Design Plan for Photo Essay
Purpose: Millions of Americans are currently suffering from the growing obesity epidemic. Though in some cases the problems are genetically based, most cases are a result of a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet thereby making them preventable. The health complications, specifically heart disease, that come as a result of sedentary lifestyles and obesity are of great concern and must be addressed in some fashion. It is my hope that through sharing the effects of these issues, as well as their easily preventable nature, I may inspire my audience to take the necessary actions to lead longer, healthier lives. The ideal audience for this communication is one composed of high school students attending a health fair who also have family members suffering from a complication resulting from a sedentary lifestyle or are worried about themselves. This demographic has been proven to have a larger concern for their outward appearance and body composition meaning that the information will be relevant to their lives and thus will have a greater impact on them. Students attending the fair would clearly have an interest in the subject because they made the conscious decision to participate. The information would best be received close to their graduation because they will soon be going away to college and will no longer have parental guidance to help them eat healthy and be active. This increases the importance of the information as it will hopefully cause them to make healthy decisions once they are on their own. These factors would make an audience that is more attentive, interested, and open-minded to the subject which would mean that the message would be better received. My understanding of these complications, their effects, and their solutions comes from both my study of anatomy for my nursing major and from my experience in Total Body Fitness during my senior year of high school. Learning about these things made me want to share the information so that people would be able to lead healthier lives.
Medium: I’m using photographs to illustrate examples and effects of sedentary lifestyles. The photographs will be taken with a smartphone camera because that is the equipment that is available to me. Though I am not an expert photographer I will strive to take clear, well framed pictures that can be easily used with the information I have gathered. I will be using a prezi presentation for this project because I think it offers the smoothest transitions and has the nicest visual appeal. I can also use the bigger picture of the prezi to help illustrate my point.
Strategies
Ethos: Because my presentation is about sharing the information with people I want to take an informative tone. I do not want to come across as though I am telling the person that they have to make a change or they will die. I want people to take the information, care about it, and help themselves or others. To achieve this I would also use a more personal and informal tone to engage the audience and make it seem as though I am simply having a conversation with them rather than just giving them information.
Pathos: Many people are sensitive to talking about their health and therefore can become defensive if they feel as though someone is putting them down or attacking them. The emotional structure of this presentation should be calm, friendly, and informal so that people will be comfortable learning about their health risks. It should at no point directly accuse anyone of anything and should not use fear to convince them of the point.
Logos: The presentation is based around the proven connections between sedentary lifestyles and health problems. It will contain examples of these health problems and the ways in which they can be solved or prevented. It does not make use of many specific statistics to keep the informal tone but it still follows a logical progression and states facts and not opinions.
Testing: We will have time in class for peer reviews and I will be able to get feedback from my fellow students.
Closing Comments: My hope was that people would find the information interesting and use it to make positive changes in their lives or will at the very least share it with somebody it can help. My only fear was that people will not acknowledge the information because they do not think that it is applicable when it is actually important to everyone. I felt as though my pictures and captions did capture the calm yet informative tone I was going for. I did have a slide on how exercise can help prevent cardiovascular risks. I think looking at my pictures, they really helped to get the message across about sedentary lifestyles because they were related to my topic. The pictures were all taken by me which was what I planned to do. I feel like although they weren't professional, they were still clear and acceptable. My captions were related to my pictures and they were short so that the main focus was on the pictures. Also, my captions helped to make smooth transitions from slide to slide.Overall, I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do and followed my design plan well.
