I would like to use the same topic that I used for my issue brief – Amazonian destruction – for my advocacy project. However, the issue brief was more focused on high-level governmental implementation of a specific policy, whereas the advocacy project would focus on a much narrower audience. For this, I have two ideas. My first idea would be to cater my project towards Amazonian farmers who currently employ slash and burn agriculture, which is incredibly harmful to the environment. My advocacy project would be designed to encourage these farmers to adopt more sustainable, productive techniques that have less of a carbon footprint. This idea would be the most logical audience to target, considering my issue brief mainly discusses their impact. However, it might be hard to actually find somewhere to implement this project, considering the Amazonian farmers are kind of remote. My second idea would focus on educating Penn State students about the importance of the Amazon, the dangers it is facing, and what they can do to help save the rainforest. This idea would not be the best in terms of fixing anything, considering the issue of Amazonian destruction is mostly rooted in local actions. However, this would be far easier to implement than the first idea.
After looking at the photo essay, A Portrait of Domestic Violence, I was kind of confused as to why Sara Lewkowicz won an award for her work. First of all, it was kind of difficult to decipher the purpose of her photo essay. The most plausible purpose I could think of was as an art piece, to simply depict the life of a victim of domestic violence. On the other hand, it seems like it is actually intended to raise awareness for The Violence Against Women Act, an act to protect women from domestic violence. If this is the purpose of the photo essay, some of the circumstances of the documentation seems to contradict this goal. For instance, if the photographer is so dedicated to protecting women from domestic violence, why did she let this action happen? Sure, she explains that she didn’t want to make the situation physically worse, but what is her excuse for not calling the police? In her essay, it says that another resident called the police and that they didn’t arrive until midnight. This makes it appear as if Sara was taking advantage of the situation to capture controversial photos that might make headlines. Why else would she not have called the police earlier to end the conflict? Regardless of whether or not Sara just wanted to get shocking photos, this raises ethical questions. Why would an audience care about what Sara has to say about domestic violence prevention, when she herself was a bystander? In fact, the hypocrisy of Sara and her platform detract from ethos and ethics. Personally, I do not trust anything Sara has to say after seeing that she took advantage of the very victim she claims to protect.