Project Rationale Paper

Project Rationale Paper

Names of All Group Members

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Course Code and Name

Instructor’s Name

Date of Submission

Project Rationale Paper

Introduction

Alongside the launch of the new Graduate Certificate project in Health Communication in collaboration with the Department of Communication of Journalism at the UWEC, the present paper seeks to further the cooperation in promoting the program to select audiences. As a group, we intend to showcase various communication strategies acquired in the course of our studies through analysis of an issue, interpreting available information, and creating a viable intervention. Therefore, the paper presents an intervention plan, a rationale for the selections made, and communication concepts that relate to the problems and solutions. The key communication challenge that the Graduate Certificate project in Health Communication faces is poor reach to communities and target audiences. The program directors are unable to connect with social workers who are the main target audiences. Social workers will be key in this program as they will assist in reaching communities. At the moment, the project has goodwill resulting from its novelty, an aspect that will be exploited in the communication intervention and plan.

Communication Intervention and Rationale

In this project, we opted to use a hybrid approach that combines social media and infographics to convey a message. Essentially, the infographic chosen and designed specifically for this study will be shared on social media platforms in specific social work groups and forums to increase reach and effectiveness. Therefore, the main focus is on the infographic as it will be shared to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, using relevant hashtags and posted in different social worker groups relevant to our chosen location.

An infographic is a visual representation of data, generally in the form of graphs or charts, that is used to communicate information. Difficult information may be given in a clear and succinct manner through the use of an infographic, which combines text and graphics. We found that infographics can be used for a variety of purposes, including signs, maps, and charts. It is possible to see either a single event or stories that are dependent on time. According to Baglama et al. (2017), they can also be used to illustrate events that have occurred in the recent past. When we look at a billboard or read the newspaper or browse the internet, we’re continuously inundated with information graphics (infographics) (e.g., interactive displays or self-contained narrative animations). We agreed that such use of infographics is often very effective in enabling a message to get across to the target audience. Tarkhova et al. (2020) found infographics to better and effectively present difficult material in a succinct and intelligible manner in a range of contexts and situations compared to other approaches such as written narratives or brochures. We intend to use this to our advantage in reaching more social workers to make the program a success.

Information graphics that are successful use elements of psychology, analytics, visual communication design, statistics, and usability into their design in order to be more effective. Infographics, by illustrating data, aid in the memory, comprehension, and inference of information, all of which contribute to improved thinking and behavior. By utilizing visual communication strategies, our strategy shows that it will be possible to reach a larger and more diverse audience of social workers. Infographics is a type of visual communication that is becoming increasingly popular (Milovanovic & Ivanisevic, 2014), due to its effectiveness and appeal. The most frequent method of presenting this information is through visually appealing and useful subject-specific infographics.

When it comes to communication, infographics provide a number of benefits over other forms of media. COVID-19, for example, has been a popular topic since it began spreading over the world. A well-designed infographic that highlights the varied symptoms of the ailment has helped a large number of people understand it better. Informative, engaging, and useful tools for a variety of vocations, infographics may be a valuable resource for many people. It is the ability to efficiently transmit information that is the most valuable attribute of infographics. Infographics are more visually appealing than plain text because they use pictures, vibrant colors, and other eye-catching elements. Because people’s attention spans are shortening, more and more individuals are opting to “scan” rather than read material on the internet.

By using infographics, we conceptualized that our communication strategy will devote a greater amount of time to a specific subject and target a very specific audience. Infographics may be simply shared on the internet, which will work very well with our combined strategy of using social media to share our infographic design. The infographic will be published online on social media platforms in order to get an embed code for every site used. This code, will be used to automatically create a connection between the program’s website, the social media platform, and to reach more people. As an added advantage, these infographics are simple to share on social media and have a higher chance of becoming viral than plain old text messages. It is possible to improve search engine optimization by using an infographic that is both aesthetically attractive and well-designed. The fact that individuals are more inclined to share and click on infographics has resulted in a rise in website traffic, according to Milovanovic and Ivanisevic (2014). As a result, the “Page Ranking” algorithms of Google and Bing will benefit as well, which we feel is crucial to the search engine optimization of the health program. We picked an infographic over other options because it saves on space, notably on billboards, while also significantly enhancing efficacy and lowering expenses.

It is worth mentioning that the infographic design will be complemented by the use of social media. Social media platforms that we have chosen for this project include Instagram, Facebook, and twitter, to reach and target specific social workers’ forums and to help in the sharing of the program’s agenda. During the last several decades, we have made substantial advances in our knowledge of health and the effect of behavioral, sociocultural, and system-level variables on health outcomes. In recent years, technological advancements have spurred the spread of mobile devices that are connected to the Internet, which are now available to people from all walks of life and from all geographical locations. Social media, which is used by billions of people all over the world, is a frequent example of a technological invention that has spread widely. Social media refers to online communities of people that assemble to exchange information, knowledge, and ideas via the use of conversational media such as forums and blogs. Many health-related social media sites are presently available to the general public, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media in health promotion is frequently used for networking and community development, as well as for educating both consumers and healthcare practitioners, among other things.

Foregone Alternatives and other Considerations

We considered using a stand-alone social media strategy to communicate the program needs but decided against it on the basis that we needed something more specific to reach our intended audience. Before settling in on using infographics and combining the same with social media, there was a suggestion to create brochures and hand them physically to our target groups. This was quickly ruled out due to its impracticability. There is no way of reaching all social and health workers and handing them the brochures. Therefore, we decided on the infographic and the social media route in order to not only save time but also reach the target audience faster and more effectively. Infographics, in our assessment, are a basic poster-like artwork that presents facts and information in a more visually attractive manner than traditional spreadsheets. We decided to use infographics to compress a large quantity of information into a short period of time in order for our audience to hear and retain our message more quickly and effectively. By following our combined strategy with social media sites, our most significant points will be remembered by the target audience. There is a large number of infographics designs accessible, so we were able to pick one that we thought was most appropriate for our presentation. It gave us a lot of wiggle room in presentation, message capturing, and what should be included in the infographic.

Conclusion

The key communication challenge that the Graduate Certificate project in Health Communication faces is poor reach to communities and target audiences. Our team found a way to help in addressing this issue by use of infographics and a social media combined strategy. By using infographics, we conceptualized that our communication strategy will devote a greater amount of time to a specific subject and target a very specific audience. Social media would help to better target our audience through the use of links, QR codes, hashtags, and forms of tagging benefits that come with social media to increase viewership and reach our audience. We found that infographics that are successful use elements of psychology, analytics, visual communication design, statistics, and usability into their design in order to be more effective. We intend to apply the same to increase efficiency.

References

Baglama, B., Yucesoy, Y., Uzunboylu, H., & Özcan, D. (2017). Can infographics facilitate the learning of individuals with mathematical learning difficulties. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education, 5(2), 119-128.

Milovanovic, D., & Ivanisevic, L. (2014). Infographics as a marketing communication tool. New Business Models and Sustainable Competitiveness, 266-273.

Tarkhova, L., Tarkhov, S., Nafikov, M., Akhmetyanov, I., Gusev, D., & Akhmarov, R. (2020). Infographics and their application in the educational process. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 15(13), 63-80.