Alan Liu, "Creating a Humanities Advocacy Media Plan"

Creating a Humanities Advocacy Media Plan

v. 2.0

4Humanities

Strategic Principles of Humanities Advocacy

Foundational Principles

Core Message

Communication Design

CORE MESSAGE

• Values
• Frames

• Stories, Metaphors, Visuals
• Numbers, Testimony, Examples
• Simplifying Slogans

AUDIENCES

• Journalistic media
• Politicians
• Community leaders
• Administrators
• Funding Agencies
• Parents
• School teachers
• Students
• Fellow Academics
• Voters
• Global audience

MEDIA CHANNELS

• Print
• Radio
• TV
• Email
• Web Sites
• Blogs
• PodCasts
• YouTube
• Social Media (Facebook, Twiiter)
• Mobile Media (smartphones, tablets)

SPOKESPERSONS

• Students
• Parents
• Scientists
• Politicians
• Film or media people
• Business leaders
• Technology leaders
• Authors
• Musicians
• Religious leaders
• University leaders
• Humanities scholars
• People from elsewhere in the world

Advocacy Media Design

• Focal issues
• Action scenarios
• Solutions

FORMS / GENRES

• Op-Ed
• Essay
• Flyer/Brochure
• Ad
• Interview
• Testimonial
• Documentary
• Map, Infographic
• Fiction
• Music
• Cartoon
• Petition
• Letter campaign
• Boycott
• Funding campaign
• Celebratory Event
• Protest Event
• Hacker Attack

IT Platforms & Tools

Media Pyramids

Plural, flexible, & multi-tiered media repertories designed so that one element supports or amplifies another

--e.g., http://humanistica.ualberta.ca/

-- http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/demo/present/index.php/demojournal/issue/current

--e.g., http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/

-- http://omeka.org/

-- http://www.wix.com/

Example based on Alan Liu's "The Humanities and Tomorrow's Discoveries" (post for Humanities, Plan & Simple Initiative)

Blog post for

"Humanities Plain & Simple" Initiative

http://humanistica.ualberta.ca/category/humanities-plain-and-simple/

Alternative media channels and forms

--e.g.: video, podcast, interview, etc.

INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY for:

• Creation, Collaboration, & Aggregation
• Publication & Exhibition
• Discovery by, and of, audiences (e.g., search, recommend, & audience analytics tools)
• Feedback (e.g., poll, comment tools)
• Social Networking
• Automation & Scaling

FIVE CONTEMPORARY IT PRINCIPLES

that humanities advocacy can exploit:

• Low cost (in $ and time)
• Automation
• Crowd sourced
• "Five-minute activism"
• Integrated with ordinary work (research & teaching)

-- http://entry.tapor.ca/

-- http://seasr.org/documentation/example-flows/text-summarizer/

Content Management Systems

(and blog engines):

• WordPress, Drupal, Joomla

New Publication Systems:

• Open Journal Systems (OJS)
• CommentPress

Multimedia Exhibition & Presentation Platforms:

• Omeka
• Wix
• YouTube, Podcasts

Data Mining & Pattern-Recognition Systems:

• "Reading Tools" in OJS
• Text-mining tools (e.g., TAPoR, SEASR)
• Google Ngram Viewer

Data & Text Visualization Systems:

• Many Eyes
• Tableau Public

Social Networking & Network Analysis Systems:

• Facebook (and Google+)
• Twitter
• Petition Systems
• Social network analysis applied to the humanities

Hacker Platforms:

• FloodNet

-- http://books.google.com/ngrams

Discovery Links

Humanities Advocacy

Statements

(e.g., Why Louis Pasteur wanted to find the cure for diseases such as typhus)

(e.g., statements by and interviews with scientists, government leaders, business people, film directors, educators, and administrators, parents, and students)

-- http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/

-- http://www.tableausoftware.com/products/public

Humanities Showcase

(e.g., Omeka exhibit of humanities research and teaching selected for public impact)

How Can You Get Involved?

Proposals for Next-generation

Humanities Infrastructure & Support

(e.g., local, national, and humanities initiatives--customized for the user's geographical locale)

(e.g., Omeka exhibit of humanities research and teaching selected for public impact)

--e.g., http://www.change.org/petitions

4Humanities on the Web

4Humanities on Twitter (@4hum)

4Humanities on Facebook

--e.g., http://litlab.stanford.edu/LiteraryLabPamphlet3.pdf

-- http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/view?mode=RGraph&docId=bush-vannevar-1890-1974-cr.xml

-- http://rose.english.ucsb.edu/

-- http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ZapTact.html