Tag: Poster 110

Innovating Agronomy: A Strategic Communications Campaign to Improve Ghanaian Environmental and Public Health Outcomes Through Compost Utilization

Presenter(s): Ammas Tanveer − Advertising

Co Presenter(s): Ben Kitoko, Hannah Lewman

Faculty Mentor(s): Deborah Morrison, Tom McDonnell

Poster 110

Research Area: Advertising/Social Science

Working closely with students and faculty at the University of Ghana, our team of advertising students and School of Journalism & Communication faculty have researched how to communicate best practices for composting in Ghana. This research will result in strategic advertising messages aimed at reducing Ghanian agrarian reliance on imported fertilizers. We have analyzed research conducted by our partner team of students and faculty at the University of Ghana to identify important new connections between fertilizer usage and decreasing soil fertility, which presents significant environmental concern alongside socioeconomic fragility. After analyzing scientific reports, we found that according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, farming is the primary source of employment in Ghana but more than 36% of farmers do not have the funds to purchase fertilizer. Through our research and analysis, we have determined that educating farmers on composting practices presents solutions to a variety of issues not only addressing soil fertility, but also addressing unsustainable waste management practices and lack of economic opportunity, as well as the correlation between food security and general public health. Our primary hypothesis is that by using a variety of persuasive messaging techniques, we can shift social awareness and opinion among Ghanaian stakeholders (farmers, merchants, and consumers) to embrace compost initiatives as a means of addressing short-term food insecurity, ensuring the longevity of farmable land, increasing quality of health, and maximizing potential economic output. Our research has established a strategic framework for our production team going to Ghana to start producing a campaign.

Social Isolation: Which aspects of Social Media are at Fault?

Presenter(s): Michael Silver

Faculty Mentor(s): Kate Harmon

Poster 110

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Social isolation as a result of social network use is a problem that has gained much media attention, but we don’t know how deeply rooted this problem is or how to approach it. While researchers previously have found our online lives cause socially isolating feelings, I would like to discover potential solutions in incentivizing a more meaningful online experience for our youth. Using an online survey and offering continuous focus groups over summer I hope to engage directly with Social Media Users to find out how we can best redesign key social media features to bring value to users’ online experience. There are strong indications that the current social networking model has some socially isolating features, while only specific use scenarios actually provide a positive benefit to the user. My hypothesis is that one-click features of social media usage are more socially isolating than others. To gather participants I plan to advertise a survey that asks to scale a social media user’s state of mental well-being as well as their social media usage for each particular social site and feature. After the survey has enough responses I will be able to use a Chi-squared test and dummy variables to deduce which features of social media are more socially isolating than others. Then using focus groups that will be held monthly I should be able to gather additional anecdotal evidence in figuring out which ways are most beneficial in bridging the gap between our digital and real-life experiences, so they can co-exist and complement each other. Learning from the past, I believe a brand new social network can be specifically re-designed to embrace the positive merits of social networking and bring value to the users themselves.