As Kelley Matheson pointed out in her TEDx talk “Witness Your Environment”, the thought behind Witness’s goals is that “If we could hear people’s stories it would create empathy and create meaningful change”. My curiosity is how different strategic approaches to the videos accomplish this. Since we don’t have access to those strategies (audience, goals, plan), I’ll attempt to deduce this through my own inquiries.
It seemed many of the videos on the Witness/Human Rights Youtube channel were literal witness videos capturing protests, riots and police brutality. I watched several of these videos and found that the more I watched the more desensitized I became; I lost the feeling of engagement. I think this was in large because I had a hard time understanding the context of the riots/protests so I felt disconnected which didn’t evoke much emotion for me. That is not at all to say that the videos aren’t extremely important, it just brings me to the think about the audience and the goals. I think these direct witness videos of injustice and strife are crucial to engage a local audience to provide an honest account of what is happening in their communities; one that isn’t covered by mainstream media. Who are the other target audiences? Is the goal to capture injustices and to instigate active participation and gain momentum in a fight against injustice? Is it impactful for the larger global community? Does the sharing of truths for one region instigate inspiration for other communities facing injustice to also take action in similar ways?
The other videos on this channel and many of the videos in the health category of the Engage Media website, seemed to take the form of personal or community story telling combined with very vivid accounts of injustice. These videos gave a human face to the issue, which, for me, helped me understand the issue and evoked emotion. With the story format, I again wondered who was the target audience and what was the goal: human rights advocacy groups, the UN, political forces, business leaders, local individuals, the global community? Was it me; one within the general masses? What was I to do?
I found a handful of these videos actually had a call to action at the end. In fact, the video titled “How Much Are Your Workers Paid” included a call to action and a website link. I was so engaged in the story (plus it was an issue I’m already passionate about) that I became a participant and emailed the CEO’s of two clothing retailer behemoths, urging them to join the droves of other business that have pledged to address this issue. Petitions and letter writing/emailing via a digital advocacy platform, has been the most common way that I tend to attempt involvement in social change issues that are outside of my daily work focus. I don’t follow results actively but it is so thrilling to receive confirmation from organizers to find out that the massive voice of disagreement to a decision maker was successful.
I also took a little dive into some of the art themed videos that had a totally different focus. A few were a little too abstract for me, but I came across two films by Ozair Rao: The Universal Truth of Life and Thoughts Become Things. These two films have a completely different approach to the others in that rather than focus on the doom and gloom it took more of a positive and inspiration twist on our collective opportunity to have new visions to create a new world. I was completely surprised to see films with this quantum physics focus; that today’s thoughts create tomorrow’s realities. While an enthusiast of this method to create positive change, I’ve mostly seen it presented how it relates to individual experiences and personal growth. It was fascinating to see this presented in how this individual experience can be applied well outside of oneself; to a global consideration in creating social change. “The science of mankind is the new revolution”.
So again, without knowing the strategic plans behind each video I am curious as to the effectiveness of these videos in creating social change just by reaching the masses? Can widespread awareness be the catalyst in itself for social change? Does awareness of social injustice and environmental degradation activate change? Does it activate the viewer to rise up and join a fight, support a cause, adopt new behaviors? With my own personal interest in art for social change and quantum physics I’d like to share from the Art for Social Change website:
“Through art, we can challenge many of our society’s deepest assumptions, build upon the power of artistic creation and expression to spark new ideas, catalyze critical thinking, elicit new actions, inspire individuals and create new visions”.
Leave a Reply