Comparing campaigns for change

Campaigns for change

In this assessment, I am going to compare ten different campaigns and assess the similarities and differences between each one.

Sarah’s law:

This allowed parents, carers and guardians to formally ask the police to tell them if someone has a record of child sexual offences. It was developed to protect children. It was developed in consultation with Sara Payne, whose eight year old daughter Sarah was murdered by a convicted paedophile. Sarah, who lived in Hersham, Surrey, disappeared on the evening of July 1^st 2000 from a cornfield near the home of her paternal grandparents, Terence and Lesley Payne, in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex where she had disappeared. A body was found on July 17^th 2000 in a field near Pulborough, some 15 miles from Kingston Gorse where she had disappeared. It was confirmed Sarah.  Roy Whiting was convicted of the abduction and murder of Sarah on December 12^th 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whiting had previously abducted and sexually assaulted an eight year old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and was sentenced for four years in prison.

Ms Payne campaigned in support of bringing in a scheme similar to Megan’s Law in the US, which allows every parent in the country to know if dangerous offenders are living in their area.

Clare’s law:

Clare’s law was a campaign to create a scheme that allows people to find out from the police if their partner has a history of domestic violence. It is named after 36 year old Clare Wood Who was strangled and set on fire in her home in Greater Manchester, in February 2009 by George Appleton, her boyfriend at the time, who had a record of violence against women. Her father, Michael Brown, who campaigned for the introduction of Clare’s Law, is convinced she would still be alive had she known the full extent of Appleton’s previous behaviour.

Lillian’s law: 

This is a campaign trying to introduce roadside drugs testing devices, make it a criminal offence to drive under the influence of drugs, impose tough sentences on those found guilty of drug driving. The campaign was started after 14 year old Lillian Groves was killed outside her home in New Adlington in Surrey by speeding motorist John Page, who had been smoking cannabis.

But the 36 year old landscaper was never charged with a drug offence and was sentenced to just eight months in prison after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving. He was released from prison after just eight weeks.

Similarities:

The similarities between these are that they were all started by relatives as key campaigners of the person who was killed. They also are all campaigning about something that has directly affected them. Sarah’s mother Elizabeth Williams campaigned for Sarah’s law which was a campaign for parents to be able to find out if any paedophiles live in the local community. Clare’s law was campaigned for by her father Michael Brown who wanted to allow people to find out if their partners had a history of domestic violence. Lillian’s law was campaigned by Gary and Natasha Groves who wanted to introduce tighter drug tests on drivers suspected to be under the influence, and for drivers caught driving under the influence of drugs, to have tougher sentences.

Differences:

The differences between the three campaigns are that all of the victims were killed in different ways, for example, Clare Wood was strangled and set on fire, Lillian Groves was killed by a driver under the influence of drugs and Sarah Payne was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered. Another difference would be that the campaigns where all campaigning for different laws to be changed. For example, Sarah’s Law was campaigning to allow for a law that allows parents to check if there are any paedophiles in the surrounding area, so that they can protect their children.

Anne Ming’s campaign:

Anne Ming’s law wanted to remove the Double Jeopardy Law which prevents a person from being tried twice for the same offence. This was campaigned for by Ann Ming after Billy Dunlop killed her daughter Julie Hogg and had previously been cleared for murder as there had been no evidence to support him being the murderer. While serving time for assault Billy confessed to a prison officer that he had murdered Julie. However, at the time under the old double Jeopardy Law he was not allowed to be tried again even though he was guilty. Anne Ming went through a 17 year process to make changes to the double jeopardy law. This meant that if there was solid evidence to support a second conviction then the case can be taken to court.

Bobby Turnbull’s campaign:

Bobby, who lost his mother, sister and aunt in the Horden New Year’s Day shootings, launched a petition which calls for better co-operation between police and health professionals, and asks for individuals with a criminal past, history of mental instability or domestic violence to be identified when they are applying for a gun licence. He has already won the first part of his campaign to toughen gun laws, as the Home Office announced that new guidance will ensure that a history of domestic violence will be taken into account when considering a licence application.

Bobby Turnbull’s campaign was similar to Anne Ming’s campaign because they both wanted a change in the law, to help prevent the things that happened to them from happening to other people in the future. They have also both lost a family member which has caused them to start their campaign, and they both named their campaigns after themselves. The difference between them is that Anne Ming’s daughter did not lose her life as a result of a weakness in the law instead it was a weakness in the law that prevented the conviction of her killer, whereas Bobby Turnbull’s relatives where killed due to a weakness in the law.

The Scottish independence campaign:

The aim of the Scottish independence campaign is for Scotland to become independent from the United Kingdom. It aimed to use a petition in the media (on the campaigns website) and wanted to receive one million signatures to say they wanted independence for Scotland. A national referendum was held in Scotland on the 18^th September 2014. Voters were asked either “yes” or “no” to the question: should Scotland be an independent country. The outcome was that Scotland would stay in the United Kingdom. But, after the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, in which Scotland voted to remain, the leader of the Scottish National party and first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has stated that the prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum is “highly likely”.

The assisted dying campaign:

This is a campaign to change the law on assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. Their aim is to allow dying people to control the manner and timing of their death. One of the main forces behind the campaign are Dignity in Dying.

The anti-fox hunting campaign:

This is a campaign that is fighting against the hunting of foxes with dogs, in 2005 Hunting with dogs was banned but after the ban fox hunting has still been taking place. People are still campaigning to tighten the fox hunting laws.

 Both the Scottish independent campaign and the anti-fox hunting campaign are similar as both of them have their main force the public instead of relatives or families like Bobby Turnbull’s campaign.

Media coverage in the campaigns:

The media coverage is also a similarity shared between many of my campaigns. However, there are also differences as different campaigns used different types of media to promote their campaigns. Sarah’s law used media coverage as one of their main campaigning methods which was in the form of newspapers. News of the World published ‘name and shame’ articles where they named sex offenders and stated where they lived to help promote Sarah’s law and get the police and government to take action. The Scottish Independence campaign also had media coverage in newspapers which is similar to Sarah’s Law but they also had petitions on the internet and television coverage leading up to the referendum.  Clare’s Law was also covered by the newspapers similarly to Sarah’s Law.

Campaigns with a lot of support from celebrities:

Two of my campaigns have support from high profile celebrities, these campaigns are the Scottish Independence campaign and the assisted dying campaign. The Scottish Independence campaign had a huge amount of celebrity backing leading up to the referendum. Celebrities like David Bowie, JK Rowling, Sir Alex Ferguson and Andy Murray all supported the Yes Scotland campaign to leave the United Kingdom. Similar to this, the assisted Dying Campaign had the support of the author Terry Pratchett who publicly spoke about his support for the campaign.

Use of petitions:

Both the Scottish independence campaign and Sarah’s law used petitions. The Scottish independence campaign used petitions to try and find out how people feel about Scotland leaving Britain; however this campaign was not successful as the majority voted to stay with Great Britain. They have also created another petition to see if there should be another referendum on Scottish independence. Sarah’s law used petitions to help gain recognition from the government, and hopefully gain their support, to tighten the laws on policing paedophiles.

Evaluate the effectiveness of media used in campaigns for change

Blogs:

Blogs are regularly updated websites or webpages that are typically run by one person or a small group and is written in informal or conversational language. Blogs can be a useful method of campaigning as there are many different advantages, although there are also some disadvantages

Firstly as it is written in an informal language everyone is able to understand what is being said. This therefore opens it up to a much wider audience as formal language can sometimes deter people who might not be able to understand that kind of language.  Although the use of informal language may also cause some people to not take what is being said seriously. Blogs link well with social media as they can easily be shared which will ensure that it is seen by a wider audience. This is a very big advantage as it means people on other social media websites can also read the blog posts. It is also cheap if you use a free blogging service such as Blogger. However blogs aren’t very popular. Most young people don’t read blogs and prefer other social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

Television:

Television adverts are a form of campaigning defined as a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organisation, which conveys a message or markets a product or service. They can be used to raise awareness in campaigns to inform the public. The main advantage of television adverts in that it reaches a wide audience and is easily accessible. Most people nowadays own a television, so if the advert is on during prime time it will be viewed by millions of people. It is easily accessible as people have to watch the advert if they are watching the programme live. Every channel except the BBC in this country plays adverts, which means there is a high chance of people watching the advert at least once if played on a few different channels. They use graphic images to play on and manipulate emotions which in turn will make people want to support the campaign and raise awareness of the issue the campaign is based on. 

The disadvantages of using television adverts are that some people do not watch the adverts, and instead use the time to go to the toilet or do other things whilst they wait for the adverts to finish. Also if someone is watching the programme recorded or on catch-up they can fast forward the adverts. Another issue is that is an extremely expensive method as it costs thousands of pounds just to play your advert on the television, and you would also have to factor in the cost of actually producing the advert.

Social networking:

The definition of social networking is the process of gaining attention through social media networks. There are major advantages of using social media networking as a campaign method as it is a very modern. Many people use social media which will make my campaign easily visible and accessible to a wide range of people. It is also very easy and practical to share links, videos and information through social media. If many people share the campaign through social media it could go viral which would greatly benefit our campaign as lots more people would see it and it would be free. Social media can also be accessed through many different devices, such as smart phones and computers so it can be accessed at any time. Easy accessibility is a massive advantage for a campaign as it means people can easily keep up to date with how the campaign is doing.                                                                                                However there are some disadvantages to using social media. One of the main disadvantages is that some people still do not have access to social media; this then limits my campaign to people who do not use social media. People who do not use social media are usually the elderly as they have not grown up with computers or social media so they tend to find it too confusing and difficult to use. Another disadvantage of social media is that you have to rely on other people to share you campaign, so if no one shares your campaign no one will see it.

Hit songs:

A hit song is a song produced to raise money for a charity or raise awareness of a certain cause and usually uses celebrities. The main advantage of using a hit song is that it uses many celebrities which will bring a much wider audience than the use of one celebrity. For example, band aid uses lots of different celebrities to gain more interest from a wider range of people, as you will gain the interest of all of the celebrity’s fans, rather than just one person’s fan. Band aid 30 used Bono who was the lead vocalist of U2 but also used One Direction who, which helped the cause to gain more recognition. In addition, hit songs for campaigns are usually widely played as it is for a good cause. It can be played in a lot of different places as well such as radio stations, shops and public places, and on adverts, which means lots of people will hear it. If the song is very popular you may be able to gain a large profit from it, which you would be able to use to fund the campaign.

However there are some disadvantages, the use of many different celebrities could also be a disadvantage. People may not like certain celebrities who are used in the song which might put them off the song; it will also be a lot more expensive to hire more celebrities than less. Producing the song and hiring the celebrities will also be very expensive. The song could also not be very popular which would cause it to not make much money, which would mean you wouldn’t make a profit and it wouldn’t be played on the radio much so not many people would hear it.

Events:

The definition of event is a planned public occasion that could be used to raise awareness of a cause or campaign. The main advantage of an event is that they are fun and it allows people to attend something that they actually want to attend all whilst they learn about the campaign. Events attract large audiences which mean more people will become aware of the campaign. A type of event could be a sponsored run or cycle, this could be one where they have to dress up in funny clothes, or there can be more serious one where they are sponsored to complete a large distance, people will usually invite their friends to take part with them which increase the amount of people attending. Also because these events are sponsored lots of people will get their friends and family to sponsor them to complete the event. The money is then donated to the campaign. Which means you could end up with a lot of money if lots of people take part. The friends and family that donate will also be made aware of the campaign as they will want to know where their money is going.  Events can also have some disadvantages, as they have to be held in one place it limits the amount of people that can come. Also if it is a sponsored event not everyone will like the chosen sport, so it will limit the event to people that can do/like that sport.