How Print Media Is Impacting The World - Essay Example

The Impact of print media Print media can make a strong or weak impact depending upon many factors. The following discussion looks into these factors in detail. Purpose of print media. Print media is the form in which something is conveyed, accomplished, or transferred to a large number of people, the examples of which include magazines, newspapers, posters, and pamphlets (Webster's 1984). For example, the newspaper can provide an in-depth treatment of a subject and print reporters may use direct quotes from press releases and statements, or interviews of spokespersons. The magazine may also target specific segments of the public for a campaign to explain complex issues ("How to," UNICEF 2007). As such, the primary purpose of print media is to inform the public on issues of importance and thus to make the political participation of the people meaningful (LaMay 2004). Media can promote democracy. In fact, media can be an important incubator of dissent and principled opposition to the military regime (Tironi and Sunkel 2000). How audience is targeted. A clearly defined target audience is important in any media such as print. Targeting an audience as a concept is best explained by examples. Consider the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a social justice organization achieving equality and acceptance for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual (GLTB) people ("We are" 2007). For their primary target audience, they have the "moveable middle," or heterosexuals whose opinions can be "moved" toward the positive through education. This group had conducted research beforehand and knew too well that a greater percentage of well educated people, females and higher income people, will be less prejudiced against homosexual people. They also learned that the general heterosexual population is extremely under-educated as regards GLBT people. Finally, they also came to know that heterosexuals are largely unaware of the lack of civil rights GLBT people experience, and are exposed largely to stereotypes and myths about them. Heterosexuals then became their primary target audience. AFFA decided not to target or try to change bigots or prejudiced persons intolerant of opinions outside of their own. AFFA considered this a waste of too much energy and money for very little reward. Their energy, they decided, is to be saved for those who will listen ("We are" 2007). In targeting audience, therefore, research is needed where time, money, and effort could be used most efficiently. AFFA had to consider if the people who will be exposed to the message are above average in terms of education and income when placing media. If positive, they can become the best target market for change in attitudes about GLBT issues. They had to conduct a survey toward this objective to be able to get reliable data. In some media campaigns, a secondary target audience may also be obtained. The AFFA, for example, has the GLBT community being exposed to their message as secondary target audience, the purpose of which is to instill confidence and self-esteem. The objective of media campaign at times dictates choice of the primary target group. For example, to change sex selective behaviour, the target group should be those who seek the services to determine the sex of the fetus and later to abort it ("Sex Selection" 2007). It was found out that it is not effective to target medical practitioners who supply their services exclusively through mass media. Instead, the young unmarried women are best the target audience as they are the most open to questioning inherited values and behaviors, display the greatest conflict with choices forced upon them, and express discomfort with practices of sex selection. Mostly, they appear to be the most amenable to behaviour change ("Sex Selection 2007). In both instances mentioned here, the common denominator for target audience appears to be those most responsive to behavior change. What research literature says is first considered, then, time, money and effort are spent in planning the most efficient way how the "movable" or those whose behavior could be most changed could be reached. Reasons behind marketing studies and strategies to plan a print media campaigns. Reasons vary for carrying out marketing studies and strategies to plan print media campaigns. The AFFA, for example, said, their goal has always been to educate, rather than alienate (AFFA 2007). As earlier discussed, the AFFA did their study to determine their target audience. According to Whitehead (2007), historical and even background data can be used to help planners develop the most effective campaigns. So, they finally had the heterosexuals to work on, to change their behaviour with the least amount of effort, time and money. As strategy, they decided that they had to be very careful with their language, and never to loose their patience in their campaign. In India, sex selection and the abortion of fetuses just because they are female is rather a heavy and increasing problem. There was a need to raise awareness about reproductive rights, about laws relating to abortion and sex selection, and about women's health. There was also the need to untangle and challenge social and cultural attitudes that fuel sex selection. A group working along this line had these as their reasons behind their marketing studies ("Sex Selection" 2007). On strategies, it is written that they will have to resort to blurring the Indian woman's fear of modern culture attached to loose morals and disintegration of culture and family - expressed as follows: The challenge for a mass media messaging strategy will lie in being able to blur the lines between the "good traditional" and "bad modern" images of women. Images have to be constructed such that some behavioral attributes of the modern woman (working, earning, taking her own decisions, including her reproductive decisions) do not lead to a fear of all the other deleterious effects of "modern culture," namely promiscuity, loss of culture and family honor ("Sex Selection" 2007). As illustrated in this case, marketing strategies will always have to consider culture. Those working for this Sex Selection media campaign in India found that messages that attempt to dissuade people from sex selection have the effect of promoting a bias against safe and legal abortions. This may be done focusing on the act of the abortion itself - through medical images of fetuses and ultrasound machines - rather than on socio-cultural motivations. As strategy, therefore, they decided that any proposed mass media campaign on sex selection should not have the effect of restricting women's reproductive rights ("Sex Selection" 2007). Strategies are important in carrying out print media campaigns. Some considerations, according to the UNICEF ("How to" 2007) includes issuing press release to the right people like the editors. The news release may target specific groups, such as people of different age groups, ethnicities or genders. For best results, it is suggested that the press release announce something new or topical. Accordingly, the release should be accompanied by a media kit which is a collection of information prepared especially for the media to be released on the day of the event. As suggested by the UNICEF ("How to" 2007), for a campaign program dealing with HIV, for example, the media kit may contain statistics on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country or region; information on one's organization and its HIV/AIDS prevention programme; information on national, state or local HIV/AIDS hotlines; a business card with contact details for the media to contact one's group about HIV/AIDS issues; one-page biographies of the key people in one's group; and photographs and camera-ready graphics, such as charts and logos ("How to" 2007). How the mediums are used to advertise. Cheaper ad space is always available in print media. With print media, it is easy to vary content for different markets. Many media messages use persuasion as a tool as is done in print. Persuasion, as the act of convincing someone to believe something, uses techniques that can be overt, subtle, or even subliminal ("Analyzing" 2007). In advertising, media may use not just persuasion, but fact, non-fact, fiction, bias, propaganda, brainwashing and mind control to achieve their purpose ("Analyzing" 2007). In practice, these are how mediums are used to advertise so that a media literate person must watch out. Media text is an important part of the message that is portrayed. Often media messages have a subtext which is the meaning behind the text. It is what the text is implying without directly stating. ("Deconstructing" 2001). In the message that follows, the appeal is to the youthful consumer who may be experiencing problems with acne. It is not directly telling one to go and buy, but go-and-buy is really the sub-text. Consider what follows - "ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN can be a good choice for women 15 or over with mild to moderate acne, who have reached menstruation, are seeking contraception, have no known contraindications to birth control pills, and are unresponsive to topical acne medication." ("Ortho-McNeil 2001). The impact of positive and negative print media campaigns. From the perspective of political scientists, Ansolabehere and Iyengar (1997) in Going Negative, said the tighter the contest in elections, the more negative the campaigning. They conclude that negative campaigning hurts the turnout or people's interest in politics. Print media campaigns are most visible during election time, and this is where most negative and positive campaigns crop up. They are actually advertising in essence and as it is, negative advertising is seen as a permanent part of politics. Negative ads are also a brutal cycle, where one negative ad draws out another, and so on. While the negative political ads cannot be said to educate an uninformed electorate as to a candidate's shortcomings, it is also questionable if they lead to further disillusionment and indifference among voters ("The Practice" 2007). There are mixed results in literature about this. Some research seem to conclude that "going negative" whether you like it or not works, while anecdotal evidence says negative media campaigns do not affect their decision-making. On the other hand, some said negative ads make them more likely to vote for the candidate being attacked by the ad. This comment that follows implied that so-called important people do not tell the truth anyway. I do believe that negative advertising increases voter apathy.Nevertheless, once again political reality must be acknowledged. I agree that the research does consistently conclude that negative ads work.Somewhere along the way politicians from both parties, even sitting Presidents and Vice Presidents, have concluded that being truthful with the public is not necessary (KJW, "Is going negative" 2007). The positive media campaigns are the opposite. They extol the virtues of executives or candidates being marketed. On the other hand, positive media campaigns may come in the form of government or private public relations campaign. They may be short or long-term in nature, and may range from public education programs to community relations, issues/crisis management, integrated marketing communication, internal communication or corporate communication. The impact of these campaigns will have to depend on the strategy and delivery, measured through evidences like survey results, phone inquiries and measures of outcomes (SA Media 2007). The reason behind using indirect messages to reach a target. Media give specific messages and often portray underlying values. However, sometimes they do not give messages directly, and they do this by presenting lifestyle images. The purpose is so that consumers will identify with images of life they aspire to have, or so that consumers will see images of a life they do not want. To present, therefore, a lifestyle that involves a delay in or the lack of an advanced education, or a life that requires taking an undesirable job to support the child of an unplanned pregnancy, the media message will not present a glamorized lifestyle. The message then can go this indirect - "My scholarship is USELESS. Now I need a job to support my baby." (National Campaign 2007). By using indirect messages, media is able to help readers make informed decisions through the images provided in the indirect messages. McKenzi Taylor's (2006) research aimed to explore effective communication strategies for consumers who are not knowledgeable about an advertised product. He found out that indirect messages were significantly more effective for novice consumers than direct messages but these two messages were equally effective for knowledgeable consumers. Using indirect messages, therefore, may require lesser expenses in terms of money, time and effort since both kinds of customers may be targeted. The reason behind using dark and strong messages to reach a target. Aggressive tone in language rarely works in changing attitudes. This is what the AFFA (2007) found out. Language that appeals to fairness and the principles of the nation work best. Accordingly, the organization uses simple declarative sentences that make "sense" when spoken aloud. The simpler, the better, they believe. Depending upon the objectives of the campaign, dark and strong messages may be crafted, which messages are not necessarily upright. Here are some messages (Truscott (2007) that are dark and strong, despite being presented as lines in poetry. Although not physically part of a visible group on a visible media campaign, this woman, a 23-year-old former Heathrow shop assistant who called herself the "lyrical terrorist," is sending dark and strong messages to her Islam brothers to carry on a fight. She had scrawled her extremist thoughts on till receipts and had been handed a nine-month suspended jail sentence. Some of her lines that targeted kuffars [non-believers] were as follows - From The Living Martyrs: "For the living martyrs are awakening/ And kuffars world soon to be shaking."Let us make jihad/ Move to the front line/ To chop chop head of kuffar swine." From How to Behead. "It's not as messy or as hard as some may think/ It's all about the flow of the wrist."No doubt that the punk will twitch and scream/ But ignore the donkey's ass/ And continue to slice back and forth/ You'll feel the knife hit the wind and food pipe/ But don't stop/ Continue with all your might." (Truscott (2007) The reason then of these dark and strong messages is to convince the warriors to keep fighting and to inspire others to do the same. That they are written in poetry is probably to secure the writer, at the same time be effective in reaching the target audience. As it is, the woman was only convicted of "collecting information" (Truscott 2007). The reason behind using funny and sexual messages to reach a target. Funny messages may be used not exactly to entertain but to advance an idea. For example, in showing to the world that people are not really loving each other, the following anecdote (BabsLovesUSA 2007) is told - Little Melissa comes home from first grade and tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks, "Will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine" Melissa's father thinks a bit, and says, "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a Valentine to" "Osama Bin Laden," she says. "Why Osama Bin Laden" her father asks in shock. "Well," she says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a Valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit . And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore." Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with newfound pride. "Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard." "I know," Melissa says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could shoot the bastard." Based on the message and persuasive appeal of the print media, the target audience can be determined ("Analyzing" 2007). In the sexual media message that follows for example, the target audience could be determined as the larger male consumer. The ad, in the form of the subtext, is to boost the male ego by referring to large penis size. As such, it aspires to sell. "Trojan Magnum XL condoms offer increased size and comfort to the six percent of males who require an extra large condom." (Trojan Brand Condoms 2001) How the creativity has more impact than the message in a campaign. It is not only the text or message that creates an impact in a campaign on print media. On page layout, for example, the judges will consider criteria including impact, innovation and design principles (SA Media 2007). On impact, this means how the page elements such as headline, picture, graphics and text work together to catch reader attention. On innovation, how the creative or groundbreaking use of design gets the concept of the story across. Finally, on design principles, there must be a main focal point to the page such as a dominant image, and not too much clutter with multiple elements or colors. It must offer multiple entry points for readers such as briefs or pointers, drawing the reader's eye into the page and leading them to different elements. In summary, the page must get the message of the story or stories across to the reader through the design, be reader friendly and be easy on the eye (SA Media 2007). Summary and Conclusion Print media can make a strong or weak impact depending upon many factors. When used in media campaigns, the impact can be gauged according to purpose, the choice of target audience, marketing studies and strategies in planning a print media campaigns, and use of mediums in advertising. There are positive as well as negative media campaigns which virtually come up as advertising, and these are well characterized mostly in the messages used. Messages in advertising come in many forms like indirect messages, dark and strong messages, funny and sexual messages, also depending upon the target. However, creativity is seen as having more impact than the message in a campaign. Works Cited "Analyzing Media Unit." Positively Aging. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Retrieved 5 Dec. 2007. . "Deconstructing Media Messages." ReCAPP: Skills For Youth. Retrieved 4 Dec. 2007 from . "How to start a media campaign". UNICEF. Retrieved 6 Dec. 2007 from . "Is going Negative a Positive" Three Headed Monster (3HM). 3 Nov. 2006. Retrieved 9 Dec. 2007 from . "The Practice of Political Communication. Advertising Strategies." November 30, 2004. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2007 from "Sex Selection." Executive Summary. India. Retrieved 6 Dec 2007 from . "We Are Your Neighbors". Alliance for Full Acceptance. Retrieved 5 Dec. 2007 . Ansolabehere, Stephen and Shanto Iyengar Going Negative. ISBN-10: 0684837110. ISBN-13: 978-0684837116. 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