I am Woman, Hear Me Score: Equal Pay for Women Athletes
COM416 Propaganda — Shannon Lee
Leap 1 Essay:
Propaganda is a creative way to get a message across about a certain topic or issue. We see propaganda in our everyday lives and it is seen in history as well. Propaganda can be created in many different ways, such as videos, infographics, blog posts, and radio ads. No matter how propaganda is created, it is used to get a point across about a specific issue and shed light on it to others.
When looking for a topic to create propaganda for, I came across an article about how women’s athletes do not get the same amount of pay as men in the same sport. The specific sport that I chose to write about is the U.S. Women’s national soccer team. They are one of the most successful sports teams in the world, yet they do not receive the same pay that men in the same sport do. They have won three World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals, yet they are paid as little as 38% of what the men’s team players make. On top of this, the women’s team makes more revenue than the men’s team, so this is obviously an issue for them as they are not seen as equals in the sport of soccer. I decided to create an infographic in support of this in hopes to raise awareness about the wage gap, especially in the sport of soccer.
When creating the propaganda infographic, I wanted to ensure that it was clear what I was advocating for. I decided to make the basis of the infographic about women’s soccer, so I made the visual an image of a women’s soccer team. I made the coor scheme black, white, and yellow so that the yellow color stands out against the rest of the infographic. In this section, I wrote “I am woman, hear me score,” and that is the main focus of the infographic. This was also the title of the article that I read about this issue, so I thought that it would be a good center focus for this piece of propaganda. I then added two quotes that voice the opinion’s of the women’s soccer team, one of them being, “Demand equal pay for women athletes.” This obviously states what the issue is, and I made it stand out by making this quote yellow against a black and white image in the background. The final quote that I added to this piece of propaganda is a quote that states, “Want us to play? We want our pay.” This quote is demanding and the tone is serious. This voices the opinions of the women on this soccer team and shows their frustration about this problem that they are facing. The wage gap between men and women has been an issue for countless years, and they finally want to put their foot down and make a stand against this problem, which is obviously very unfair.
When learning about propaganda and how it works, there are many aspects that go into the creation and execution of the propaganda being made. To gain the viewer’s attention, using specific images and quotes is important because you want to make sure that you are clearly getting your point across and putting the information out to the public in a strategic way. I think that the image I used, the quotes, and the color scheme of this piece of propaganda effectively gets my message across to the audience and it states the issue at hand in a clear and concise manner. It is easy to understand, but it is demanding and serious at the same time. I feel that if someone saw this infographic, they would be influenced in a way where they understand that there is discrimination going on within this sport and that it is completely unfair and unjust for women.
When creating this infographic, I enjoyed being able to pick my topic and discuss the issue at hand, which is the wage gap between men and women, specifically in sports. This is something I am passionate about considering how unfair it is for these women who work so hard to be paid less than men doing the same activity. I think it is important to touch on this and spread awareness because it is a pressing issue for many women. Something I disliked about creating this propaganda is coming up with strong quotes and messages to include in this because I wanted it to come across as urgent and demanding. When creating an infographic, there is only so much room for information on one template, so I had to be strategic about what to write and where to place it all together to make it visually pleasing, while also being clear about what the message is that I am conveying to the audience. Overall, I enjoyed creating this infographic as it is something I am passionate about and there needs to be awareness spread about it more. Women in soccer do the same exact thing as men do in soccer, yet they are underappreciated and scammed out of money that they could be earning. This issue has been going on for so long, and that is why I decided to choose this topic, because I am educated about it and I agree with what was said in the article about it as well.
