For my advocacy project, my idea is to continue my research on ensuring technological equity in our education system in the wake of COVID-19. Capacity building and educating our school board officials during these upcoming months is the best way to create equitable solutions for the upcoming fall and spring semester. I think the audience I would want to advocate towards would either be public school district officials or administrators. Therefore, I believe that the best modes of delivery will likely be an infographic that can easily be distributed to administrators and faculty members or a 1-3 minute speech for public school officials to hear regarding possible next steps. Currently, I am leaning towards an infographic because it is very easy to follow and refer back to, which would adhere to the needs of public school officials. I am hoping to use the approaches I was able to come up with in my issue brief and manufacture them to better be received by an audience of public school officials and hopefully instigate change that can be seen as soon as in the upcoming months.
I do believe that “Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence” is a piece of advocacy due to its inherent nature to inform others and create change towards a given issue. Ultimately, I think it achieves this goal of advocacy in the way in which it depicts the harsh realities of domestic violence and the ways in which it can impact others outside of the relationship (children, her ex-husband in this case). However, I do think this piece comes close to dangerously close to poor ethics, and there certainly are some aspects of the work that could be seen as problematic. For example, Maggie’s children are heavily pictured and even quoted in the portraits, and it is questionable if they were able to properly consent to that documentation. They are so young that being involved with an intense piece of artwork might not be something they truly want, and it is unlikely that this type of thing was explicitly explained to them. However, the photographer did speak with and receive consent from Maggie to document the relationship, which ultimately involves the children. In that case, it is ethical in the manner in which it represents Maggie’s personal experience; it does not overstate or lie about any aspect of what she was going through.
Although, you have a pretty good idea on what you want to do with the inforgraphic. I also think that the speech would be a really good idea. I think the speech could help when it comes to fully making someone understand the importance education has during a time like this. I sounds like I would be something really good to listen to then just see. I also agree that the piece has poor ethics, although I hadn’t considered her kids. That is something that really make me wonder now. But once again there was consent given therefore in a way there was nothing wrong with that. Although perhaps they should have also advocated for the kids since they were also being depicted in the images.
An advocacy project about technology in education could be an incredibly effective way to create change more quickly. Although writing to state officials can create a wider change over a longer period of time, the current situation calls for direct, immediate action. I think either an infograph or a speech would be effective. For the photography piece, it is so important to consider the consent of the children. Although Maggie gave her consent, her children will be linked to this evidence of domestic violence for the rest of their lives. It certainly would have been possible for the photographer to focus more on Maggie and her relationships, rather than on her children.
I think either an infographic or a speech could be an effective method of advocating for changes in the manner of education as schools adapt to technology, because an infographic is intuitive and easy to read, and a video speech can sort of offer an example of the kinds of informational videos students will be watching during this period, and it connects to comfortability with technology. For the photography piece, I also thought it was strange how prominently the children featured in the pictures, and I think that aside from the ethics of documenting abuse, that’s definitely an important ethical consideration to take into account. There was one picture in the set where the abuser was holding the victim’s son and it sort of seemed aggressive in the way it was pictured, even showing some fear on the child’s face, even before the photographer witnessed the domestic abuse, which I thought was a little strange, and sort of a warning sign of the behavior depicted later on.
I think your topic about technology is very important, ESPECIALLY right now! I’m glad you are continuing with that topic! I think that doing a speech is a good way to address your target audience. I do agree with you on the advocacy piece. I think it sits right in a grey area. But where the children are involved, at least legally, their mother is able to give that consent for them, but they were a surprisingly big feature of the piece.