Creating Public Service Announcements
Overview
Students create a public service announcement (PSA) to inform the general public or a specific audience about an issue.
Why Use This?
This assignment requires students to understand the class material well enough to teach it to others in the form of a PSA. It also encourages students to think deeply about their audience and connect several ideas and skills learned in the class rather than simply memorizing a list of facts and terms. Moreover, students can apply the skills they learn to their professional and personal lives.
How Does It Work?
Students are given a list of questions to consider before developing their PSA and a list of resources to help them design their announcement. The PSA can take many forms—for example, students can create an infographic, a video, a written script, audio (e.g., a podcast), or another type of media.
An example of questions to consider and resources for students as they work on their PSA
Questions to consider:
- How are cults and new religious movements typically formed and developed?
- What is the difference between cults/new religious movements and more traditional sects/religions?
- What tactics should you be aware of that cults/new religious movements use to recruit people?
- Why are people drawn to cults, new religious movements, or conspiracy theories?
- Why and how are people drawn into UFO communities?
- What do UFOs represent, and why have they exploded into public consciousness since the 1940s?
- In what ways is the belief in UFOs reminiscent of a new social movement or conspiracy theory?
- In what ways is the belief in UFOs reminiscent of the creation of a new religion?
- What are some of the dangers associated with belief in conspiracy theories such as a government coverup of UFOs?
- Why and how were people drawn to Jonestown? Why did they stay?
Resources
The following resources may be used to help you get started on creating your PSA.
Infographic
- How to Make an Infographic in 5 Easy Steps
- How to Create Infographics in Under an Hour
- 5 Infographics to Teach You How to Easily Make Infographics in PowerPoint
- Canva template
Video
- How to record media using the Rich Content Editor
- How to submit a media file as an assignment submission
- Screencast-o-matic
Keep In Mind
- Consider splitting an assignment like this into two sections or smaller chunks. For example, the instructor for this course made one part of the assignment the PSA and the other part the list of citations the student used to complete the project.
- Provide some resources (including examples) that students can use to create their PSA. The point isn’t to assess students’ graphic design abilities but rather their understanding of the topic (though they should be allowed to choose the medium they’re comfortable with).