an interdisciplinary assay upon internet and social advertising ...

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSAY UPON INTERNET
AND SOCIAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
274
Ebru S. BARANSELİ, Instructor
Anadolu University, Turkey
ebaranseli@anadolu.edu.tr
Ebru Baranseli is graduated from Hacettepe University, FADA, Graphic Design Department, in 1996.
Started MFA in Anadolu University, ISS, Graphic Design Department and graduated in 2003 with the
thesis “The Study Of Graphic Design Projects And The Presentation Advantages In Interactive
Environment”. Now studies in the BFA program and works as an instructor in the Graphic Design
Department in FFA, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey.
Abstract
The main subject of this study is a social advertising campaign in which students from two different
disciplines come together and design, produce and publish in order to assess new opportunities provided
by the rapid developments in communication technologies and to observe its consequences. This study
was designed as an interdisciplinary pattern to inform people about social concerns through social
networks, blogs, micro advertising websites, banners. This project also stands as an experimental study to
observe the advantages of information and communication technologies (ICT), Internet and social
networks in designing and communicating the social campaigns. Social advertisement campaign ideas
generated by the students of Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Graphic Design
will be transformed into films and motion graphics with the assistance of students from Anadolu
University Faculty of Communication Sciences, Cinema and Television Department. Produced content
will be available online through blogs and web sites using viral communication strategies. Projects will be
evaluated on a few aspects including the collaborative performance of the students, content of the output
in terms of attractiveness, viral dissemination and the number of unique visitors of the blogs in which the
contents are published. Computers, mobile phones, PDAs and other hardware became available widely
with lower price tags. Ease of access to the above mentioned technologies made them a very integral part
of our daily lives. Today, people go online not only to access web sites to look for some specific
information, but also to share their personal life with others by using photos, videos, music and texts. As
a result of the developments in ICT, boundaries between design and art became ambiguous while giving
birth to hybrid fields. While serving to the global communication through new media, Graphic design as a
visual communication discipline itself became an organic field that addresses the multiple sense organs.
Graphic designers combine their previous skills with the new skills required by new media in order to
generate innovative ideas for both conventional and new media. Some trends including the removal of
interdisciplinary boundaries, quality of the contents, effects of new technologies, sophistication of
information led to a collaborative environment in which graphic designers should work with people from
other disciplines. Two-dimensional graphic design discipline was transformed into a four-dimensional
discipline that also designs audio and movement. Thus, graphic designers utilize new media for spreading
out their visual ideas while developing their skills for generating more innovative ideas. Handwritten
diaries were moved to the digital platform thanks to the developments in web technologies. These digital
diaries that are called as “blog” became one of the most important advertising platforms on the Internet
not only with their memory keeping functions, but also with the knowledge they share in different topics
and the hits they get from readers. Many experts in different fields lost their jobs because of the global
economic crisis turned their faces to writing personal blogs and publishing advertisements on their blogs.
This new platform is becoming more popular as we speak thanks to the developments in web and
computer technologies. Bloggers reach their audience through articles, videos, movies and media.
Bloggers have to create attractive content and keep their blogs up-to-date in order to increase their
audience base. These qualities of blogs led us to choose this platform as the topic of our study. Also, blogs
are considered to be one of the most appropriate platforms to reach many people in a less costly way to

create awareness for today’s major problems such as global warming, poverty, unemployment, wars,
drought and other problems.
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSAY UPON INTERNET
AND SOCIAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
1. INTRODUCTION
Technological advances are shaped through influences from cultural, social and artistic events
and changes. Similarly, cultural, social and artistic facts are influenced by advancing
technologies. This mutual infuence is speeding up more and more in this era of electronic
information and globalization. The eye of the new media can now reach the farthest distance of
the world and data and information transfer between one corner to the next, can be realized in a
matter of instances. In the 25 years, advances in communication technologies and the faster,
more economical options they present, provided the internet to become an indispensable part of
the daily lives of a bigger mass. In the new millennium, it is possible to connect to Internet not
only through desktop computers but also from palm pilots, cell phones, clocks with cell phone
features and even mp3 players. High-resolution images, audio and video files, movies can now
be watched with advanced devices, that offer high speed connection. The Internet technologies,
software and hardware that are improved with new features every single day, are helping new
media to be used more efficiently, more broadly and in a faster way. The whole world is now
sharing a common life in a global village that allows instant communication and data transfer
regardless of time and location.
Another influence of the advances in communication technologies is the gradual disappearance
of boundaries between artistic disciplines and the birth of new hybrid work areas. Besides
hybrid professional groups such as new media developers, software programmers, IT and
informatics experts; different artistic and design disciplines are now able to co-work in various
projects. Sculptors are able to exhibit their completely digital, interactive statues as part of
today’s architectural scene, while new art forms like “pixelart” that is only exhibited on the
Internet, start to emerge. The changes in communication technologies, also allow the
development of new visual languages and the creation of more efficient visual communication
solutions in this accelerating era of information and communication. For example, thanks to
these technological advances, a movie can now be conveyed through a graphic language from
the beginning until the end, while massive architectural projects can be shown through cyber
reality applications even before they are built.
The student project illustrated in this research is developed by taking the effects of Internet
technologies on daily life, into consideration. The subject of the project is the use of the Internet,
the social networks that are called the social media and the blogs’ communicative strengths to
promote a social sensibility and to create awareness in issues like human rights, censorship,
violence and global warming. The basis of the research constitutes of designing social ad
campaigns on various issues through the collaboration of graphic design and film departments,
along with the efficient and speedy broadcasting of these publications on the net without any
broadcasting costs. This way, not only the students will gain experience in inter-disciplinary
work but also, the effective use of the new media, the social networks and the new
communication models by these tow disciplines, will be explored. Another question this
experience will explore is how to create social awareness and reaction groups in this global
village, by using new media’s strengths, on universal issues such as global warming, violence,
child abuse.
275

2. OBJECTIVE
The basic objective of this study is to define the stages of an experimental project that will allow
students from different disciplines to collaborate. Because the project will be spread through the
Internet, it also aims for the students involved in the study to gain experience in establishing
communication through new media, blogs and social networks. The answers to the questions
below will be explored in order to define this multi-faceted, experimental and inter-disciplinary
project:
1. Which opportunities do the advancing communications and Internet technologies
offer to their users? How can these opportunities be used effectively for
announcing, broadcasting and spreading a social campaign?
2. Which common grounds are available for joining the capabilities and knowledge of
students from different disciplines? Which common work areas can be created
between the graphic design discipline, which is changing and gaining additional
extensions thanks to the influence of the advancing communication technologies
and the cinema discipline, which is, again thanks to these technologies, in search of
new expressive languages and gaining more and more freedom? How can students
from these two disciplines contribute to each other?
3. How and in what ways, can social consciousness be created through the use of new
communication technologies? How can the strengths of the Internet, the social
networks, the blogs and hence the social media be used effectively in this direction?
4. The Internet not only provides communication depending on the receiver’s will,
without any constraints on the time the message was sent; but also a synchronized
communication opportunity through various applications. What kind of value can
this feature of the Internet offer while designing the stages of the campaign?
3. THEORETICAL BASIS
This research is based on the concepts of globalization and hybridization along with the
theories of new media. With the concept of globalization, the product range of the new era
started to include; the electronic devices of the advancing communication technologies (mobile
phones and technologies, computers and side products) and the data that is transferred from
continent to continent in a matter of seconds via the use of these devices. This, in turn, led to an
unavoidable change in the common perception of time and location, hence to a complete new
perspective in the perception of these concepts. With the help of the communication
technologies, people can reach information on the other edge of the world in seconds and can
communicate at different times. This mutual communication and information trade has
increased the interactions in economic, cultural and artistic fields in a way very similar to postindustrial
revolution, yet much faster. Elements belonging to different cultures had reflections
in the fields of arts and design. Moreover, the interaction between art and design has expanded
to a degree in which inter-disciplinary boundaries started to disappear.
The biological term hybridization was first used to define the hybrid genres in literatures due to
cultural interactions (Barkhtin, Mikhail, 1981, pp. 27-29) and it was continued to be used
afterwards, to define the new hybrid disciplines of the new era. The hybrid work fields also
define the multi-faceted environment that these areas include. Perceived as a natural
276

consequence of globalization, hybridization has become a commonly used concept in multiple
projects and works, in the light of its reflection in arts and design. Technological advances has
helped different disciplines to collaborate and caused the birth of hybrid work areas.
On the last quarter of the 20 th century, the electronic and computer technologies offered
advantages in a dazzling speed and that has caused a huge change in daily lives, in the
perception of daily lives and in daily rituals. This change had effects in a very wide range, from
daily lives to social habits. This motion keeps accelerating every single day with another
addition that triggers the change even more.
3.1. The concept of globalization
Anthony Giddens defines globalization as the intensification of worldwide societal
relationships thanks to the linking of far apart localizations through connections in which local
events shaped by others that are miles away or vice versa (Giddens; 1998, p.66). These
intensified worldwide societal relationships are realized in a process where the signification of
location is gradually lost through social, economic and cultural regulations and where people’s
awareness of that increases (Waters; 1995, p.3). This process is also defined as a period in which
new cultural, political, economical and social formations develop and interact rapidly.
Becoming a social fact, globalization with its interactive dimension, caused a radical change in
daily lives. “Post-industrial society is a society built on a information-based economy. While in
industrial society, production focused on material goods and factories, in pos-industrial
societies production’s focus shifted to electronic devices and computers that use and store
information.” (Bozkurt; 2006, p.140). According to Zygmunt Bauman, the deepest meaninf that
arose from this process is “the ambiguous, irregular nature of world matters.” (Bauman; 1999,
p.7). Similar to the first social effects of the industrial revolution, globalization, which also
influenced social life in multiple ways, brought the concepts of information economy and
changing communications. The factors that speed up the social change with the globalization,
are seen in the fields of information, technology, communication and economy.
The new communications technologies, help people communicate with others anywhere in the
world, provided easy access to information, simplified the information exchange and trade.
Therefore, in information societies, communication technologies have gained central
importance in terms of production and economy. With the process of globalization, traditional
understanding of media has left its place to a new media approach defined as “hybrid” and in
this age of electronic revolution, a new life in a global village has started for those who have a
computer, a new generation cell phone and Internet access.
3.2. The concept of hybridization
Mikhail Bakhtin, emphasizes the fact that the act of hybridization allows two different
languages to communicate and summarizes: “The new concept of hybridization, is an
artistically organized system to make two separate languages related to each other and
furthermore, it is a system that’s goal is to create a live image/illusion from one language for
enlightening the other language.” (Barkhtin, Mikhail, 1981, pp. 27-29). The concept of
hybridization defined by Bakhtin for the field of literature, has become a commonly-used term
for many areas in the era of global information. The concept of hybridization renewed by the
globalization, defines situations arisen by the interactions between different cultures, while also
characterizing the interactions between disciplines like technology, design, art and literature
and the new genres created by these interactions. Hybrid, has been proven to be a functional
277

concept to define a various range of notions from multi-functional electronic devices to
agriculturally designed seeds, from dual combustion environmental-friendly cars to companies
embracing American and Japanese management styles, from multi-racial people to double
nationalities and post-colonial cultures. (Weeks, 2002, p.2) (The areas that the concept defines
show a big variety just as the concept’s meaning itself.)
3.3. New Media
While the mass communication media such as newspapers, magazines, books, radio, cinema
and television are called the traditional media, the channels that the new communications
technologies provide are named as the new media. New media is differentiated from the
traditional media by three important characteristics: “interactivity, asynchrony and
demassification” (Rogers, 1995; Transferred by, Geray, 2003, p.18). The new media’s interactive
dimension is continuously updated. New generation applications, not only allow user
interactivity through clicking, page refreshing and moving forward but also make the software
appeal to more than one sense. This way, the concept of cyber reality becomes more than a
simulation of real life, but instead it comes to recognition as a concept within the real life that
can be perceived by different senses in real-time.
The electronic information era, shaped under the light of technological advances that happen by
the minute, has changing requisites and that’s why the communication methods also renew
themselves in different ways. With the new media applications that are added to the concept of
communication every single day, it undertakes different meanings and interpretations. In this
era of speed in which, as McLuhan emphasized, “everybody deals with everybody, everybody
knows about everybody on every instance” (McLuhan Marshall, 2005, p.16), a new “form of
dialogue” that is valid on the whole world, is created through electric circuits. The way this
dialogue was formed conveys the idea of change on the whole, in terms of social, economic and
political terms. The process of contemporary societies moving from written cultures towards a
more visual culture, has affected the communication industry in many aspects and brought
corporate and cultural changes.
With the globalization, it became unavoidable that new communication technologies had to be
improved and that communication policies had to adapt to the new world order. The
traditional media approach in which all the communication technologies were central and a
one-way relationship was formed between the receiver and the sender; started to leave its
throne to the new media concept that emphasized individual preferences and focused on the
single individual as both the receiver and the sender. The new media’s target audience: “the
single individual” is also part of a crowd just as in the pre-industrial revolution period. This
crowd in the cyber world, shares common grounds not as in birth place, family or village (as
freed from all geographic constraints), but cultural similarities as in professional exchanges,
common interests, similar taste in music. Thanks to communication technologies, information
has become the main element to share in the new media and the new world order and also, the
determinant factor in global economy. The transformation of information into a determinant
factor in global economy, is due to the improvements in v-computer technologies. “The birth of
information, not only as a concept, but as an ideology is undeniably related to the advances in
computers.” (Kumar, K., 1995, p.20). Besides the cultural, economical and artistic influences,
another effect of the advances in computer technologies and the Internet is the emerging of new
communication tools in the cyber world. The technologies of written, oral and visual
communications and the need for societies to access information and to communicate
influenced each other mutually. The new communication vehicles equipped with new
278

technologies became the new media. (Karamustafa, 2003, p. 41). The new media, as part of their
nature, reshape the message they carry and present it to the audience. This brings the need to
design the same messages in different ways for different media. The change and transformation
of the communication concept as the information technologies develop, causes the graphic
design discipline that designs communication, to be changed and transformed just like other
disciplines.
The most significant and most widely-usable tool among the new communication technologies
is the Internet. The Internet’s discovery has a past of forty years while its public use only dates
back to circa 20 years. However, if evaluated in terms of civilization history, the use of Internet
as a multi-functional tool, is at a mesmerizing speed. The Internet has gone through a rapid
evolution just as its development. The Internet user, who acted as a regular book reader in the
beginning, became a user in every sense as the technology advanced. Web 2.0, which
transformed Internet users from viewers to participants, is a word that started to be used by
O’Reilly Media in 2004 and defines the second generation Internet services, – societal
communication sites, the “wiki”s, communication tools, the ranking and tagging systems in
social networks – in other words, the system created by Internet users collectively through
sharing. (O’Reilly, Tim; August, 2008). It became an indispensable part of the daily life with the
cellular phones, palm pilots and wireless network technologies. As a consequence, the effects of
the Internet on social life and culture varied. These effects increase day by day as the Internet
technologies advance. The world of Internet is forming and shaping the basis of communication
of our day. This new media that many people spend their spare time in, is fed by cultural
structures. This new line of work that can be called cultural industry, is putting millions of
images online in a matter of seconds and is reshaped through a global point of view while
emitting the local cultures and their influences. With the simulations of the real world that we
breathe in, the high level user-computer interactivity and the new network and satellite systems
equipped with the advancing technologies, Internet has led people from every nationality,
every culture and geography to create their own life styles and realities and a completely new
interactive way of perception. The sense of reality provided by the Internet’s multimedia
applications, is supported by the wide range of new job opportunities from IT to advertising,
from software programming to entrepreneurship and design.
4. METHOD
The design stage of the project’s subject of study is shaped through a descriptive research while
visual and written sources were scanned and preliminary work has been done based on
previously developed theories on the project’s focal points of communication technologies and
new media. The research process was realized through the scanning method. With this method,
the various existing source on the specified subject were scanned, expert and user opinions on
Internet, social networks and social media were utilized. It is expected to find results that were
not forecasted in the study to define the project due to its experimental nature.
4.1. Descriptive Research Method
Descriptive methods are methods used to illustrate the existing state of the problem that needs
to be researched. The basic characteristic of these methods is to work under its own context as it
is. Descriptive research requires collecting the data to answer the questions that the studied
matter evokes. The descriptive research includes methods such as observational studies, case
analysis, standardized test, interviews and surveys. In this study, the descriptive research was
conducted through state analysis, interviews and case studies. The social, cultural, technological
279

and artistic developments that influenced today’s communication methods, were placed on a
time line and were evaluated in scope of their synchronized and mutual effects while the
reasons behind the effects were tried to be explained through their contextual relationships.
This way, the contact between cinema and graphic design, which is a form of visual
communication design, was also analyzed.
4.2. Research Scope
As this research involves the collaboration of graphic design and cinema students in an
Internet-based social advertising campaign, the research’s study scope includes only these two
disciplines and their interactions with each other. As it is planned to be circulated on the
Internet like the project’s objective suggests, the communication technologies were analyzed in
terms of their effects on the Internet and on the new media.
4.3. Data gathering tools
Due to the project’s nature, the research’s data gathering tools primarily include observation of
social communication networks that fit in the description of social media, blogs, viral films,
internet advertising examples, internet user behaviors and blogger inclinations. The research
scope was defined through the results from the basic behavioral patterns of Internet users.
4.4. Data Gathering and Analysis
The research-related data was collected through the target audiences and the social networks
inline with the social advertising campaigns that the students were required to design and
execute. The behaviors of the users of these social networks in similar situations were observed,
interpreted and analyzed.
4.5. Validity and Reliability
This study is based on an experimental student project. The research part of the study is focused
on globalization, hybridization and concepts of new media. In scope of these studies, an interdisciplinary
project was designed.
4.6. Strengths and Weaknesses
This study that is prepared with descriptive research methods is focused on an experimental
project. Therefore, it is inevitable to use some generalizations regarding certain points. The
project was designed by taking the existing situation into consideration rather than the potential
developments in communications and Internet technologies. It was aimed fro a social
advertising campaign to reach its target audience in a rapid and effective way while
improvements on the Internet, data transfer speeds and formats, blogs and social media were
predicted. The probable result this study aims for, can not be generalized to other
interdisciplinary projects but can be transferred to other projects.
5. FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION
5.1. Interdisciplinary Study
The term interdisciplinary originated at first in the field of social sciences to define the
combination or inclusion of two or more academic disciplines or research scopes. In results of
280

technological improvements, it is now used in multiple fields such as cybernetics, informatics
and nanotechnology. The hybrid fields of work that the effects of communication technologies
created, also resulted in interdisciplinary studies. In a world where information moves in a fast
pace, it is even more important than in the past, that the message is interesting and is based
upon a good idea.
Thanks to the new media and communication technologies, the discipline of graphic design has
now found its “viewer” that was needed since before. Although graphic design was appreciated
in fields like literature, art, cinema, advertising and music, it was mostly seen as a side
discipline. In spite of the fact that it was an important part of the daily life, it was only open to
discussion in design platforms but today; parallel to the new generation’s interest on the
Internet the will to become a participant has increased and that effected the interest in graphic
design significantly. With these developments, the graphic expression language that was
constantly renewing itself, has gained a more organic structure and became a more influential
expressive language for other art and design fields. Also thanks to that interaction, the graphic
design discipline is continuously adding new extensions to its organic structure and forming
new fields of expertise within itself. The graphic language and its extension feeds and is fed
from disciplines like cinema, video and cartoon. Today, we can see samples of graphic
expression in many other art and design forms from interactive media and cyber reality
applications that are now embracing almost every aspect of our lives to movies, from street
exhibits to statues or a theater play. Besides the fact that graphic expression language is now
used as an interdisciplinary platform and has an effective use in other branches of arts and
design, it is also important to note the advances in the internet and the internet technologies in
the manner this language communicates. With the improvements made in production
technologies, the graphic designer is now freed from the time-consuming stages of the process
and has more time to develop creative ideas, to use traditional and new media more effectively,
to gain more knowledge on communication technologies, to be more open to interdisciplinary
work… In light of these insights, this project involving the design and execution of a social
advertising campaign through the collaboration of graphic design and film students, is a project
that has multi-dimensional results that need to be observed and analyzed.
5.2. Internet Advertising Campaigns
As a consequence of globalization, design directed towards mass appeal has started to become
more and more oriented towards a specific group/individual. With the advancing Internet
technologies, it is defining itself in terms of target audience, gender, age, economic status, likes,
needs and wants. Any product or brand can be produced for individual needs and wants and
be promoted by the product’s own target audience. The improvements in the Internet
technologies, Web 2.0 applications, the concept of web semantics, the increase in the speed of
data transfer, the fact that connectivity is now available in almost every single home, office or
school through a computer, the huge market created by the increasing demand for cell phones
with Internet connection and palm pilots etc. all caused advertising to enter the Internet more
thoroughly and with higher budgets.
The brands today use internet advertising campaigns that include multiple applications like
micro web sites, campaign web sites, games (advergame), banners, campaigns designed by
third parties, viral films, mobile applications and alternative “Reality Game” designs… in order
to support the advertising campaigns in traditional media and to reach their Internet using
target audience. This kind of applications increase day by day and present a broader variety
with every single campaign.
281

Picture 1. Amnesty International, Human Rights, Outdoor Campaign
282

Today web as the new media also took the traditional media in its own realm. Files sized with
thousands of megabytes are transferred from one corner of the world onto another, in very
short times. Motion, interactivity, the idea of staying connected to the whole world
simultaneously and audio are the main elements that make the web so special. When compared
with the traditional media, another difference that comes to mind is the broadcasting costs. It is
free to broadcast on a social network, blog or photo and video sharing site on the Internet. That
is why the Internet is the most appropriate medium for social advertising, which doesn’t have
any king of revenue expectation. Because of the global financial crisis, Internet has become the
primary tool to carry on a campaign unlike in the past, where the Internet was usually a
secondary vehicle to support the traditional media.
5.2.1. Viral Film
Considering the fact that motion is a method used to increase Internet advertising’s appeal, it is
unavoidable that video becomes a tool serving that same purpose. As the Internet technologies
advanced, video applications started to be used for Internet advertising and examples of
experimental videos emerged as a way to avoid the ordinary. The video’s appeal is the primary
factor in increasing its sharing by bloggers and social networks. The name viral (viral
expansion) is based on this definition. Viral films, as part of their nature, are predicted to be the
fastest tool to circulate social ads. In order for this to happen, it is highly needed to have an
authentic and creative idea that is executed via an effective visualization.
5.2.2. Guerilla applications and blogs
The word “Guerilla” has its roots from Spanish. When the Spanish people showed resistance
against Napoleon between 1807 and 1814. Guerilla, meaning the war of the gangs, can be seen
as the weapon of the poor and the weak. It was first used by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984 to
define unconventional advertising methods like theatrical street performances, brochures, direct
mailing, methods that were mainly used by amateur agencies as an alternative to mediadependant
advertising strategies. However, in the past years, bigger companies have noticed
the effects of these tactical advertising methods and transformed this strategy into something
more grandiose. Ironically, the tactics called “guerilla” were mainly designed for start-up, lowbudget
ad agencies that wouldn’t be able to allocate high budgets for a 30-seconds long spot to
be broadcasted on national media channels. The advertising work produced through the use of
guerilla tactics communicate with the viewer right on the moment they are executed and via the
transfer onto the Internet. Because they involve unconventional ideas and more eye-catching
executions than the traditional media, their viral circulation rate on the Internet is quite high.
This characteristic of guerilla tactics, has caused them to be an important step in Internet
advertising campaigns.
Unlike web sites that require knowledge of programming, domain names and web designs,
blogs that are available to anyone for free, have become another media for Internet advertising.
Especially after the economic crisis, blogs have provided substantial income for their writers.
Blogs that have the fulfill the required hit and visitor count, can use applications like “adsense”
without even interacting with the advertiser on a one to one basis or they can use text-style ads
called “adwords.” Besides these, blogs are also used in “blogadvertising,” as a supporting
medium within the ad campaign to write news about the brand, to spread the viral films and to
announce the campaign.
283

The appeal and the high viewer ratings of guerilla tactics made them an effective choice for
students working in this project. Similarly, it was also thought that blogs that value their hit
counts, would not be indifferent to successful guerilla applications.
5.2.3. Social Networks
Picture 2. Blog
The visitors of a web site have become the web site’s participants or writers through the Web
2.0 applications. In Web 2.0 applications, whether they are big or small, all participations are
encouraged from the classification of the content (tagging) to making it richer. This directory of
applications that bring the user interactivity to the highest level, has become one of the major
tools of the new media. Web 2.0 includes; social networks like FriendFeed, Wikipedia,
YouTube, flickr, del.ici.ous, Ekşi Sözlük, piili network, Facebook etc. and social bookmarking
sites or applications they use. Due to their structure, the social networks have created their own
masses. The social networks that offer a limitless data transfer, show a broad range of variety
thanks to the advances In internet technologies. Users can now share different tools like photo,
284

video, slide show, blog post through different social newtowrks. These systematic structures
that brings together people of common interests, of course aims primarily to maintain a high
count of regular and active users. Thanks to these characteristics, social networks were chosen
as an appropriate channel to announce the social ad campaign.
Picture 3. Twitter, micro-bloging network
Picture 4. Vimeo, video sharing network
285

CONCLUSION
Picture 5. Friend Feed, Social sharing network
Environment, processes, communication patterns in social life and individual perceptions of life
were re-shaped and re-built with the emergence and development of new technologies.
Freedom offered by new information and communication technologies to all arts and design
fields also effected the field of graphics design. Graphics design as a discipline now includes not
only visual aspects but also other media types. Graphics design also assists messages to stand
out in the crowd and it also makes the message more clear and memorable. In order to get
attention for more than a fraction of time, messages should be mind tickling, entertaining and
interactive. New opportunities and applications offered by new digital technologies expanded
the boundaries of disciplines and removed the interdisciplinary barriers. Hidden indicators of
many cultures will interact with the others and this interaction will improve the sensual
perceptions of graphic design.
This experimental and interdisciplinary project is aimed to offer a multidimensional experience
to students and instructors. While gaining experience on interdisciplinary problem solving and
visualization, students also will be able to develop strategies for effective use of communication
technologies. Thus, they will design new media tools to achieve successful results in the project.
Key reasons for this project are the Internet applications and technologies as well as social
media. Within the project, students from different disciplines will play roles as users, publishers
and idea creators in the field of social networks and social media.
Finally, this experimental project was designed to serve as a reference for future
interdisciplinary projects, social responsibility campaigns, Internet advertisement projects and
social media works.
286

REFERENCES
Bakhtin, Mikhail, M.. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl
Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. [written
during the 1930s], 1981.
Giddens, Anthony. Modernliğin Sonuçları (1992), trans. Ersin Kuşdil, Ayrıntı Yayınları,
İstanbul, Turkey, 1998.
Karamustafa, Sadık. 21. Yüzyıl Türkiye’sinde Görsel İletişim Tasarımı Eğitimi, Thesis, Mimar
Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey, 2003.
Kumar, Krishan. Sanayi Sonrası Toplumdan Post-modern Topluma Çağdaş Dünyanın Yeni
Kuramları, trans. Mehmet Küçük, Dost Kitabevi Pub., Ankara, Turkey, 1995.
McLuhan Marshall. Yaradanımız Medya, Merkez Kitapçılık, İstanbul, Turkey, 2003.
O’reilly, Tim . “Web 2.0”, 12 August 2008,
Geray, Haluk. “Carl Rogers.” İletişim ve Teknoloji: Uluslararası Birikim Düzeninde Yeni Medya
Politikaları. Ankara: Ütopya. Turkey. P.18, 2003.
Weeks, Linton. Frappe society: The trend to blend. Washington Post, pp. C1. C2. 2002.
287