Creating a Public Service Announcement ENG II, Unit 3 Transfer Task

What is a public service announcement? Short “in the public interest” messages Can be done very simply with a single actor reading or performing a message, or they can be elaborate, slickly produced messages with music, dramatic storylines, and sound or visual effects. Given to radio and television stations, which are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to serve “in the public interest.” Most stations use PSAs as one of the ways they meet this requirement. Often spread widely via social media in addition to traditional media Used to evoke empathy and inspire action in an audience Read article about the history of PSAs and the way they are currently used for modern audiences and issues.

What are you being asked to do? You will choose a social issue connected to the text you read and create a video PSA to inspire action from a target audience. You will conduct basic research on the issue as it pertains to a modern audience You will write a script and a storyboard for the PSA You will use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to create your PSA

Analyzing PSAs For each PSA we view, answer the following questions on the chart provided— What’s the argument or claim? Is it effective? Why? How does the PSA implement logos, ethos, and pathos? What human emotion does it trigger? Would it have the same impact on everyone? Explain. Did it make you re-think your own behavior? Explain What action is it meant to inspire in the viewer?

Sample psas “It Can Wait” “Save the Children” “Purple Purse” “Homeless Mean Tweets” “Hope Was Born” “It’s On Us” “Pizza Farm” “War at Home” “Create Something” “A Bottle Can Dream”

Must Haves and Can Haves After analyzing all of these PSAs, what do you believe are MUST HAVES and CAN HAVES for the genre? MUST HAVES CAN HAVES

Determining your topic and Research Remember that a PSA is different from the music video because rather than a broad claim you are trying to argue through a visual story, you are trying to inspire a call to action in the viewer to do something to engage in or help with a social issue. What social issue in the book is relevant to a modern audience? What modern issue connects to an issue in your book? Complete this statement for as many issues that come to mind: My book inspires me to help ______________________________ because ____________________________. Make a list of possible issues to explore, choose one, and conduct some basic research on your notes page around that issue. What surprising or shocking research did you find that could be powerful for an audience? What can individual people do to engage in or help that social issue? Research options and make a list of ideas.

Practicing psa ideas with print ads Now that you have chosen an issue, done some basic research, and come up with some possible calls to action, we will practice some of these ideas by creating a print PSA. Look at the following samples and answer the same questions below that we used for the video PSAs: What’s the argument or claim? Is it effective? Why? How does the PSA implement logos, ethos, and pathos? What human emotion does it trigger? Would it have the same impact on everyone? Explain. Did it make you re-think your own behavior? Explain What action is it meant to inspire in the viewer?

Creating a Print Ad PSA After analyzing the print ad PSAs, you will practice your PSA skills by creating one yourself. Answer the following questions first and then use a blank sheet of paper to create your PSA. What is the issue you want to change? Who is the audience that can help you make that change? What do you want that audience to do? What tone will you create using images, color, and words that will move your audience to take action?

Creating a video PSA What is the issue you want to change? Who is the audience that can help you make that change? What do you want that audience to do? What tone will you create with the elements of video (images, sounds & words) that will move your audience to take action? Once you have answered the questions and know how you want to approach the PSA, you will write a script, storyboard the script, and produce it using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Materials will be provided to you to guide you through each of these steps. We will be in the computer lab on 3/23 to 3/29. PSAs are due on 3/30.

Student Created PSAs “Who Am I?” “Bullying Hurts”

PSA Rubric Exemplary Proficient Developing Not Yet