Hope and the Big Picture A Near Future Approach to Social Change
Main Article Content
Abstract
In 2008, the documentary film Food, Inc. was released, depicting health and safety concerns related to industrial food production. Participant Media partnered with the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, a media research center, to better understand the impact of their film and social action campaign. I was hired as a consultant and helped to develop a study that examined the kinds of changes people had made after watching the film.
Given the magnitude of the issues covered by the film, some viewers fell into despair and hopelessness. Others who also understood the magnitude of the issues swiftly mobilized themselves, their friends, family, and communities into action. I began to see how the temporal location of hope in the near future anchored change more closely to the present and thus propelled action forward.
In this research note, I explore how hope inspires and compels change when close attention is paid to its temporal location.
Article Details
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