Lakehead Media Studies class inspires students to make a difference

Lakehead University Packet & Times column – December 12, 2013

Lakehead Media Studies class inspires students to make a difference

by Julie-Line Puckering

Hello! My name is Julie-Line Puckering (but everyone just calls me Julie), and I hail from Toronto. I’m a third year student in the Honours Bachelor of Arts and Science (HBASc) program, majoring in Media Studies for Social Change.

Last month, the Media Art & Activism class, taught by Lakehead’s Dr. Sandra Jeppesen, put together what is called a “protestival.” This is essentially a protest-festival, where we include an element of fun and interaction. A more worldly example of a protestival would be the Toronto Pride Parade – protesting in an inclusive, non-violent way. Our cause?  – to bring composting to the Lakehead Orillia campus.

Our class spent considerable time planning and creating the protestival event, which consisted of an information and activity centre on campus where we involved students in displays, giant bake sale, photo booth, and questions and answers.

This was the first year that the Media Art & Activism class was offered at Lakehead, so no one really knew what to expect. The class was open to any student in third or fourth year, so as Media Studies students, we were introduced to students with different media and artistic backgrounds. The course was an option for students with an interest in creativity or social justice, such as Julia Warner, an Education student, who said she was drawn to the course because of the unique blend of arts and activism.

We learned about the four main types of media (print, audio/visual, internet and street) and how activist groups take advantage of these different methods in order to get their message out to the world. There were many guest speakers from different activist causes that came to talk to us in class about their experiences in the real world.

The guest speakers were helpful in aiding us in our first task – learning how to make decisions and come to a consensus without a designated group leader. Being a class of 20-plus students, it was nearly impossible to have everyone agree on everything. However, since we were learning to take a horizontal stance on decision-making, we needed to learn to listen to the ideas of others and learn to let go of our own stubbornness in order to keep moving forward in the planning process.

After coming to an agreement on a topic for our protestival, we needed to come up with our mandate and demands. It took several weeks, and many lively discussions, and in the end, we were able to agree on our mandate: “To mobilize, influence, and motivate the student population and Lakehead community to utilize and promote green initiatives.”  We also identified three specific demands: the implementation of an on-campus composting program, the creation of a community garden, and the active use of the campus rainwater retention system. Based on these demands, we were able to start using different forms of media in order to promote our campaign and get our message out.

Posters and decorative compost bins were placed around the school in order to get the attention of students, staff and faculty. Some of the posters were filled with information about our demands, while others were simply hand-drawn illustrations depicting a rotting banana, with the words “Compost NOW.”  We also set up a Facebook page where visitors could find information about the status of Lakehead’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification, and were invited to join and support our cause. During the actual protestival, a group of students rocked out on a guitar and drummed on a compost bin to create music. And, of course, we occupied a fair amount of space in the Learning Commons, which attracted people passing by and brought attention to our cause.

The course required only one individual paper [assignment]; aside from that, it was primarily a group-centered class that involved everyone in some way. As my classmate Hailey Mulhall said, "This is the first time that I have gotten to know everyone in my class... it's pretty awesome.” Julia Warner added, "The experience has made me want to get more involved... before I took this course, I tended to stay in the background."

Overall, this course was pretty amazing. Sure, there were a lot of stressful moments, and yes, there were times when we wanted to give up. However, we never did. We kept pushing and going forward. This class really brought out the strength that students have and made us delve deeper into real issues. This class made us take another look at the world, and how we can help fix it. This class was a lot of fun – we were able to speak our minds, argue with each other, and have the opportunity to make a difference.

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Lakehead students Hailey Mulhall and Julie Puckering present a "zine" that was created (using one sheet of paper) to provide information about the University's environmental practices for a unique class project that resulted in a “protestival.”