Ben McIntosh

I have been fortunate enough to get a male and a female to participate in my interview. I decided to involve a woman to further expand the audience and help women understand what they can do to help with men's mental health. I have found a simple software called iMovie to help me edit all my clips together as well as establish what questions are being asked. It is a simplistically designed interview which may seem a bit boring and it may stop the whole conversational approach to the project. However, I believe the cutting and editing make it easier for viewers to go back over questions they found beneficial.

The interview was done with the same lighting as my prototype and in the same location. However, I have dropped the quality of the video from 4k to 1080p to help with uploading times.

The interview will be uploaded to YouTube soon!

I have been fortunate enough to meet up with a few of the lads from the Sauna Club. The Sauna Club are a group of men who come together for mens mental health awareness and “sweat for what matters”. 

With meeting them at one of the lads places down the road we had a chat about mental health and dive deeper into their understandings as individual men in both the university world and the working world. 

The discussion included a template of a few questions to kick-start a conversation and or fall back on to keep it going. These included:

What gave you the idea to create the sauna club? Why do you want to promote men's mental health? Is it more of a personal campaign or are you guys just taking action?

Mental health is quite a wide term with great complexities. What are your thoughts on mental health? Do you guys have the same definition?

What factors are at play that are detrimental to men's mental health? Do you think there are social or cultural factors that we face?

Are there too many expectations for men to perform at university and in the workforce?

A big part of mental health for men is opening up. How can we break the stereotype that men can’t talk? Do we as men need to do it or is there something women can do to make it easier as well? 

What is one piece of advice you would give to our audience listening? 

I believe the overall content of the podcast was great. I loved how free-flowing the conversation was with Xavier and Finn. The podcast was edited on Garageband and will be on Soundcloud for all to listen to!

I have further developed and refined the questions to ask my interviewees. I have made it more specifically about men's mental health. I hope this will reach the target audience and create a great interview!

The questions are:

What are some challenges men may face when it comes to their mental health?

Are there any misunderstandings or stereotypes surrounding men's mental health that you'd like to address?

What factors contribute to men experiencing mental health issues, and how can we prevent and intervene early?

What are some specific mental health concerns that affect men more frequently, and how can we improve access to support for these issues?

What barriers might prevent men from seeking professional help for their mental health, and how can we encourage them to overcome these obstacles?

How can workplaces and organizations create a supportive environment for men's mental well-being?

How important is it for men to have open conversations about their mental health, and how can we create safe spaces for them to do so?

What advice would you give to men who are struggling with their mental health but are hesitant to seek help? How can they take the first steps toward recovery?

With this podcast, I decided to change my approach and find some people to perform it with me. The conversational environment creates a space of comfort for talking about men's mental health.

I have reached out to a couple people who are a part of mental health campaigns and I have fortunately managed to reach a club in Hamilton called the Sauna Club Boys.

https://www.instagram.com/saunaclubofficial/

I meet with them to complete this podcast and get some good content about understanding who they are.

What went well and what didn't...

Interview: 5/5/2023

I thought the interview went really well. I was happy with the result of quality of lighting and visuals on my friend who I interviewed. The questions flowed well enough to get the point across and I hope audience members can understand it like I can. The questions went well and were answered appropriately in my opinion. For this being only a portion of what will be a full recording I am happy with how it went!

Things to improve on with the interview will be to have another participant in the video. this will help draw ideas together and create more of a conversational flow that I am looking to tackle.

Podcast: 7/5/2023

I thought this would go well but it didn't. I'm incredibly unhappy with how it turned out and even unhappier with the result of most of my audio being lost. This was a last minute effort which isn't appropriate for my cause. Having a last minute project meant I had time pressure and didn't get the results I was looking for.

For the podcast I want it to be more interactive. I have decided to add in breathing moments to help relax the audience. I have found the podcast quite a tricky project as I am unsure of how smooth the audio will be. I also fear that issues will come up with my nerves and having myself stutter. Unfortunately I don't have great editing skills but if I have to I will learn my best if time comes to it.

I have a good friend of mine who is willing to be in the interview today. I have conducted a trial questionnaire to see how it turns out before the final assignment where I will adapt and improve the questions asked to make a free flowing conversation rather than a questionnaire.

I would be lying if I didn't say that planning my projects has been difficult. Throughout the break and my time back at University I have been holding off creating my projects to spread the message.

I had a sit down recently with family with the discussion of mental health and what has been going on inside my own head. Am I afraid of what I am creating? Is the message to personal? Or am I afraid of failing?

After questioning everything I was doing, I believe I have made the right choice of topic. I need to get a start on things. I need to make a difference.

Planning for here on out:

Interview: Message a couple mates and see if they are still interested in partaking in my project. Create a questionnaire. Find lighting. Find a reliable filming camera.

I have created a base plan with what to follow for my selected media productions. I plan to create a short video which will conduct as an interview and I will also be creating a podcast featuring myself as I discuss Men, Masculinity, and unpack the issues on why Men are afraid to speak up and help break the stigma...

I aim for 1 week of storyboarding and scriptwriting for each of my products so I can have enough flexibility to grow and improve my skills and content if need be.

Podcast: After listening to many podcasts myself and having discussions with people about themi seem that they are fairly popular. I aim to have a more conversational podcast that discusses and makes you aware of the issues that men are facing in this day and age!

Timeframe - Recording 1 week to allow for audio issues, etc

Tech used - University studio recording room

Editing - 1 week

Interview: The idea of an interview came from the groundings of that which is Netflix's "The Midnight Gospel" The one on one interviews about serious topics in a less serious tone made me want to create something like that for men. A product that isn't time consuming but is valuable and educational.

Timeframe - Filming will consist of 1 week to allow hiccups.

Tech used - iPhone

Editing - 1 week

I am very eager to create these products and help spread awareness of Men's Mental Health and keep them talking! Can't wait to show more of what's to come!

The audience target seems simple "Men"

However, I am for my media productions to address my main audience as men ages 15 - 25. Then my secondary audience whom is Men aged 26 - 99. Finally my third audience will be everyone else Women, Teens, etc. I believe this topic is more than just for men. I want everyone to understand how important it is for men to speak up. I believe having content that will help engage everyones minds in how to be aware and offer support can create an extremely positive change to our men in this society.

Tone: lighthearted serious tone to my products . I need free flowing and conversational discussions that glean the audience follow and feel like they are part of the content! I want my products to feel as if they are talking to you and hopefully the audience and take in what they say! I believe is is through the use of voice and the tone of it that will make the listener or viewer feel like they want to listen instead of them being told!

I've tried to do some more digging on why and when Mental Health may arise. I stumbled upon research about abused boys and the behaviours and actions led after that. Affleck, Carmichael, & Whitley (2018) who state that “Abused boys are more likely to display a constellation of behaviours that may be less easy to classify psychiatrically, including delinquency, disruptive behaviours, school dropout, binge drinking, and risk taking. Such “externalising” behaviours are often considered character issues rather than mental health issues. This means that negative thoughts and behaviours in men and boys are frequently labelled as social problems rather than health problems, leading to a punitive instead of a psychiatric response.”

This shows me that there are links to common behaviour in adults to drink and abuse other substances. I believe there hasn't been an opportunity for them to even open up as a psychiatric issues! It all seems Physical!

I have also stumbled upon an article from Medical News Today about 'Man up' is not the answer. This gave me more insight on stats like how Males die by suicide four times more often than females do. and the road blocks that males hit and why they aren't able to speak up. Roadblocks like colour create a great issue as in the article "The National Alliance on Mental Health notes that just 1 in 3 Black adults with mental illness receives treatment, despite the fact that they are more likely to experience emotional distress than white adults. Generational racial trauma and violence against people of color, as played out in the news media, intensify this distress."

According to the Te Whatu Ora Suicide Web Tool, In 2018, Aotearoa had a severe number of suicides with 175 Females confirmed to have passed compared to the Males which with 451 confirmed passings.

The strong difference in numbers between Males and Females make the topic of Men's Mental Health more important to address so those numbers can go down.

I often find myself asking this question. I understand that mental health and mental illness can be bluntly anxiety and depression but my understanding may be a bit more personal. My understanding of mental health from a masculine perspective can feel a lot more surreal. To feel emotions and not feel comfortable to explain them is an incredibly lonely and difficult. In trying to avoid the action of speaking up and talking about feelings I have witnessed substance abuse as a coping mechanism for dealing with mental illness where as it just adds to the issue and worsens the condition. In the Journal Critical Issues in Men's Mental Health by Dan Bilsker, Andrea S. Fogarty, and Matthew A. Wakefield (2018) they state how men deal with mental health through the abuse of substances.

"Recent reviews have attributed the use of negative coping styles to the tendency of some men to adhere rigidly to certain stereotyped features of masculinity: misuse of alcohol and drugs to numb distress; concealing and ignoring negative emotions; engaging in risky behaviours; or valuing self-reliance and autonomy over professional care."

Through this research I able able to understand the topic deeper with the knowledge of key concepts pop how men currently cope with negative emotions. I will now be able to create media productions helping me address these issues and how we can better manage ourselves.

I have also taken the time to look at a Ted Talk with Allan Keller. This talk was fantastic.

I found that I gathered a more in personal understanding of mental health, specially with men and the stigma they face that they can't talk or that is isn't masculine. Allan also helped break the stigma by addressing the issue directly and opening up with his own personal experiences!

With this talk I feel like I have been given more topics to discuss and address.

These topics include: Masculinity, Unhealthy Stigmas, Addressing support and accessibility, and finally how to give others insight on how to help their friends, family, and peers.

I have also gathered insight on media coverage and how to direct a message whilst keeping the audiences attention. I am eager to take ideas from this talk and experiment with it in my own media productions.

I form ideas around Mental Health and what it means. I have gone in with an open mind an don't just thought about men but also women and how it may effect other areas on the outside. I have managed to connect similarities with men and women and how they may potentially be able to get help to either prevent or help get through mental illness.

In my findings I draw back on the idea that Men have a stigma of not being able to speak up... That it isn't masculine. This mind map has led me to my logo's... The "Your Voice Campaign". Here's a sneak peak of the logo I've created.

Over the past week I have been piecing together what topic I should promote and raise awareness for in my MEDIA220 paper. There are many topics that I am passionate about and would love to address. These topics being:

Men's Mental Health (Ages 15 - 25)

Anti Smoking Campaign

Promotion of Wellbeing and environment in Aotearoa. (Nature, Beaches, and other Outdoor Exploration)

The importance of Nutrition and it's benefits

Thinking of these various topics I am currently leaning more towards the Mens Mental Health. I believe this is a topic that has been brought to light throughout the media in more recent times and I would love to take part in promoting the awareness and struggle of young men with the potential to reach out and help them speak up.

In the website depression.org.nz it talks about Mens Mental Health in tackling Depression and or Anxiety. This page promotes healthy habits and encourages not just Men but everyone in the community to help identify when a man may be struggling and needs help/support. This website also helps the reader understand why men may be struggling. The hardship on unemployment, drugs and alcohol, difficult relationships with family, and a lack of friends creates many reasons why a man may fall ill with anxiety and depression.

I hope to tackle the topic of Mens Mental Health and break the stigma of men not talking so that we can all grow as a community where we as men are stronger together by communicating our emotions.

I have much to work on with creating a title, how I am going to reach my targeted audience, and gaining more knowledge and facts about my topic before creating my media products but I am very eager to take on this challenge!