This paper will describe the three audiences that will be targeted for the communication of the message regarding the need for a certain policy issue, that of the credentialing and compensating of teachers who act as lead teachers in groups of children. It will offer justification for the selection of those audiences and will explain the different methods of communication that will best reach each audience and the reasoning behind the selection of that medium. The second part of the paper will demonstrate one of those methods of communication, contained within a separate file.
Communication plans are designed for the purpose of ensuring that the message is not only clear, but that the target audience is reached, and that all aspects of the communication initiative to be launched are appropriately organized, thus ensuring that no action is left out and no audience member is forgotten (Developing a Plan for Communication, 2014). The policy issue that this particular communication plan will remain focused on is the credentialing and compensating of teachers who act as lead teachers in groups of children in order to ensure that all teachers are being compensated and acknowledged for the early childhood education work that they are doing, as opposed to simply piling more duties and responsibilities on teachers for the same rate of pay (Kagen, 2009).
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In order to ensure that the need for this change in policy is stressed and to ensure that the appropriate audience is reached, allowing for change to be affected within this particular realm, it is necessary to determine, based on associated stakeholders, who the target audience for this particular policy should be. In working to create a communication plan, if the individual generating the plan is not aware of who their exact audience is and the reasons that those individuals should be included in the message to the audience, the communication plan will fail (DeMers, 2014).
To this end, and to ensure the success of this particular communication plan and associated campaign to change policy, the following three audience groups have been identified: politicians, parents, and collegiate students. Politicians were identified for inclusion within the target audience due to their ability to work to champion specific policy issues, getting them changed at the local and state levels, depending on the position held by the politician. Targeting this audience will allow for the inclusion of individuals who will be able to work from their current positions to affect change. Parents were identified as a second target audience due to the fact that they are directly affected by this particular policy issue. Those teachers who are receiving increased boosts in their salary for the additional work that they are doing are going to be more likely, as a result of this incentive, to ensure that students receive the best possible education. The desire for their children to have the best possible education will work to prompt parents to reach out to the school board and the superintendent of the district in order to affect these types of changes. Finally, the inclusion of collegiate students as a target audience will work to ensure that these individuals, especially those who are looking to enter into the field of teaching, will work to affect change, as this way they will ensure that their own salaries are in line with what they desire for the work that they will be doing. Few are more motivated than those who are directly affected by a change in a positive manner.
In order to reach each target audience in a manner that will be most effective for that target audience it was determined that politicians should be addressed via the use of a television commercial, parents should be addressed through the distribution of a flyer, and collegiate students should be addressed through the utilization of social media. The justification for each of these different methods of communication is simple. Politicians are concerned with how they are portrayed in the media and one of the most common methods they utilize to promote their messages is via television commercials. These individuals pay attention to the associated responses that these commercials get, so, logically, it makes sense that they would also be able to be effectively targeted through this medium. Parents are used to receiving flyers and other messages in their children’s take home folders as a means by which important issues are conveyed to them, making a flyer the ideal choice to communicate with this group audience. Collegiate students are deeply immersed in the use of technology, so social media will serve as a means of best garnering their attention. A sample flyer has been attached in a subsequent file to better provide an example.
