Preliminary Research Question: How do public service announcements present information related to the coronavirus pandemic? What does their construction say about the context they are immersed in?

Background (Maya):

At this moment in time, our world is faced with one of histories’ most deadly pandemics–COVID 19. Various guidelines have been put in place by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. One particularly controversial guideline has been the mandate of mask wearing, as some have felt that the enforcement of mask wearing is an infringement on basic individual rights. We want to focus on a particular piece of media that promotes the message of mask wearing using a PSA (Public Service Announcement) format. The video we have chosen depicts finalist entries from a PSA contest that was set up by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of his “Mask Up, America” Campaign. This PSA contest which ran during the month of May received about 600 submissions and had about 186,000 participants voting, but it is one part of a larger government initiative to spread the word about COVID-19 safety. 

Mission and Purpose (Maya):

In a general sense, our mission in this project is to trace and contextualize the reflexive impact of COVID-19 through its representation in public service announcements. Here are our steps:

1. Analyze representation in our media: Discuss specificities of the 5 PSA finalist videos, find similarities and differences, and contextualize their production, close analysis of filmic techniques. 
   1. What is being represented? What is not represented? How is it represented?
2. Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Video: A reconstructed version of the original video which will include side-by-side comparisons of similar shots/concepts across the 5 PSA’s. This will help think about questions such as:
   1. How can a close analysis of PSA’s hint at and possibly provide further meaning to what we may value socially, culturally, economically, etc? 
   2. How have pre-existing values changed during this unprecedented time?
   3. What kind of counter-narrative does our edited video present? 
   4. Chart/Visualization of identities represented in the different PSAs. 
3. Data Visualizations: Create our own data visualizations based on data from NYC Health. This will give us better insight into the reality of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (who is really being affected?), which we can put into conversation with the representations depicted in the PSAs. 
   1. Map #1: Death count rate of NYC by zip code
      1. Demonstrates that certain communities are hit hardest 
   2. Map #2: Distribution of Non-Whites by Zip Code 
      1. Shows that the zip codes that were hit hardest by COVID in terms of death rate are predominantly minority communities   
   3. Donut Chart: NYC’s Racial Composition
   4. Bar Graph: Shows that black and Hispanic people die and are hospitalized from COVID at higher rates despite having similar infection rates. This is evidence of racial disparities and structural inequalities in health that are absent in video. 
      1. COVID Infection Rate (Stratified by Race) 
      2. COVID Hospitalization Rate (Stratified by Race)
      3. COVID Death Rate (Stratified by Race) 
   5. Line Graph: Inter-State Comparison 
      1. X Variable: Date 
      2. Y Variable: Total COVID Cases
4. Conclusion: Now that we have these data visualizations that can add context to the PSA’s (they display the actual reality and complexity of the pandemic), we can juxtapose them against the representations in the PSA’s, in order to gain better understanding of the relationship between them. Each of our constructions, that of the data visualizations and the reconstructions/deconstructions of the PSA’s, provide for us further “webs of meaning” surrounding the pandemic. This conclusion allows us to finally synthesize all of these “webs” in order to give us a clear and contextual picture of the COVID 19 pandemic era and, more specifically, the relationships between culture, media, and data that are so present within it. 

Media Content (Cynthia) : 

Emily Bowe’s article “Learning from lines: Critical COVID data visualizations and the quarantine quotidian” provides numerous examples about the various ways in which COVID-19 has rapidly changed our status quo and cultural landscape. These changes to and demonstrations of our new socio-cultural realities are being documented in various ways. For example, “The Victoria and Albert Museum is chronicling COVID’s myriad everyday artifacts: material embodiments, like the grid, of the virus’s operational logics and affects. Among the growing Pandemic Objects (2020) collection are hand-made signs—for businesses to announce their temporary closure, for neighbors to express community solidarity—as well as jury-rigged protective door handles, toilet paper, cardboard packaging, and flour and yeast for novice home bakers” (Bowe 5). This museum’s collection of objects that have been inscribed with new meaning in light of the pandemic is a physical record of the values people hold dear during these times. The PSAs that we have chosen to analyze represent a virtual record of some of those values. 

These finalist PSAs had been submitted by small, independent, NY-based studios. By closely analyzing the construction of these PSAs, we can come to understand what social, cultural, economic, and other values these local New Yorkers hold most dear during this time of uncertainty. What is being represented? Who is being represented? How are these things being represented? These questions guide our examination of the individual PSAs and our reconstruction of the PSAs into a newly edited video that helps to showcase our observations of the New Yorkers’ prioritization of values during the pandemic. The video below is an NBC News clipped video broadcast of Governor Cuomo’s coronavirus briefing from May 20, 2020, during which the governor announced the five finalists for the New York COVID-19 PSA contest. 

The first PSA shown is “You Can Still Smile” produced by Blue Slate Films, a female-run production company. “You Can Still Smile” was the runner up of the PSA contest and thus also selected to run as a PSA for the state. The first half of this PSA features medium close-up shots from local New Yorkers in masks and includes personal testimonies about why they find it important to wear masks. The second half of the PSA zooms in closer on many of these people, showing what it looks like when they smile behind a mask and reinforcing the slogan “you can still smile”. The video emphasizes portraying adults, friends, and families with different visible professional, racial, and gender identities. In an interview with a writer from their alma mater university NYU Tisch, the two filmmakers for the PSA Emory Parker and Natalia Bougadellis expressed the importance of representing a diverse set of people while still creating the PSA in a safe manner:

The second PSA shown in this video is “We ❤ NY” produced by Bunny Lake Films, a female-founded production company. It was created in collaboration with Mike Perry, the animator for the Comedy Central TV show Broad City. “We ❤ NY” was the winning PSA from this contest. The video narrates the circumstances of the pandemic and is meant to capture the “diverse voices and pulse of New York” by displaying scenes of people wearing masks while going about their new everyday lives during the pandemic. In an interview with Chelsea Community News, Director Celine Danhier also spoke about the importance of representing diverse voices and keeping safety protocols while filming:

The third PSA shown in this video is “Do the Right Thing”, produced by Ian Bell. The video is similar to “We ❤ NY” in structure, showcasing the diverse populace of New Yorkers going about their new daily lives in masks. Speaking about the video, Bell included this caption: “New Yorkers Do What’s Right. They know that the best thing they can do to stop the spread of Covid-19 is to wear a mask when they’re around others. That’s why New Yorkers of every color, creed, sexual orientation and gender identity are practicing social distancing and wearing masks in public. They know that our individual strength is our collective inheritance. They Know What’s Right.” As with the other two videos, we once again see an emphasis placed on the diverse representation of intersectional identities. Bell refers to “color, creed, sexual orientation and gender identity”, suggesting that he had made an effort to include people of diverse non-visible identities in addition to people with diverse visible identities, which is all that we can visually observe in the PSA. 

The fourth PSA is “We Are Compassion. We Are New York.”, produced by Skyline99 Studios. In this video, a young child demonstrates kindness and compassion by providing a lone elderly man, a stranger, with a mask. The video features Bryant’s own adopted son Eli as one of the two actors in the PSA. In an interview with PIX11 News, Bryant expressed the desire to make the PSA “something that was intimate, something that was close to our own heart… It was important to create something that had compassion, hope, and love.” Bryant also noted that he comes from and shot the PSA in Upstate New York, where he observed how many people ignored mask protocols just because they were not in a hot zone. Reemphasizing the importance of  reaching people across the state, he clarified “We made a video that hopefully speaks to all New Yorkers, not just any particular region.”

The final PSA shown is “That Guy”, produced by Plastic Tree Productions. The video depicts a white male standing on a train platform, maskless. All the other actors in the PSA, who appear to be POC, are wearing masks and visibly disturbed by him; they keep their distance. Speaking on the PSA, Plastic Tree Productions expressed their message “We all know ‘That Guy.’ The blissful unmasked foe who no one wants to be near and who the people of New York will avoid at all costs. The moral? Don’t be That Guy. Cover your nose and mouth.” This PSA is the most judgmentally moralistic of the PSAs, trying to correct bad behaviors and values rather than demonstrating good behaviors and values as all the other PSAs had done. As such, this PSA deemphasized representing diversity. 

In examining the PSAs as virtual cultural objects, we decided to focus on the ways that the visual specificities inform us about local New Yorker values. Thinking about the question “What is being represented?”, we observed that many of the PSAs included landscape shots of New York City as well as more personal, intimate shots of a changed, new New York City; the New Yorkers’ love for their city is clear. Some of the PSAs showed scenes of people actively participating in acts of community; these PSAs remind people to be conscious of others, especially because of the new circumstances. The implicit narratives of the PSAs uniformly speak to values of kindness, compassion, togetherness, community, responsibility, and love. In order to more closely examine the question “Who is being represented?”, we also quantified the inclusion of people of different visible identities:

This chart helps to break down the representation of identities across all the finalist PSAs. Examining this, we can see that black people are still the least represented racial group across all the PSAs. However, some of the PSAs included more POC than white people. The distribution of female and male persons is also fairly similar. Adults are disproportionately more greatly represented than children or elderly people, but this is likely a factor based on safety protocols for video production. Children and elderly people are more vulnerable to contracting the virus; the directors for both the winning and runner-up PSAs expressed how they reached out to their own friends and family first in order to create their PSAs. Finally, we can see that the winning PSA “We ❤ NY” included footage of the greatest number of people and was most conscious of the distribution of a wide variety of identities. The winning PSAs are not just representing the visions and values of a small group of producers. 186,000 people, approximately 1% of the population of New York, decided to participate in the voting process to select the winning PSA. By voting for “We ❤ NY”, these New Yorkers expressed their belief in the values of diversity and inclusion that the video emphasizes, even during these troubled times. 

Our analysis of the five finalist PSAs and our recognition of the values of New Yorkers as demonstrated by those PSAs informed our approach to a deconstruction and reconstruction of the video content. 

Our editing timeline proceeds like this:

Clips 1 – 5: Scenes of New York City Landscapes
Clips 6 – 7: Scenes of a Changed New York City (fewer people walking around, and in masks)
Clip 8: Scene of a Man Not Wearing a Mask
Clip 9: Scenes of People Quarantining at Home
Clips 10 – 14: Scenes of Essential Workers (Medical Profession)
Clips 15 – 17: Scenes of Essential Workers (Police)
Clips 18 – 20: Scenes of Essential Workers (Other Professions, including Taxi Drivers, Restaurant Workers, etc.)
Clips 21 – 23: Scenes Featuring Kids
Clips 24 – 31: Scenes Featuring Elderly People
Clips 32 – 40: Scenes Featuring Friends
Clips 41 – 47: Scenes Featuring Family
Clips 48 – 55: Scenes Featuring Acts of Community (People Giving Each Other Masks, People Making Music With Their Apartment Complexes, etc.)
Clips 56 – 74: Scenes Representing Black People (Clips 55 – 65: Scenes Representing Black Males, Clips 66 – 74: Scenes Representing Black Females, Clips 74 – 77: Scenes Representing Black Males and Females)
Clips 78 – 100: Scenes Representing POC (Clips 78 -90: Scenes Representing POC Males, Clips 91 – 96: Scenes Representing POC Females, Clips 97 – 100: Scenes Representing POC Males and Females)
Clips 101 – 136: Scenes Representing White People (Clips 101 – 112: Scenes Representing White Males, Clips 113 – 122: Scenes Representing White Females, Clips 123 – 136: Clips Representing White Males and Females)
Clips 137 – 143: Scenes of Included Typography and Slogans

In our edited video, we have broken down all of the individual PSAs into clips and combined them into one large video. We reordered the clips such that similar scenes are categorized as either a representation of a value or a visible identity. We also tried to include a clip multiple times in different sections if it showed a person with multiple visible identities (e.g. black/female/medical essential worker) in order to emphasize the representation of intersectional identities. Through this process, we wanted to more concretely and tangibly show how these PSAs demonstrate New Yorker values about both activities and identities during the pandemic. 

Data Visualizations: Recognizing Complexity (Zack):

To further explore the implications of Timothy Mitchell’s dichotomy between representation and reality within New York’s ad contest, we decided to critically examine the PSAs’ depiction of diversity through a Geertzian analysis of New York City’s COVID-related racial disparities and health inequalities. The first map exhibits the COVID-related death rates in New York City, granularized by zip code. The data was obtained from NYC Health and is current, as of December 12, 2020. To enable inter-neighborhood comparisons and eliminate the confounding influence of population density, COVID-related death rates were used, which are the number of deaths per 100,000 people. As shown, New York neighborhoods have not been universally impacted by COVID-19, with certain zip codes, boroughs and geographic areas possessing higher COVID-related fatality rates than others. When juxtaposed with a map of NYC’s racial distribution, it becomes apparent that the zip codes hit hardest by COVID-19 in terms of their death rate tend to be pre-dominantly minority communities, likely due to a nexus of social factors such as gentrification, income inequality, and a history of uneven investment in infrastructure. For instance, with a fatality rate of 721.84 deaths per 100,000 people, East New York (11239), has experienced more deaths per capita than any other zip code within the city of New York. Situated in southern Brooklyn near Jamaica Bay, East New York (11239) is approximately 63% black and is home to Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the United States. The Bronx and Edgemere / Far Rockaway (11691), a predominantly African American community on the outskirt of Queens, similarly possessed high fatality rates compared to whiter, neighboring regions, indicating an important dynamic of the socio-medical context that the PSAs failed to adequately account for in their rhetorical employment of these racial identities and categories.

Although one PSA depicted a mask-less white male recklessly spreading the coronavirus to BIPOC and another briefly mentioned “marginalized communities who don’t have access to adequate healthcare” as a motivation for adopting social distancing practices, the contest’s five finalists mostly utilized diversity as a means of subliminally evoking a sense of a community and social responsibility, making it a backdrop that was never extensively addressed. While their intentions are certainly commendable, by doing so, the original content creators and the New York state government are presenting a representation that doesn’t fully reflect the harsh, uncomfortable reality of New York City’s health inequalities. As evidenced by the chart on New York City’s racial composition, New York City is considerably diverse when analyzed on an aggregate level, with whites, Hispanics and blacks each representing 32%, 29% and 24% of the total population respectively. However, that does not necessarily mean that the different demographics have a high level of daily interaction, as suggested by the map of New York City’s racial distribution, or that each racial group has been proportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Although whites comprise the largest portion of the resident population, whites possess an adjusted case rate of 1,744 per 100,000 people, while blacks and Hispanics both have case rates that are 23.7% to 47.8% higher. Beyond that, Hispanic and black New Yorkers are more than twice as likely as whites to be hospitalized or killed due to the coronavirus, further intimating the structural and systemic inequalities predisposing these communities to the COVID-related fatalities. Thus, the PSAs’ decision to portray COVID-19 as a unifying force that affects everyone regardless of racial or gender identity is powerful, effective, yet slightly palliative, as every New Yorker is not forced to bear the burden of the pandemic equally. This lends insight into the rhetorical decision-making process of the production companies and the preferences of New York’s selection committee, underscoring the value of interrogating representations of social responsibility in COVID-related media and the importance of examining the contextualization of all cultural artifacts.

Limitations/Challenges (Maya):

We ran across a few challenges while doing this project. One of the first ones was deciding whether or not to keep in the sound in the reconstruction of the PSA video. We played with the idea of either keeping in the original sound content in the chopped up reconstruction, or even adding our own new sounds that could possibly enhance the meaning of our reconstruction. As we thought about it more, we realized that the bulk of our project depended on an analysis of the visual aspects of the PSA’s to give us further meaning and contextualization surrounding the pandemic. We realized that sound would add a whole other layer of meaning to our project that could possibly distract from/blur our focus in this project, which is to understand visual images of who, what, and where, to assess the role and complexities of media during the pandemic area. Adding sound would certainly open a whole new dimension to this project, but so much so, that we felt we couldn’t just tack on to the end of our analysis. We came to the conclusion that, for the sake of clarity and direction in this project, we should just rely on the visual content of the PSA’s to tell us a story of the pandemic, and that the reconstructed video would reflect that by having no audio. It would be interesting, however, to do this same project, but instead focusing solely on the audio of the PSA’s, and see what it could tell us about the context that it’s immersed in. 

Another limitation that we came across in the PSA reconstruction section of our project was the difficulty in deciphering POC that were depicted within the PSA’s–that is, some identities were not as clearly visible. As part of our reconstruction focused on grouping similar images together across the 5 PSA’s, the lack of clarity in visible identities made it a little hard to do that. However, I think that our inability to group these identities tells us something more about a message (and cultural value) that is being portrayed in these PSA’s. This is a messaging that points to the “melting pot” that we live in, and to the fact that this is a time that calls for unity and togetherness, and a fight for all humanity. 

When breaking down the PSA’s we also noticed the many intersectional identities depicted within these ads. We struggled with whether or not to show repetitions of the same visual images in our reconstructions (in order to show the intersectionality), or to show each image once and not address the overlap. Ultimately, we decided that it was important to show and address the intersectional identities that were displayed in these PSAs (by repeating certain images of intersectional identities in our reconstruction), as it added another layer of meaning and context to these pieces of media. To not address these intersectional identities, would have been an evident dismissal of a key theme and layer of significance in our analysis.

A huge limitation in that we were trying to grapple with early on in our project was distinguishing between correlation vs. causation when it came to connecting the impact of media, such as the PSA’s from Cuomo’s contest, to the actions and realities of the responses of people to COVID-19. We knew that there would be no real way to make any claim of causation, but correlation of data (such as a flattening of the curve of COVID cases in NY during/after the time of the PSA contest), could at least help us at least speculate that campaigns such as Cuomo’s, were one of the many contributing factors in helping there be a more positive response by the public to COVID-19. These PSA’s are placed in the larger context of more campaigns and government/local efforts to slow the spread of the virus. 

The last limitation we faced regarded accuracy in our data collection, and more specifically, in the accounting for structural inequalities that would have affected this accuracy. It is no surprise that structural inequalities have resulted in less access by POC to healthcare resources. This means that it is likely that many POC are not accounted for in data regarding COVID infection rates and hospitalizations because they simply do not have the access to it, due forces beyond their control. This leaves a bit skeptical about some of the data that we have collected regarding racial disparities related to the COVID pandemic. This limitation clearly points to the subjectivity of data collection and its inability to always tell an objective truth.

Conclusion (Maya): 

This contest ultimately had a far-reaching impact in the state of New York as part of Governor Cuomo’s targeted media campaigns to keep the public informed about the coronavirus. Not only did 186,000 New Yorkers vote to select the winning PSA among the finalists, but the PSAs also received nationwide coverage. The “You Can Still Smile” Director also spoke about the reception that she noticed, “We heard that Hugh Jackman even posted the video on his social media. Many other celebrities shared the video, including Rachel Brosnahan, Zac Posen, Jena Malone, and Karen O. There’s also been a billboard near Central Park that includes an image from our video.” We can see that the PSA contest had a widespread effect.

In the “Total Cases of COVID-19 from 3/1/2020 – 8/1/2020” we see a very obvious flattening of the curve in NYC and NY state around the time of this PSA contest. It’s difficult to make the claim that this flattening is a direct result of Cuomo’s PSA contest, but we observe that the contest does fit into the context of a massive effort by Cuomo and the state of NY to urge the public to follow COVID guidelines. This larger effort by Cuomo and the state of NY through media campaigns is likely to have been a contributing factor to the slight flattening of the curve that our data begins to reflect.  As mentioned previously, this PSA contest was a small part in Cuomo’s nationwide “Mask Up America” Campaign, in which he produced various PSA’s to promote COVID safety, and even enlisted some of the country’s most famous celebrities to be in them — Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, and Robert DeNiro to name a few. Cuomo also became known for his daily NY state media briefings, in which he updated the public on COVID related numbers in the state of NY and beyond, and continued to promote virus safety. Cuomo was even nominated for an Emmy because of these briefings which kept the public informed and on alert, but also promoted a sense of unity and togetherness (something which we saw continually reflected throughout the various contest PSAs). New York was even one of the earliest states to enforce mask wearing (around mid-April) and order non-essential workers to stay home (on March 22, 2020). As you can see, it is important to understand that this PSA contest existed within the larger context of multiple efforts to contain the virus by NY state– these efforts, which likely are a factor in helping NY’s curve begin to flatten, include a massive media campaign, early and aggressive guidelines and restrictions, and daily briefings. 

All of these questions we have been asking about the PSA’s, such as what is represented, who is represented, who isn’t represented, how are they being represented, tell us much about what is valued during this pandemic era. Even so, they can also paint a false picture of what these times actually look like. There is still a line between what is represented in these PSA’s and what is the actual reality of the pandemic. Our data visualizations, drawing from actual numbers from outside sources helped us draw this line between the perceptions of representation vs. reality in the COVID 19 pandemic. In a way, these PSA’s serve as a “cultural artifact” that reflect certain cultural values that have come to light, but at the same time, reflect the inability of media makers to directly address the grim realities of this pandemic, such as who is really being affected. Ultimately, however, we view these PSAs as a heartening demonstration of the spirit of New Yorkers to demonstrate their own values. As Governor Cuomo concluded about the contest, “The tremendous level of participation demonstrates that people understand that a mask can be the difference between life and death. This is about their lives and this is about their community, and they’re engaged — because they are New York tough, smart, united, disciplined and loving.”

Works Cited

“Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Winners of Wear a Mask New York Ad Contest.” Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, 26 May 2020, www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-winners-wear-mask-new-york-ad-contest.

“Wear A Mask New York Ad Contest: Winner Announced.” Department of Health, 2020, coronavirus.health.ny.gov/wear-mask-new-york-ad-contest-winner-announced.

“‘You Can Still Smile’: A Conversation with Gov. Cuomo’s ‘Wear a Mask’ Contest Finalists.” Nyu.Edu, 2014, tisch.nyu.edu/tisch-research-news-events/news/you-can-still-smile.

Weiner, Mark. “Digital Views for Cuomo’s Daily Coronavirus Briefings Set Records.” Syracuse, 31 Mar. 2020, www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/03/digital-views-for-cuomos-daily-coronavirus-briefings-near-1m-a-day.html.

PIX11 Web Team, and Henry Rosoff. “New Yorkers Pick Winning Video for Wear a Mask NY PSA Contest; State to Air 1st and 2nd Place Ads.” WPIX, WPIX, 26 May 2020, www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/new-yorkers-pick-we-love-ny-video-as-wear-a-mask-new-york-psa-winner-cuomo-announces.

“We Love NY: ‘Wear a Mask’ PSA Winner Discusses Video – Chelsea Community News.” Chelseacommunitynews.com, June 2020, chelseacommunitynews.com/2020/06/17/we-love-ny-wear-a-mask-psa-winner-discusses-video/.

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