyday civilian who may feel powerless in our current social and economic state.We hope it will wake people up to the potential of these good things coming true through more community involvement, and we want to try to break through the understandable apathy.
Budget and materials:
| Line item | Cost | Time |
| Computer to make the site / design the print, InDesign, a code editor | n/a (already owned) | 6-10 hours |
| Our own domain to imitate a larger publishing company. | ~ $10-$15 | 20 minutes |
| printing costs for the ‘zines | 40¢/page | One day |
| ‘Zine distribution | Physical copies: n/a
Url stickers: $2.30/ sticker, an estimated 20 stickers, so $46 |
Shipping time, ~2 weeks. |
| Copywriting | n/a | Multiple weeks |
3 thoughts on “Intent 1 Crockett-CurrentS, HubbardL, MattesonT”
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Concept
what media is the intent/project? 1-1, 1-many, many-many? explain
The idea is distribute papers under the guise of a well renown newspaper. This is a one to many project.
does the idea enlist any of the New Media Strategies? If so which & how?
It enlists the upstage the man strategy. It is using the mans name to spread the message of the common people.
what major issue(s) does the project engage?
This project engages the issue of negative newscasting. News outlets intentionally report on dark events to draw viewers, but depresses the general population.
does the concept interest you?
I like the concept presented. Its a solid and pre-tested strategy. I feel this would be quite an effective project.
Design
is the design clear and appropriate?
The plan is both clear and well thought out.
does the design invite attention and/or participation?
The project invites people to pick up public papers and to visit their online site with url stickers.
Technical
what tech is used? is it appropriate?
A pre owned laptop is being used for the project, and is plenty appropriate for the project as it is presented.
what is the cost? is it affordable for most people? the planet? is it sustainable?
The project is very affordable, starting at about $50 and increasing by small increments based on how much material you choose to print.
Audience
who is the intended audience?
The common people.
how is the project geared to the audience?
It is being created to with the idea of instilling hope in people who feel powerless in the world.
would the project appeal to or challenge the audience? how/why?
It would appeal to the audience because it is making them feel like amazing things are happening around them.
Creativity
does the idea stem from some personal passion of the creator?
I would assume so. This project seems like a project that a college student would pursue.
can you detect the mark of a particular sensibility?
This project is being made by the people, for the people. College students hold little power over press and world news.
Concept
1. The idea seems to be a 1-many idea, since it’s only a small group of people making this and then giving it out to people.
2. It certainly does work with the “upstage the man” strategy, since it’s taking attention away from large, already established newspapers. It also could fit into “tap into a local network” by handing zines/newspapers out locally and getting people to think about what they could change to make the stories become reality.
3. It engages the fact that newspapers tend to mostly report on bad things in the world, and very rarely anything good. It also helps shine a light on ways the world can be improved, thus also helping people realize what is going wrong in the world today.
4. I really like the idea, it’s very simple and seems like it would be effective.
Design
1. There wasn’t really a design to go along with the proposal, but I can imagine it will look just like a newspaper, which is a pretty clear design.
2. does the design invite attention and/or participation?
3. I think the website would get more attention than physical papers, unless you were standing somewhere and handing them out to people. Better, more shocking headlines, will help draw in attention though. As for participation the project itself (making the papers) doesn’t invite participation, but it will hopefully encourage people to participate in making a brighter future.
Technical
1. what tech is used? is it appropriate?
2. The tech seems to mostly be a website, and whatever will be used to print the zines/stickers. The tech is minimal and fits pretty well.
3. The project is really cheap, though the more zines you want to print the costlier it will be. I’m sure the price won’t be much of an issue though, especially split up among a group.
Audience
1. The audience is local (and global with the website) civilians that read the news and don’t know what to do about what’s going on in it.
2. It offers a brighter outlook, and shows things they can help work towards in a format that’s familiar to them
3. It would appeal to the audience by giving them an opportunity to read about something good happening, for once. And it would challenge them to help make the optimistic headlines a reality in the future.
Creativity
1. I’m sure the idea came from the wish to see better things happening in the world, and giving people hope for the future. And the thing the Yes Men did, but with an added twist of a website to it.
2. The project gives off a large sense of optimism. Optimism in the form of positive headlines people would want to see happen, and the optimism of people who would read and be happy to see something good for a change.
Great idea. Of course the YES MEN already did it for NYT: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwj_u8vh1rDZAhWn44MKHeB8CgcQtwIIJzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F129322969&usg=AOvVaw0v2a5O1JQLzafydWWnWE46
But it could be really cool to do this for
1) Maine Campus….
2) Bangor Daily News….
You will need to source/gather lots of data/articles. You could use some ides from yesmagazine.org as it published “good news” as opposed to scandal and war.
An approach would have a mock up of a newspaper cover, plus a few sample articles in a specific newspaper…
Ambitious but could be really fun to do!!