Unit 1 A* Criminology essay 6
Evaluate the effectiveness of four types of media used in campaigns for change
Blogs
An advantage of blogs is anyone can set them up, and they are free of charge. So it is an effective
way of spreading a message especially when a campaign is first starting as it is cost effective and
gains support without paying to raise awareness. It allows people to express their views and opinions
on specific topics. As other media/ materials wouldn’t allow you to express your strong opinion too
much due to limited time (when talking about it) ,or limited space (on materials). However, on blogs
writing is limitless allowing you to express your views and allow individuals to see your perspective
encouraging them to join the campaign. An advantage is blogs containing up to date information and
statistics. Allowing readers to access real facts and see the severity of the problem you are fighting,
and the success of the campaign. High statistics of people affected makes people see how serious it
is, without real statistics, people won’t realise the amount of support for the campaign, or how much it
is making a positive impact, it also makes it more genuine with statistics increasing support. Blogs link
to social media allowing donations. Making navigation easier, providing a hassle-free experience
when viewing the campaign, increasing it’s support. Because if it’s media is annoying to navigate
around it won’t attract regular supporters as people interacting and funding will become annoyed and
ignore the campaign, raising less donations. An advantage of blogs is it includes videos and images
for interest. Providing a more interesting and captivating experience with images of the problem,
putting the cause of the campaign forward, constantly reinforcing the necessity of the campaign. Also,
it makes it more personal, as videos provided can show sufferers and how the campaign helped,
creating a more heart-warming, real experience for the supporter.
There are also some limitations of blogs, as they’re hard to keep up to date. Campaigns are
constantly changing and growing, with more events, more volunteering spots, various ways of
support, more materials available, who is supporting it, it’s success, it’s plans for the future. Meaning
it’s difficult to keep making professional, statistic full informative blogs regularly, so they may not be up
to date and not inform the correct information constantly. Blogs can be quite time consuming for the
author, especially at the beginning of the campaign when there are very few authors. Meaning that
regularly people have to take a lot of time out to consistently write them, which is beneficial to the
campaign once it’s done however, but isn’t the best use of time when being written, compared to other
materials/media that are just as beneficial but aren’t time consuming. Another limitation blogs can be
classed as quite an out-of-date method, as they aren’t used as regularly since social media and
technology has evolved. Meaning, that it won’t reach a wider audience so is less effective. Especially
as they’re targeted at the younger generation as they’re on technology, compared with physical media
(newspapers), however because they’re out of date and not read as much, they become a limited type
of media when trying to raise awareness and gain followers for a campaign. Also, blogs can only
reach limited people who are interested in the cause, as you can only find them when specifically
researching it or from a link from it’s other platforms. Therefore, you would already have to be
interested in the campaign to be on the platform in the first place. Meaning that the use of blogs as
campaign media isn’t effective as it doesn’t bring in a variety of new individuals to support the
campaign, as it only engages already interested/supporting individuals. Which won’t help the
campaign by only reaching limited people.
A real-life campaign that used blogs effectively was Unlock, which campaigned to help people with
criminal convictions. It acts as a form of diary, giving regular in-depth updates on the progress of it’s
campaigns. This is useful for people already aware of the organisation and wanting to stay updated.
Campaign directors can also provide information directly to anyone accessing the website via the
blog. It contains links to articles relevant to the campaigns work, and links to other sources of
information, useful for anyone wanting to research into the treatment of convicted offenders. However,
their blog will probably only be accessed by those already aware of the campaign, due to their in-
depth nature making it less accessible to people just wanting information about working with convicted
criminals, as there is lots of informative information to go through that is available. For example:
problems the campaign has yet to cover. It’s up to date with what is currently happening concerning
criminals' resources when coming out of prison, what struggles they are facing that the campaign
needs to target. This is also in terms of services for former prisoners, how successful they are, what
, they should do and the best methods they could use. This is good because it doesn’t assume that the
campaign has sorted out all the problems relating to the topic, reinforcing the idea that support is
needed to make a change, whilst putting pressure on other services to assist the campaign through
their platform. Much of Unlocks blog is concerning the government which is good as it will help make
a policy change, telling the viewers about politics around this campaign, its changes, and highlights of
debates and hearings. Case studies/videos of individuals helped by the campaign are included,
making it more personal and real as supporters can see the impact they’re making, so the support is
more likely to continue. Throughout the blog statistics are consistently used making it appear
professional, reliable and something worth supporting that makes a difference. It’s interesting and
easy to read as the text is broken up and it is concise. Therefore being a quick process to read
capturing people’s attention, and allowing individuals to stay up to date without reading substantial
amounts of information. However, it doesn’t include many images or videos when reading the blog,
making it less visually appealing. The use of blogs in Unlock was successful because it allows the
campaign to obtain supporters, it shows the importance of the campaign and provides valid statistics.
Putting pressure on the government more than other medias (e.g. a tv advertisement) as it raises
awareness but more people are likely to ignore it as it doesn’t affect them as much, and policy makers
are more likely to pay more attention to blogs than tv/radio advertisements with no solid information.
Advertising
Many campaigns for change use media advertising because it is an effective way to spread
awareness of them to a variety of people. Many campaigns use paid advertisements to get their
message across. Ranging from posters for small local campaigns to large national advertising
campaigns in newspapers, magazines and on radio, television and cinema. Other ways of advertising
include billboards, hand delivered leaflets, flyers given out, local shops displaying posters, advertising
on buses/trains, and social media. The amount and type of advertising a campaign undertakes
depends on funding available,it’s more expensive for television advertising compared to radio
advertising.
Many campaigns use newspaper advertising which is when newspapers spread the
information/message about a campaign around the general public, reaching wider audiences, gaining
interest, helping the cause of the campaign. An advantage to using newspapers is that they’re a
helpful media source. Around 15 million are bought every day, and online readership is even greater.
Meaning that a large number of individuals will see your campaign advertisement, raising awareness,
and increasing the chance of interaction, supporting the campaign, so it meets its aims and
objectives. Another advantage is that newspapers are accessible both physically and digitally.
Resulting in a wider range of people seeing your campaign. Because, older generations can use them
in the physical form and younger people can access the digital version. This is why they’re a good
media to spread awareness and gain supporters for a campaign as the majority use them as a good
source of news and a broad range of people read them including the target audience. Another
advantage is geographic selectivity. Allowing the campaign to be focused in certain cities/regions, as
it can be put in newspapers targeted towards a specific area. Allowing it to get to its specific target
audience, and it saves money, because it won’t pay for it to go to every area that’s not
applicable/helpful.
There are also some limitations for the use of newspapers as a form of media used by campaigns for
change. One disadvantage is newspapers have a low pass along rate, which measures the
percentage of people who pass on a file, message, forwarded emails and web links, measuring word
of mouth marketing. For printed newspapers, they measure overall readership vs circulation. If
newspapers have a low pass along rate then after reading the content, people won’t share it, meaning
less people will find out about it. Therefore, if a campaign uses newspapers as a way of informing it
won’t be as successful as other media. Another limitation is that if a campaign is in a newspaper it
means that it has limited colour capabilities. Colour is the most important element in getting your
campaign noticed, as it is seen before any words or elements in the advertisement. The choice of
colour used in the advertisement influences an individual’s feelings about the campaign's work and
what it’s changing. And colours cause it to stand out, making it more memorable. However,
advertising in a newspaper means that there are limited colours so prevents this from happening,
stopping it from being fully expressed leading to less supporters. Although the price of a newspaper
advertisement would be cheaper than a television advertisement, they are still expensive, especially
for newer campaigns that lack funding. A half page advertisement in a local newspaper would cost
