The Mental Health Foundation is running a video competition for teenagers.

This is open to all students, but could be the product of a formative exercise for media production standards 2.6 and 3.6, for which a teaching unit plan is provided.

They are looking for a 30 second youth-friendly YouTube video that encourages youth to stop and pause when they hear  words like “nutjob”, “slut”, “schizo”, “mental”, and “homo”, and reflect on language that is stigmatising or discriminatory (especially in relation to mental illnesses).

The objectives are:

• to provide students with  a useful insight into health marketing
• to get students to help curtail bullying and to participate in mental health promotion
• to generate a high-quality, resource we can use in a viral marketing campaign
• it will be youth friendly and accessible
• it will help to change people’s attitudes,
• it well provide tools and skills to challenge inappropriate and demeaning language

What the brief will be for the video:

Work produced by youths has the potential to attract real interest from their peers.

Timeline:

Friday, 4^th of April             Thehe unit plan will be sent to interested teachers

Friday, 20^th of June          Entries close

Thursday, 17^th of July      Awards ceremony

What the students will gain:

This will offer a meaningful learning opportunity based on the opportunity to produce a ‘real world’ product which will be used in a media campaign.

Research has indicated that teenagers care about the discriminatory language that they and their peers use, and would appreciate the opportunity to make clear statements about what is appropriate and what is not.

There will be prizes, and an award ceremony.

Perhaps more significantly, the winning students will achieve internet fame through a viral marketing campaign based on the winning videos; this will involve promotion through social media platforms and celebrity endorsements.

Teaching Resource.

This programme offers a high-quality teaching and summative assessment unit, including a lesson plans and assessment criteria, for media studies achievement standards 2.6 and 3.6 (media production), giving students practice in the skill of video production. This resource will be ready for the beginning of term 2.

If you are interested, please contact ivan@mentalhealth.org.nz, or on 027 2808972.