May 15, 2025
To: Mainstream Media Outlets based in Utah
From: Mrs. Smith’s 8th Grade US History class at Springville Junior High School
Over the past decades, the political divide has become extreme. The number of people in the center of the political spectrum has decreased, while people have moved further to the extremes. This is especially notable in election years, where protests and riots are continuing to become more common. (Global Protests)
People refuse to hear one another and are so stuck in their ways that they won’t come to terms with each other’s opinions. It seems that people refuse to see those with different political views as real people. To further illustrate this fact, in 1960, only 4% of Republicans and Democrats would be displeased with their kids if they married somebody of opposing political views. But, in 2019, 45% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans said that they would be displeased if their kids married somebody of opposing views. (Political Polarization) People have come to not see their own flaws and only see the flaws in others with different views. Many have just completely forgotten manners and endlessly insult each other. This animosity will likely have a lasting effect on the youth today, as we are growing up in a world where respect is dwindling and aggression is becoming more popular.
As the future of this generation, we as youth decided it was time to make a change. In an ideal world, people would listen to each other, recognize the person underneath the label, and accept each other for who they are as a person, not their political party. Our 8th-grade U.S. history class at Springville Junior High is trying to make a difference by improving the divide between political parties. Shakira states, “I believe that every single one of us, celebrity or not, has a responsibility to get involved in trying to make a difference in the world. Our generation faces many challenges, some of which were passed on to us by the past generations, but it's up to us to find solutions today so that we don't keep passing our problems on.” (BrainyQuote).
To attempt to know how to solve this partisan divide, our class first asked why five times, so that we could understand the root cause of this issue. We determined that people showing respect to one another is at a low in society today. We thought that we could help boost and bring attention to the valuable characteristics that are part of being respectful. While there were multiple amazing options, our class chose to focus on creating and sharing PSA’s or Public Service Announcements. We researched outlets that could help us share our message and thought of possible ideas for these outlets to use. When we had these ideas, we started to make a plan.
We worked in small groups to develop the most effective plan. A few groups worked on how to make good scripts for different kinds of media. Another worked on making billboards and what kind are most effective. A third group worked on locating influencers that may spread the word. A fourth worked on emailing and sourcing radio stations that can support our cause. We hope to spread our work to every corner of Utah. We put together a letter, and now we are asking you the question: Will you help the youth make a difference in Utah?
We are launching a media campaign on all fronts.
Our whole 8th-grade class is trying to spread #UnifyUtah across the media. We would like you to run our PSA on your channel, station, billboard, or social media site. To make this easier for you, we made our own scripts or designs to help. You may alter them if you would like, as long as you keep the message of respecting each other, listening to each other, and practicing civic virtue. We just gave it our best shot.
Social Media Campaign- #UnifyUtah
We are trying to make the world a better place through social media, which is often a place of unideal morals and confusing realites. In this journey, we have fleshed out a few important things that our campaign should include: pictures and videos of service in your community(in Utah), inviting people to join movements that support our cause, inspiring quotes and actions and any post that has anything to do with Civic Virtue, Respect, and Service. Here is a document of our ideas #UnifyUtah.
A message for influencers
Before you post, remind viewers of the pledge they take when they use the hashtag UnifyUtah. In addition, UnifyUtah is only a hashtag of service to the community and for participating in Civic Virtue. This hashtag should not be used in any other situation; any other messages that are not related to our cause are prohibited. To influencers who would like to spread the word and broaden our work, the hashtag may be changed for different states, but emphasize the beginning of it in Utah. For example, the hashtag could be #UnifyCalifornia, #UnifyTexas and any other state in the U.S..
Pledge
When I use #UnifyUtah, I pledge to practice, understand and spread the ideas of Civic Virtue and respect. I understand that this includes serving my community to create a better society and honoring every person because they are part of my community even if we have different political viewpoints.
Billboards:
We’ve been researching the components of a good billboard, and we found that if you want your billboard to catch people’s eyes, it needs to be colorful, simple, bold, and clear. Making an impact with your billboard requires a single memorable headline or call to action. Some examples include, “Help The Community Now” or “We Need You.” It is stated that,“The viewer should be able to gather all the information on the billboard in under 3 seconds.” Also “Keep the colors bright and raw — strong and defined so they don't blend in with the environment around the billboard”. (stimulusadvertising) Digital Make It states, “Make it something catchy, short, and deep so it helps people stop and think about the message.” After researching these things, we came up with a few billboard ideas that you’re welcome to use.
TV:
We researched how long a script should be and what makes a good script. We learned that to make a good script, it needs to be direct and persuasive and needs to include a call to action. We learned that PSAs should be around 1 minute (Connecticut College), We learned to identify our audience (Samhsa), and to focus on our message. (c360m). We also wrote a few scripts for ideas. The link to our scripts is in this link
Radio:
We learned that radio scripts should be short, clear, interesting, and engaging to anyone listening so they can hear the message. These are important because if it’s not short, people could get bored very easily and not want to listen. It needs to be clear so it is straight to the point so they can know exactly what we’re trying to promote. And last, it needs to be engaging for the listeners so they will want to hear what we want them to know and they can listen to what we want to say. After researching and learning about how to write a good script, we have a few samples.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith’s 2nd Period 8th Grade US History class of 2025
Oliver G
Kobe V
Hadley M
Katelyn D
Audri W
Mahli
Grant D
Zoe F
Calais D
Olivia S
Hunter L
Emily C.
Ella P
Haylie S
Haven O
Piper K
Elijah A
Cal S
Jaxton W
WORKS CITED
Ashbrooke, Jamie. “How to Write a Radio Script That Works” 22 July 2024 https://radio.co/blog/radio-script
Boys and Girls Clubs of America, “Ways to get Young People Involved in Elections,” Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 6 May 2024 https://www.bgca.org/news-stories/2024/May/ways-to-get-young-people-involved-in-elections/
Circle. “Growing Voters: 18 ways youth under 18 can contribute to elections,” Tish College: Tufts University, 17 January 2020 https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/growing-voters-18-ways-youth-under-18-can-contribute-elections
“How to Make a PSA (Public Service Announcement): Script Your PSA.” Connecticut College, https://conncoll.libguides.com/c.php?g=1345725&p=9949540#:~:text=Draft%20a%20script%20or%20comic,would%20make%20a%20good%20beginning
“Make a Difference Quotes”, BrainyQuote 2001-2025 https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/make-a-difference-quotes
Olson, Chelsea. “PSA 101: How to Make a Public Service Announcement: A 9-Step Guide,” Connect 360, https://c360m.com/how-to-make-a-public-service-announcement-a-9-step-guide/
Pictory, “How To Write a Script for A One-Minute Video: A Step-by-Step Guide,” 22 January 2024.
Stimulus Advertising. “12 Rules for Every Billboard Design,” https://www.stimulusadvertising.com/
“Tips for Creating Your Own Video PSA,” Samhsa, https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/tips-for-creating-own-psa.pdf
“Youth as Agents for Change,” Ace, 2018, https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/yt/yt10/youth-as-agents-for-change
“America’s Biggest Divide is the Superpolitical vs the Exhausted Majority” Berkeley, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/americas_biggest_divide_is_the_superpolitical_vs_the_exhausted_majority
“Political Polarization in the American Public” Pew Research,
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/
“Political Polarization in the United States” Facing History
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/political-polarization-united-states
“Measuring Political Radicalization” NLM
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11078353/
“Five Things about the Role of the Internet and Social Media in Domestic Radicalization” National Institute of Justice
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-role-internet-and-social-media-domestic-ra