Monday, January 28, 2013

Pro-Life, Pro-Media, Pro-Change


This weekend, I went to Washington D.C. for the March for Life, a national protest on the Roe vs. Wade decision that was passed on January 22nd, 1973.  I also went to the national Students for Life of America conference while I was there.  One of the lectures I attended at the conference was called “How to Use New Media to Promote the Pro-Life Message” The talk was very enlightening, and it reminded me of Wednesday’s lecture about effective presentation strategies.  Indeed, it is essential in the Pro-Life movement to be as communicative and as persuasive as possible. The goal is not to sell a product, but rather, an idea.  All of the presenters at the conference applied the presentation practices we discussed, such as allocating energy wisely and focusing on key topics in power point presentations.  The new media talk resonated very strongly with me, as someone who wants to utilize my visual and verbal communications abilities to promote social change.  There were two presenters, Bryan Kemper from the Stand True organization, and Kate Bryan of Live Action.  They advised new media students to gain a strong handle on all facets of social media to promote the pro-life message.  They even generated pro-life content on their webpages, such as suggested statuses and hashtags that we can copy and paste in our profiles to further extend the message.  I was truly fascinated by the idea of affecting change through my social media posts; it is such a powerful way to share an idea in way that is incredibly far-reaching.  Not only this, but using social media to further the pro-life mission gives me a chance to engage in meaningful discussions with people of opposite beliefs.  Because of our lecture on Wednesday, I also took note of the way the conference was presented.  In line with color psychology, one of the main colors used throughout the conference was green. As we learned in lecture, green denotes money and education.  The main point of the Students for life conference was to educate students on the pro-life movement and teach them how to be active on their own campuses. Overall, the principles I’ve learned in our Communications and New Media class were very much at play at the Students for Life conference.  I am very excited to see how new media plays a part in Pro-life movement. 

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