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The Designer as an Agent for Social Change: Creating an Alternative Communications Model Outside of the Marketplace of Private Media Ownership

Schellhas, Hans

Abstract Details

2007, MDes, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Design.
As the primary source of information for society, the mainstream media shapes public discourse and citizens’ perception of reality. Because journalistic decision making by corporate-owned media outlets is based on profit, many critical public interests and perspectives are ignored in news reporting. The result is a media marketplace that disenfranchises the voices of many progressive social justice groups like the Global Justice movement. This thesis examines the mainstream media and proposes how activist-designers can utilize their unique abilities to increase awareness and provoke social change through alternative forms of communication. The Fair Trade Multi-Media Project (FTMP) is a model based on the philosophy that visual communication is a powerfully persuasive tool that can catalyze a paradigm shift in awareness and public discourse. Additionally, advances in technology provide windows of opportunities to create alternative sources of communication that circumvent the corporate media establishment to better educate the public. The functional attributes and societal implications of this theoretical model are discussed herein.
Dr. Dennis Puhalla (Advisor)
84 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schellhas, H. (2007). The Designer as an Agent for Social Change: Creating an Alternative Communications Model Outside of the Marketplace of Private Media Ownership [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1186772616

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schellhas, Hans. The Designer as an Agent for Social Change: Creating an Alternative Communications Model Outside of the Marketplace of Private Media Ownership. 2007. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1186772616.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schellhas, Hans. "The Designer as an Agent for Social Change: Creating an Alternative Communications Model Outside of the Marketplace of Private Media Ownership." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1186772616

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)