Journalism – Â鶹ÊÓƵ Fri, 26 Jan 2024 18:56:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon_logo-32x32.jpg Journalism – Â鶹ÊÓƵ 32 32 Awareness and Education of Climate Change Effects through Visual Arts in Mombasa /stories/awareness-and-education-of-climate-change-effects-through-visual-arts-in-mombasa/ Fri, 19 Jan 2024 18:22:22 +0000 /?post_type=case_stories&p=17723 Read More... from Awareness and Education of Climate Change Effects through Visual Arts in Mombasa

]]> Climate change has been impacting citizens all over the globe. However, coastal cities of developing countries are often the most affected due to the cities intensified demand for the production and consumption of goods, transport, and settlement. Because of this large demand, cities like Mombasa have struggled to keep up with rapid population growth resulting in a large upsurge of waste generation and pollution. To combat this waste growth, many coastal cities including Mombasa are relying on open land disposal and burning of trash causing significant effects on the environment. This creates a large source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions which contributes to the toxicity of air, global climate warming and other climate impacts.

Awareness and education about climate events and the effects of climate change is a large step to creating a more sustainable environment and visual arts are a great way to display awareness messages. The Technical University of Mombasa and the County Government of Mombasa are choosing to bring recognition to this issue by artistically depicting awareness content and solutions to waste management issues. To do this, Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication students will create an exhibition on climate change which will display some of the visual art created by the participants depicting the causes and solutions to waste management. The exhibition will open the workshop learnings to a larger audience in Mombasa and the coastal region of Kenya. 

This program will specifically focus on community engagement to understand the issues around waste management and climate change from the perspective of community members. To do this, students will engage with the county’s Department of Environment to understand the current approaches and plans for waste management and climate change in the county. Members of the Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies will look to participate in areas of awareness creation, community advocacy, lobbying, and partnerships. Students from the Bachelor of Marine Resource Management program will develop content for awareness and carry out a waste audit to find specific ways to lower waste in the community. Members of the Bachelor of Business and Information Technology school will also be assisting communities in developing future projects for investment in waste management and green enterprise. 

Using the Â鶹ÊÓƵ model approach, students involved in the project will connect with the community while leading and attending workshops speaking to members from the county government of Mombasa and the local community about waste management solutions. Students will also be developing case studies to be incorporated into the following academic programs at the university; Development Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication, Marine Resource management, and ICT. The program will span from September 2023 to July 2024 and will look to create awareness around the climate impacts of waste and educate community citizens on how to reduce waste through visual art. This project demonstrates how the Â鶹ÊÓƵ model can be used in unique ways to solve a growing issue and contributing greatly to climate change.

This project is ongoing and will be finished in July of 2024.

]]> Newberry Country Trail Strategic Public Relations /projects/newberry-country-trail-strategic-public-relations-3/ /projects/newberry-country-trail-strategic-public-relations-3/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:47 +0000 https://portal.epicn.org/case-stories/newberry-country-trail-strategic-public-relations/ Read More... from Newberry Country Trail Strategic Public Relations

]]> The Newberry Country Trail is a newly established tourist attraction in Central Oregon.
The trail begins and ends in La Pine, Oregon, and is 153 miles long. Because the trail
has not officially been introduced to the public, potential visitors are unaware of all it has
to offer. The City of La Pine hopes to make new audiences such as Oregon college
students and young families aware of this source of year-round adventure. The trail
highlights Central Oregon’s natural beauty and offers a wide variety of outdoor activities.
Its most popular attractions are biking, hiking, swimming, snowmobiling and skiing.
While it has been marketed as a family-friendly location, La Pine would like the see the
Newberry Country Trail visited by more college-aged adventurers as well. Along the trail
are popular Oregon landmarks such as Crescent Lake, Christmas Valley, Paulina Lake
and Fort Rock.
The Newberry Country Trail project has received grant money from Travel Oregon to
help increase tourism. The project is a part of the Travel Oregon Rural Tourism Studio.
With the help of Travel Oregon, La Pine will be able to interact with its new target
audiences in strategic ways. Since the trail offers outdoor activities for all skill levels,
people from all backgrounds can enjoy what the trail has to offer.
Some of the sites on the Newberry Country Trail, and even La Pine itself, can still be
considered hidden gems, unknown even to native Oregonians. Establishing a social
media presence, updating visual aesthetics for the trail, connecting with travel
influencers and collaborating with breweries and brands are viable opportunities
available to La Pine to create awareness for the Newberry Country Trail.
The beauty surrounding La Pine creates a natural opportunity for promotional
photography. High-quality, professional photos can be used on all channels, including
social media and the Newberry Country Trail website.
This strategic plan will allow La Pine and the Newberry Country Trail to promote the
hidden gems that are waiting to be explored to a more targeted audience than before.
Implementing the following strategies and tactics will lead La Pine to an established
online presence and, with time, an increase in tourism to the Newberry Country Trail.
This plan also sets a timeline for La Pine to establish the strategies and provided tactics
for success.
Some examples of success that we’ve found to be useful through our best practices
research are the Boise Trails website, social media practices utilized by Hydro Flask
and the Bend Ale Trail map.

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) has a library of graphics for stormwater best management practices. The MWMO uses these graphics on signs, flyers, and other communication materials for the public; these communication materials seek to engage the public in implementing stormwater best management practices to promote infiltration of water into the ground and prevent runoff to the Mississippi River. Other watershed districts in the area are interested in collaborating with the MWMO to use this set of graphics across watershed districts so that they will become more recognizable to the public and so that watershed districts can build momentum around them. However, before the MWMO proceeds with this collaborative effort, the MWMO would like to assess whether the graphics are effective in achieving their desired responses/goals in different communication settings. Students in Environmental Communication will evaluate these graphics with respect to the MWMO’s goals and provide their analysis and feedback to the MWMO to inform their work.

Project Overview Poster
Partner Outcomes
MWMO staff met in May 2017 to review and discuss the focus group’s comments. The students’ feedback provided insights that challenged the level of confidence MWMO had in some of the symbols they had been using. It also gave MWMO a roadmap for improving those images and bringing a higher level of consistency to their iconography. MWMO plans to do additional research with other audiences and ultimately redesigning several of the icons.

]]> The Freshwater Society’s (FWS) Master Water Stewards program (MWS) develops, certifies, and supports community volunteer leaders to manage stormwater at a neighborhood scale to improve water quality. FWS is wrapping up the third year of its partnership with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and is preparing to expand the MWS program to seven watershed districts and one city in the coming year, including the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. To support this expansion, FWS would like to develop a set of recommended communication practices for its new partners to use to develop and maintain engaged, interested, and involved water stewards after they have completed their certification. Students will examine how FWS has set up communication with MWS volunteers to identify and analyze what works well and what can be improved to develop and maintain engaged, interested, and involved water stewards after they have completed their certification. Based on this research, they will create a set of recommended communication practices or blueprint for communication for new local government unit partners to develop and maintain engaged, interested, and involved water stewards.

]]> The Freshwater Society’s (FWS) Master Water Stewards (MWS) program develops, certifies, and supports community volunteer leaders to work for the health of their water at a neighborhood scale to improve water quality. FWS has implemented the MWS program with many watershed districts and cities and is in the process of expanding state-wide. To date, MWS messaging has focused on stormwater and stormwater management; however, MWS would like to broaden their messaging about what the MWS program does and what it means to people. Students will create a strategic communications plan and materials/messaging for different audiences and communication outlets to achieve this goal.

]]> The Freshwater Society’s (FWS) Master Water Stewards (MWS) program develops, certifies, and supports community volunteer leaders to manage stormwater at a neighborhood scale to improve water quality. After a successful pilot, FWS will expand the MWS program to watershed districts and cities state-wide. As the program expands, the FWS needs to develop and refine recruiting materials and messaging for cities and watershed districts to attract community members to enroll in the program. Students in COJO 368 will develop messaging and recruiting materials for the MWS in various formats (possibly including flyers, website material, informational sessions, photos, videos) using FWS’ style guide.

]]> The City of Redmond worked with public relation students at the University
of Oregon to find solutions for increasing civic engagement. The following
pages include recommendations culled from eight different plans developed by
student teams during the academic term, with each team taking on the same
challenge of heightening citizen involvement in the City of Redmond. Separated
by target audience, this report includes strategies and tactics for social media
enhancement, improving media relations, establishing city committees, and
planning special events.
By targeting varying audiences, such as working class families, parents, high
school students, and the Hispanic/Latino(a) communities, the City of Redmond
has the opportunity to improve citizen awareness and involvement in city
planning and initiatives.

]]> The City of Albany primarily uses its website to provide information and resources concerning the historic districts for homeowners. However, the homeowners have to seek this information out themselves rather than the City of Albany reaching out and having a proactive communication strategy. We recommend a communication strategy that targets historic building owners, current and prospective, and begins the line of communication so that the City of Albany’s mission is disseminated efficiently.
While general awareness about the historic districts is high, misconceptions and false information are common due to the lack of proactive communication from the Historic Preservation Department. Instead of having Historic Preservation as its own section on the city’s website, users have to click on Departments, click on Community Development, then go on to Historic Preservation. Even though Historic Preservation does not need to be the featured page on the website, having to search for the information does not help create awareness. It would be beneficial for the City of Albany to create a Facebook page specifically for the Historic District and Preservation and link it to the front page of the City of Albany’s site or create a tab for the department that isn’t hidden.

]]> The city collaborated with students from the University of Oregon’s Strategic
Communication program to develop a communication plan to address a variety
of concerns. The city specifically wanted students to create a plan to help
citizens acknowledge the value of Minto-Brown Island Park, and by extension
other city-operated parks; to promote personal responsibility by park visitors;
to reduce litter in the park; and to discourage dog owners from allowing their
pets to run off leash in on-leash areas. Students were asked to produce a
multiplatform media plan with suggested messaging.
The communication plan was designed to augment a plan developed by
students from the University of Oregon’s Landscape Architecture department to
improve the physical, natural, and human amenities at the park.

]]> The City of Albany Historic Preserva on Program partnered with the University of Oregon (UO) School of Journalism and Communica ons’ Public Rela ons Strategic Planning and Cases class to improve historic homeowners’ involvement, interest, and awareness in historic preserva on while revitalizing rela onships with the Albany Heritage All-Star Community agencies.
Students addressed these issues in ve teams and created original strategic communica ons plans containing several sec ons: History and Background; Internal and External Analyses; Communica ons Audit; Problem and Goal Statements; Objec ves, Strategies, and Tac cs; Key Publics; Key Messaging; Evalua on; Calendar; and Budget.
Each group developed several di erent strategies and tac cs to help solve Albany’s pressing communica ons needs. Key strategies and tac cs include:
• Redesign and update informa on related to the Historic Preserva on Program on the City of Albany website.
• Strengthen communica on and coordina on with the Albany Heritage All-Star Community agencies, in par cular the Albany Visitors Associa on, as well as other historic preserva on stakeholders.
• Conduct more outreach to homeowners, realtors, developers, and contractors via social media, newsle ers, open houses, special events, handouts, presenta ons, and other tools.
• Increase the number and types of events that take place during Historic Preserva on month (May).
• Update codes, ordinances, and regula ons where possible.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Sustainable City Year Program Contact Info
Megan Banks
Sustainable City Year Program Manager
mbanks@uoregon.edu
(541) 346-6395

University Faculty Contact
Kelli Matthews
Journalism

kmatthew@uoregon.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Shawna Adams

Planner

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