Effective advocacy for socially just policies requires engaging more than just elected officials. As a social worker, it is important to be able to explain the relevance of social policies, how they impact the general public, and the need for potential change in ways that are engaging and understandable to everyday citizens. After all, our friends, family, and neighbors who may not get to take courses like this one are the ones who vote on policy measures and elect our representatives.
Each student will select a social issue that interests them and identify a policy, bill, or program that seeks to address that issue and create a 1-minute video which could be disseminated on a social media platform. Think about something that could be posted on Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat Stories, etc. This CAN be the same social issue you select for your policy analysis paper and 3 minute advocacy video; HOWEVER, please be creative and intentional about adapting the content from what you would present to policy officials to what might be more appropriate for the general public on social media. It is NOT required that students have social media accounts or that they actually post their content (though, I would encourage you to!). This is intended to be an exercise in thinking creatively about educating the public on an issue you are passionate about. Videos can be created within a social media app (e.g., TikTok, Instagram) OR you can simply record on your phone or computer.
The rubric for the assignment is included in this Discussion Board and examples of advocacy content from other social media users are included below. Upload videos here for other students to watch.
TikTok examples:
https://www.
tiktok.
com/t/ZT8L3tFuX/
Links to an external site.
(Florida bathroom bills impacting transgender/gender non-conforming individuals)
https://www.
tiktok.
com/t/ZT8LTafGK/
Links to an external site.
(Explanation of the Ohio vote on Issue 1, which was voted on and NO votes won in August)
https://www.
tiktok.
com/t/ZT8LTa1CL/
Links to an external site.
(Authors advocating against book bans in school districts across the U.S.)
This is kind of like the same 3 minute advocacy assignment you did last time. You can write on word format, and Ill record the video. However, please keep in mind that I must do the video in 1 minute.
