Final Project | The Forge

After announcing her intentions to run as an MP last week, this week’s broadcast explored the next step of the campaign narrative: conducting promotional activities.

This involved a quick meet-the-people session and guerrilla marketing tactics such as sticking posters, stickers and a surprise in public spaces.

Minister and entourage meeting citizens at a hawker centre

Accompanied by an entourage of assistants and photographers, MPs (Members of Parliament) usually go from table to table at hawker centres and briefly shake hands with citizens during election season. I wanted to parody this common MP behaviour in this week’s broadcast. I shook hands with some citizens and handed out flyers, encouraging them to vote for me in the supposed upcoming election.

I realise there are some limitations which we as social broadcasters have to be mindful of. For example, it was difficult to hold the camera, flyers and stickers at the same time, while speaking and shaking hands with citizens. We also need to manage camera angles and the light direction. It’s a bit unfortunate that subtle interactions such as my handshakes with the citizens were not caught within the frame.

Furthermore, in line with Roxy’s position as a millennial politician, this week’s concept also experimented with guerrilla marketing and unconventional campaign promotion. In parallel with the Facebook live broadcasts, I experimented with other forms of internet culture and social networking by posting additional bits of (satirical) content like GIFs during the week. Not only does this help sustain interest in the project, it also helps flesh out Roxy as a character and show snippets of her unique and unorthodox campaign activities.

(This is a still of the GIF as I couldn’t embed it. Here’s the f ull post) The banner shows MP Chan Chun Sing who came to speak at NTU this week.

(This is a still of the GIF. Here’s the full post)
Another common MP behaviour is dancing at grassroots events. The dancing style is rather reserved, and MPs appear to be dancing out of obligation.

Surrounding the theme of unconventional marketing, this week’s broadcast was done as 2 mini-broadcasts.

Here’s part 1:

Beautifying public spaces with my face and first impromptu meet-the-ppl session. You're welcome NTU 🙂

Posted by Sng Yi Xian Issa on Thursday, 6 April 2017

And here’s part 2:

Guerrilla marketing Part 2. #vote4roxy

Posted by Sng Yi Xian Issa on Thursday, 6 April 2017

Please click here for part 1 of my final project 🙂

Some Post-broadcast Thoughts

For the first instalment of campaign activities, Roxy decided to conduct some on-the-ground research and hear first hand from the people about qualities they expect from aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs). She also asked them about their concerns and how she could address them once she was elected.

I incorporated frequent behaviour of influencers such as requesting brand sponsorship from Din Tai Fung (due to the resemblance of The Hive building to Dim Sum steamers), showing followers their outfit of the day (#OOTD) and describing it as ‘minimalist’ (a very popular tag), and asking followers to comment what they think.

I approached 3 different groups of students and received very different responses. I found it interesting how even though my project employs persona and parody, the varied responses are rather reflective of local attitude to politics, such as being indifferent, neutral or involved.

I asked questions such as “Do you have anything to say to the citizens watching live?” to connect the first space public with the third space online audience. This helped reinforced the liveness of the situation for both audiences, with some viewers commenting about the interviewees.

An online audience commenting on a citizen

I was turned away by the second group of citizens I tried to speak to. This humanises Roxy, who can seem totally self-absorbed and in her own world (she thinks the Deputy Prime Minister is her friend, calling him Tharman casually). More importantly, this rejection emphasises the liveness of the experience through the unplanned. It also heightens the authenticity of Roxy the persona as Prof. Craig and Tissa from UMBC have summed up really well in their comments on last week’s post (see screenshots below). In addition, the online audience reacts to these unexpected happenings in real time by commenting.

Comment by Prof. Craig Saper from last week’s OSS post

Comment by Tissa, a UMBC student, from last week’s OSS post

While I enjoy how these mistakes and rejections reinforce the ‘liveness’, I do think I could be more prepared when people say “no” in the future. For the next 2 broadcasts, I will prepare some recovery strategies to have a smoother broadcast.

To be honest, these broadcasts can be very daunting. Approaching Singaporeans with a camera and a loaded subject nearing exam season may not be ideal. However, I feel encouraged by the spontaneous reactions of some interviewees, our interactions, and the online comments. As a ‘host’ of the broadcast, Roxy’s aim is not to direct the event, but rather to create a comfortable and engaging space which will evolve with the unique contributions of both online and ‘IRL’ audiences. Despite the mistakes, this is the reality of live broadcasting — its unfiltered, unexpected and inherently social.

The Forge

Category Archives: Final Project

Dear Citizens | Final Project part 1

Some Post-broadcast Thoughts

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