Page 264 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

examining Media Campaigns
aCTIvITy 3.18
learning Targets
• Identify and explain how specific media types appeal to different target audiences.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of specific elements of multimedia campaigns.
• Create a visual that shows how to use persuasive appeals in different types of media to convince a target audience to take action.
Preview
In this activity, you will read about multimedia campaigns and think about how to create your own.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the informational text, underline words and phrases that describe what public service announcements (PSAs) are like.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
Informational Text
Public Service Announcements
1 Broadcast media—radio and television—are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to serve “in the public interest.” Most stations
use PSAs as one of the ways they meet this requirement. While they aren’t required to donate a fixed percentage of air time per day to PSAs, stations do have to state in their licensing and renewal applications how much air time they plan to devote to PSAs. Most stations donate about a third of their commercial spots to non-commercial causes; in other words, if a station has 18 minutes of commercials in a given hour, six minutes of that will probably be devoted to PSAs.
2 Public service announcements, or PSAs, are short messages produced on film, videotape, DVD, CD, audiotape, or as a computer file and given to radio and television stations. Generally, PSAs are sent as ready-to-air audio or video tapes, although radio stations sometimes prefer a script that their announcers can read live on the air.
3 Since World War II, public service announcements (PSAs) have informed and attempted to persuade the public about a variety of issues.
4 If people find an ad or PSA entertaining enough, they might talk about it with a friend or share it online. When this happens, many more people will receive the intended message.
WorD CoNNeCTIoNS
Word Relationships
You can see that commercial derives from the word commerce, which is the buying and selling of goods. As a noun a commercial refers to an advertisement on television or radio. As an adjective,
it describes a business or enterprise where the main goal is to make money and earn profits.
INDepeNDeNT
reaDING LINk
Read and Discuss
Suppose you were to
help the subject of your independent reading narrative make a PSA to promote his or her cause. Discuss with a classmate who the target audience of the PSA would be. What words or phrases would you use to appeal to that audience?
Unit 3 • The Challenge to Make a Difference 237
LearNING STraTeGIeS:
Graphic Organizer, Note- taking, Discussion Groups, Sketching
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