Timing: 45 minutes
Learning outcomes: learners will be able to…
- Identify the characteristics of a successful campaign.
- Consider strategies for communicating key messages to a community.
Key vocabulary: cyberbullying, campaign, emotions, features, strategies, successful, impact, communication, challenges.
Resources: Google Slides, ‘What makes a successful campaign?’ worksheet (slide 6)
Key questions:
- Can you think of any memorable campaigns that you have seen recently (online or offline)?
- What made the campaign memorable?
- What emotions did it make you feel?
- What did it make you do as a result?
- What are the features of a successful campaign?
- How could you use a campaign in your community to tackle cyberbullying?
- What are your key messages?
- Who are your audience?
- How will you reach your target audience?
- What do you want them to do?
PLEASE READ THE DOCUMENTS BEFORE STARTING THE ACTIVITY
Starter activity (10 minutes)
Start by asking learners the following questions about campaigns:
- Can you think of any memorable campaigns that you have seen recently (online or offline)?
- What made the campaign memorable?
- What emotions did it make you feel?
- What did it make you do as a result?
Ask learners if they have seen any campaigns that were memorable but produced negative emotions e.g. disgust, upset, fear, disbelief, anger, etc. Discuss whether campaigns that produce these reactions are effective – does it make people do what the campaign intended? Or perhaps the opposite?!
Campaigns can sometimes become controversial if their messages are:
- Unclear
- Divisive
- Rooted in opinion rather than fact
- Discriminatory
- ‘Tone deaf’ – they ignore certain groups in society or the current news/issues in society
- Advising against people doing something, rather than promoting what people should do.
Activity (25 minutes)
What makes a successful campaign?
Provide learners with time during the session to research campaigns that have been successful in their country. These could be campaigns run through traditional media, or online platforms, or both.
A successful campaign is one that resulted in a change in public views, policies or laws or behaviour. Ideally, any campaigns researched should be those that resulted in a change that is widely agreed to be positive! However, there is also a lot to be learned from controversial campaigns where the net effect might be considered negative.
(Alternatively, you could ask learners to conduct research at home prior to the session and bring examples with them to discuss in the session.)
Using the worksheet on slide 6, ask learners to work in pairs or small groups to discuss their chosen campaigns and complete the worksheet to identify the features that made those campaigns successful.
Plenary (10 minutes)
Allow learners time to feed back their thoughts on what makes a successful campaign and discuss these as a group.
Ask learners to consider the following question and collect their initial thoughts:
- How could you use a campaign in your community to tackle cyberbullying?
Discuss briefly what community they might choose (e.g. local community, school community, online gaming group, social media group/platform, etc.) and who their key audience might be (e.g. all members, those who bully, those who are bystanders when they see bullying, those who are targeted by bullying.).
If you are planning to create a cyberbullying campaign with your learners, it is useful to record these responses for reference when developing the campaign.