CONCEPT NOTE MANIFESTO

Name: Annika Diane Wium

Student number: g17W6920

Year of study: 2021

Course: JMS4 Video and Documentary

Lecturer: Nina Oosthuizen

Assignment: Concept Note Manifesto

Word count: 1789 words

Due date: 18 May 2021

Declaration of Plagiarism Conduct:

“I hereby declare that this essay is my own work. I have acknowledged all other authors’ ideas and referenced direct quotations from their work. I have not allowed anyone else to borrow or copy my work.”

A BRIEF statement of your vision, mission, and values (i.e. your personal media manifesto):

I value integrity, honesty, responsibility and being ethical amongst many other values. My mission is to produce a fine quality educational documentary, which deals with the mental health issues of students experienced during Covid-19, to serve students and those that are a fan of dark humour. I will do this in a tactful manner so as not to be offensive or harsh on any of the people that I interview or interact with in order to do my research and also my target audience. This is in keeping with my principles and values as I am an empathetic human being and I understand the consequences of being treated in a tactless manner. Whilst dark humour in relation to a subject such as 2020 or Covid-19 may sound horrific or abhorrent, I do believe that laughter is therapeutic and cathartic and can bring physical and emotional relief to those that have suffered the consequences of 2020 and of Covid-19. I would like to empower and inspire others. I aspire to be an accomplished documentary-maker that engages the community.

A BRIEF statement of the question, problem or phenomenon you wish to respond to, research and communicate about (i.e. your proposal):

I will be addressing the phenomenon of students’ mental well-being being affected during the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 and how students reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic and 2020 as well as the effect it had on students. I want to communicate how difficult it was for students not only to get through their academics but also how they missed out on crucial college experiences and how they came out on top, no matter how hard things became.

My idea is to film a documentary that is akin to the Death to 2020 Mockumentary. I plan to film a South African version of it based on the year 2021. I plan to speak with psychologists about whether there has been an influx of calls related to student’s mental health. I will also contact the Rhodes Wellness centre and conduct interviews with my fellow students. I would like to contact the producer of Death To 2020 as I have their contact details. This would be most helpful in adding something special and different to the documentary. I would ask questions related to statistical information for example what are some of the common issues that students have raised, such as have there been an influx of calls to the wellness centre for example.

I would like to make my viewers aware of the impact that social isolation and trying circumstances has on students and the importance of support from others in the student community. I will be speaking and interviewing students of different academic years. I will broadcast on Facebook to find students to interview and I will ask students I already know to see if they are interested and they may also be able to refer me to other people they know of that may be interested in being interviewed.

A BRIEF statement of your favoured normative approach(es) to media production

Normative approaches I am drawn to and why, as well as a combination of the approaches I have read are listed below:

I am interested in investigative journalism because I like to see people getting to the core of heavy issues such as the documentary, Collective, that would otherwise not have been discovered and exposed.

I am interested in communication for development and social change, participatory video, and digital storytelling activities, and the use of various combinations of new and traditional media in support of development activities. I am a human rights activist, so this is one of the main reasons why it is appealing to me.

I am interested in goal-directed communication activities usually covered by public relations, advertising, marketing and advocacy. These are great passions of mine. I want to be a voice for the voiceless and to speak out about things that need to be spoken out about.

I am interested in documentary (film, video, audio, photography, writing) and other longer forms of journalism (creative non-fiction). This is not only my passion but also my specialisation in my degree of a Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies. I am interested in storytelling and in creating videos that allow for artistic licensing. I would like to be creative, innovative and interesting.

A BRIEF overview of the context you are working in:

A phenomenon such as the Covid-19 pandemic is a global phenomenon which is not isolated to one specific country. However, I will be focusing on my local context. The South African context is one of inequality, poverty and uncertainty. The local context I am working in is Grahamstown/Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, and more specifically focusing on Rhodes University and its students. This will form part of my context in terms of who I am going to interview and what I am going to interview them about. Some students who attend university are subjected to the same poverty and uncertainty when comparing it on a wider local spectrum. Even now in 2021, I am aware that there are students staying on campus in residence and off campus in digs because of their social, economic and personal circumstances at home because it is not a conducive learning environment.

A BRIEF mention of your target audience:

My target audience are students and people that are a fan of dark humour I’d say. As this is a documentary looking at the mental health and effects of Covid-19 on students done in a more comedic way. The students are varying age groups between the ages of 18 and 25 that I will be interviewing. Students have varying personality traits and their needs will depend on their home circumstances or their specific degree that they are studying towards. Their home circumstances may not be conducive for learning or they may not have the required technology for online learning such as access to Wi-Fi. Their degree may require them to access laboratories or specific equipment. (practical degrees such as drama and journalism) They will consume my story on YouTube as well as on other social media platforms. There are students that I intend interviewing who I already know are fans of dark humour. I think I will need to draft a short questionnaire to find out whether the other students I intend interviewing are indeed fans of dark humour.

A BRIEF mention of your intended media forms and platforms:

I will be using social media to reach my audiences. I will market on my Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp accounts. These platforms reach a bigger audience for the audience that I’m targeting. People in the age group of late teens to late twenties use these platforms. I will need to repurpose some of my content to suit each platform, but not dramatically. I will send emails to my networking contacts as well.

A project, or a series of projects, that you would like to pursue this year:

I’ll be focussing on my project which is the genre of a mockumentary on the phenomenon of students’ mental well-being and how it was affected during the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 as well as how students reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic in2020 and 2021 as well as the effect it had on students. My project/mockumentary will also be focussing on the missing out of college experiences for students.

The focus and the content are on the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the years 2020 and 2021. My target audience are students at Rhodes whose studies have been affected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. I would like to achieve awareness as to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on students, their abilities to continue with their studies, taking into consideration factors such as access to the required technology and the effect such a pandemic can have on the mental wellness of students, amongst others.

8. A description of your intended research approaches and techniques:

I will be conducting interviews with students. I propose to do the following to gather data: interviews with students (one-on-one or focus groups). My research will be qualitative and quantitative. Regarding the latter, I plan to interview psychologists in the student wellness centre and possibly in private practice. I propose to draft questionnaires to be completed by students and the wellness centre.

The sources I intend using include people (students) who have been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. I intend to interview a diverse group of students, students from differing race, gender and socio-economic backgrounds, in order to gain multiple perspectives on the issue.

I as a journalist am also a student who has experienced some of the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and can identify with some of the effects that the pandemic may have had on students.

9. A description of your storytelling strategies. [Note: this will depend on the approach you choose, the audiences you wish to engage, etc. Do some research on this - each approach will offer different strategies for storytelling. But, here are some 'generic' questions to help you think this through]:

I have thought of possible storytelling strategies that I may use. I think the use of narration and video footage as well as real life situations will be good to tell the story. I believe my mockumentary will be different to the existing ‘Death to 2020’ mockumentary in that it will focus on university students at Rhodes University, in a South African context.

I believe I do have a story on which I can focus: pre pandemic early 2020, during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, and life post the pandemic. I believe there is tension in my story; I believe there are a number of challenges that need to be resolved (such as personal, socio-economic, technology, health challenges, as examples)

I intend thinking of any relevant sub-stories.

10. Budget/resources and evaluation:

The resources I will need are as follows:

· A Smart phone

· A laptop

· Video camera/camera

· Adobe Premiere Pro software

· A ring light

· A tripod

· Subjects/Students to interview

· Healthcare professionals to interview

· Questionnaires

· A Venue ((I will approach the journalism department to request and also make use of open spaces on and off campus).

11. Evaluation:

The criteria that I believe will be helpful in evaluating the success of my mockumentary could include:

· the number of viewers that like it

· positive feedback I receive from viewers

· the mark I receive