Visual Project: BuzzFeed Article
Here is the link to my BuzzFeed article that I decided to go ahead and publish on BuzzFeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/haleyten/10-things-you-can-do-to-reduce-your-carbon-footpri-2xocp
I chose a BuzzFeed article for my visual project because I have experience writing these kind of “Listicles” from my time with Odyssey and I’ve found that more people than I expected read this kind of medium. The intended audience of this visual project is high school and college students. I appealed to this audience by using a snarky and humorous voice while giving them advice on steps to help the environment. I picked ten different points because it’s just long enough to have a variety of options, but kept each of the points brief so as not to lose the audience’s attention span before they finished reading.
I chose to include gifs because that form of media is appealing to this kind of an audience, and it keeps with the theme of being casual and humorous. I chose advice that some, if not all, of the intended audience could easily do. I also picked things that related more directly to everyday life, such as driving, grocery shopping, the sort of things that everyone has to encounter anyway. Since my audience usually doesn’t have as much time or means to volunteer or donate towards helping the environment, these little changes can benefit them as well as help reduce their carbon footprint. I felt that a BuzzFeed list was one of the more appropriate choices for this audience, since they often like to read short articles from BuzzFeed and other sites that have “fluffier” pieces. This article is something relevant since Earth Day is coming up, so they have a reason to read an article on this topic to take a part in helping like they see everyone else doing on social media.
The list is numbered, but only because it lets the reader know how far along they are in the article. One isn’t more important than the other, they’re just options. I didn’t use many specific facts, because I figured a BuzzFeed article is the place people go to be introduced to a topic, or to kill time. If they become curious to learn more, they would go to other places to learn the specific facts. I did get ideas that I didn’t know of already of this “easier” actions of how to reduce a carbon footprint from the sources below. The places I found the gifs used in the article are listed under each gif.
My process of creating this article involved brainstorming ideas for the actions, as well as researching carbon footprints. I then translated everything into the tone I wanted for the article. It is a brief, entertaining read that might inspire teenagers and young adults into taking small actions, that might in turn lead into taking bigger actions towards helping change their carbon footprint, and helping our environment.
Websites I Looked At:
