Friday, April 24, 2020

Public Service Announcement free essay sample

Public service announcements, or PSAs, are short messages produced on film, videotape, DVD, CD, audiotape, or as a computer file and given to radio and television stations. Generally, PSAs are sent as ready-to-air audio or video tapes, although radio stations (especially community or public stations, such as campus radio or National Public Radio affiliates) sometimes prefer a script that their announcers can read live on the air. They can be done very simply with a single actor reading or performing a message, or they can be elaborate, slickly-produced messages with music, dramatic story-lines, and sound or visual effects. Broadcast media radio and television are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to serve in the public interest. Most stations use PSAs as one of the ways they meet this requirement. While they arent required to donate a fixed percentage of air time per day to PSAs, stations do have to state in their licensing and renewal applications how much air time they plan to devote to PSAs. We will write a custom essay sample on Public Service Announcement or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Most stations donate about a third of their commercial spots to non-commercial causes; in other words, if a station has 18 minutes of commercials in a given hour, six minutes of that will probably be devoted to PSAs. Some advantages of PSAs * PSAs are generally inexpensive. Since the airtime is donated, your only cost is production. If you keep to a tight budget, you can make PSAs very cheaply. * Most stations will allow you to include a telephone number for more information in your PSA. PSAs tend to be really effective at encouraging the audience to do something for example, call a phone number for more information, use condoms, or have your pet spayed or neutered. * PSAs can raise awareness of your issue. Some limitations of PSAs * Because PSAs depend on donated time, youll often find youre not able to get them run on all the media outlets youd like to, or you may find yourself at the mercy of station staff members who may be overworked, arbitrary, or personally opposed to your gr oups work. PSAs are often run as filler in the middle of the night or during other times when only a few people are listening or watching. * The competition among non-profit groups for free air time is very stiff depending on the market, there could be hundreds of other groups vying for time on any given station. You may not be able to count on getting a lot of air time for your PSAs. * Stations tend to shy away from controversial PSAs. If your group focuses on an issue that is the subject of heated public debate anti-abortion advocacy or gay rights, for example you may have a hard time convincing stations to run your PSA. * Stations may not track and report when your PSAs have been played, but they will do this for paid advertising. * PSAs do require a bit of work on your part, and they tend to be ineffective at influencing policy. Consider them more when you have a specific action you want the viewer or listener to take, or coordinate with other activities designed to influence peoples behavior.