Mental Healthcare Equity

Propaganda is a very important tool to use in order to get your point across, but there are some keys things one needs to hit in order to make the message effective, like content, target audience, strategies, devices, and word choice.My target audience from the infographic I created is the general public. I feel that anyone can get involved in any cause in more ways than one. The general public should all feel an attachment to the cause for mental healthcare because mental illnesses are not restricted to just one group of people. So this propaganda will be broadcasted to everyone regardless of race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Since anyone can be impacted by a mental illness, then anyone would want to consider the cause. Lots of members of the population may even have close friends or loved ones suffering from a mental illness and do not have enough places to go or means to reach out to for help.

I chose the title, “Be an Advocate for Mental Healthcare Equity” because examining our mental health has become a prevalent topic of discussion in our society, and more and more looking to find solutions to these problems. I also think that calling someone an ‘advocate’ for any cause or project has very good connotations, which makes sense given the name calling device used in propaganda techniques. Even though name calling is typically used to paint an opponent in a bad light, I feel that good name calling can be just as effective for establishing a following for a worthy cause.

I chose to include a section at the topic of the infographic indicating the problem and what the solution is for how we could achieve mental healthcare equity because it adds more of a plan of the process in the eyes of the viewer. When reviewing a lot of the examples of propaganda in this class, I noticed that a lot of the pieces were meant to sway the viewer in one direction in a purely emotional sense, rather than also argumenting for the reasons as to why they should follow a cause. I feel that explicitly citing the problem and providing steps that lead to a solution will seem much more real to viewers and like they can actually do something small to help achieve mental healthcare equities. Additionally, I bolded “elected officials” to specifically demonstrate who we should be contacting to rectify these problems.

The icons used in this infographic are not the typical use of “plain folks”, but I feel it still gets the job done. These icons are colorfully eye-catching, so viewers will be engaged with it, and they don’t necessarily apply to any one group of people. Additionally, the use of numbers with steps makes the information easy to follow and is understandable for people because it can organize their thoughts on the topic. I also used small images, like check marks and people coming together at protests, that coordinated with the points made about how to make a difference and getting involved to emphasize that anyone has easy access to get involved. Other images at the top were chosen for being visually pleasing and drawing attention to the importance of the impact our mental health has, like a light bulb to represent our thoughts and a heart to represent our emotions. This ties in perfectly with me wanting to target the general public as the audience.

I also wanted to pick 5 tactics that someone can use to get involved that are easily understandable and recognizable for their own lives. Calling for immediate reelection can seem pretty far out of reach, but it is always important to keep track of how to help our representatives stick to their original campaign promises. Some small ways of doing this are by signing up to receive email alerts from your legislators on what they are up to, as well as following them on social media. In addition to watching or keeping tabs on your representatives’ voting patterns, people can also call their legislators and let them know how they feel about their votes on certain policies. It is important to make yourself feel heard and like you have a voice in what your government is doing.

If people are afraid of a more direct confrontation with their legislators, and feel that problems can be solved more as a group than one on one, then people should also know how to get involved in their communities in order to try to make a difference. People can show up to public forums that are happening, where citizens go to discuss important issues that they care about or may be impacting them; such as healthcare. They can also attend committee meetings to weigh in on how we should or should not go about fixing certain issues, or even go to speaking events to give speeches and spread the word about opinions regarding mental health care inequities. Getting involved in these settings is also a great way to determine one’s life aspirations and can be a great environment for networking within the community and finding mentors. Another beneficial way of getting involved and making some noise is to participate in rallies and protests. People often forget to exercise these rights and do not understand the amount of power that they have when they come together and fight for something they believe in. People are always permitted to peacefully assemble to protest and organize themselves to make themselves heard. Social media is quickly becoming a basis for activism of many forms, and can be a tool to emphasize the power of protests by amplifying the cause to new levels. This makes it harder for elected officials to forget their campaign promises once rallies and marches begin. This is a great way for bandwagoning to occur especially if certain rallies or protests make their way onto the news so more and more people will see it and want to be a part of the cause.

If you don’t like what is being depicted in real life or what is coming from the offices of elected officials, then this news can be blasted online for so many followers to see. Things like this will quickly gain momentum, so it is important to utilize this power by providing reliable information and sources, in order to avoid the sharing of falsehoods. It is also important to share good news as well as what you don’t like. This will validate your representatives when they vote on policies you approve of and can encourage the voting patterns you want to see.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to create an infographic because I normally write papers when it comes to projects, so it was a lot more fun to let out my creative side. I did have a hard time finding a topic and creating the angle I needed to make it propaganda, so I stuck to my guns and tried to go for educational propaganda that I hope people get to see in the future. I understand propaganda is supposed to sway people to make a decision, but I hope they can do it with facts as well as emotional appeals. I also wanted to make sure that my propaganda was void of card stacking devices because that is a very harmful form of propaganda that can dissuade people from ideas for the wrong reasons.