Am looking for recent research that speaks to doing education and outreach in a society framed by fear - both of manmade disasters such as 9/11 and the Iraq War, and natural disasters. What language, images, graphics, etc. should we use to present toxics and hazardous substances - or other potentially scary topics - that engages people in behavior change - without creating more fear or apathy?
Cedar
Cedar Bouta
Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program
WA State Dept. of Ecology
Po Box 47600 Olympia, WA 98504-7600
phone 360-407-6853
fax 360-407-6715
Marketing in a 9/11, War, Tsunami, and Katrina Society
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Dear Cedar -
What Lynn just wrote applies very much to other areas such as communicating scary things like climate change, in which I have done a bit of work on emotional responses and what that means in terms of communicating it. Thanks Lynn for your thoughts! If you're interested in a book chapter on the emotional aspects of communicating climate change, send me a direct email.
Susi Moser
Susanne C. Moser, Ph.D.
Institute for the Study of Society and Environment (ISSE)
National Center for Atmospheric Research
P.O.Box 3000 Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Tel.: 303.497.8132
Fax.: 303.497.8125
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.isse.ucar.edu/moser/index.html
Dear Cedar:
Most of the research we have done is protected under confidentiality agreements, but the deliverables that emerge from this research is more often public. In my work in sustainability issues, and more specifically with toxics is that many people do not see themselves as the agents in control of this situation. They also tend to operate under the impression that as they have so little, that their impact is insignificant. This myth carried through reductionism we know is not the way that ecology. Ecology is about synergy; therefore it is the cumulation of seemingly trivial contributions by individual action that add up to impact the environment. People carry certain beliefs; we will call them myths, about their potential to affect the environment. You need to stimulate them to think differently, to cause the adult to open his or her mind to learn. There are both tools and techniques that can be used to initiate this. I find 'unseating' the myth the first challenge.
Without going into details, an easy tool to use is a mapping technique created by a gentleman in Belgium, Heinz Werner Engel. He has created an application of this technique into a specific tool that he has copyrighted as Eco-mapping. It is a creative visualization technique. It was designed for micro-enterprise, although I have found it as useful for almost any entity. 80% of the problems faced tend to be location-based, ergo mapping, whether it is applied to the environment, health and safety, quality, etc. is a quick way to provide fast and efficient returns. Version 1 is freely available in the library on the registry website noted under my contact points. We developed a version of Eco-mapping (with Heinz' blessing) for a kids' video contest on Climate Change - climat-o-mapping through the Annual Conservation Video Contest (you can see this through the E2 website below). We ran this for 5 years and got interesting videos from kids - many of whom used this to teach their parents, school administration and local politicians to make changes in how they did things as a result. Some of them went on to international events as a result. I find from a terminology perspective in business circles what 'sells' is productivity, NOT pollution prevention. This term get the same reaction as the one liner 'joke' "do you beat your wife often", you are doomed if you respond yes or no.
Positive language is a must - the environment issue is often started as an emotional discussion, usually in anger due to frustration. Juxtaposition can also work well to prove a point. Industrial cartoonists are also very helpful. For example, years ago we were commissioned to write a business development plan on the waste issue. The draft we were given was negative, fraught with all kinds of doom and gloom statements, yet the division was seeking buy-in from their overall Board to assign a significant amount of money to this venture. Plans of this nature are supposed to show opportunity. Although there were other things we did that secured the Board's enthusiasm (it was very tightly crafted plan), the one thing that tripped it was a cartoon inserted right after the title page. Our client was very uncomfortable with this unconventional approach. We convinced him to leave it in. It unseated the mentality of waste and the CFO phoned our client, still laughing and told him it was a go. This was a substantial investment for the company and it was a brave new world for them. Humour is a powerful tool.
Hope this helps you.
L. E. Johannson, B.E.S. (Hons), M.Sc.,
FRSA President E2 Management Corporation (E2M)
113 Mountainview Road South
Georgetown, Ontario CANADA L7G 4K2
Tel: (1) 905 - 873 - 9484
Fax: (1) 905 - 873 - 3054
Email: [email protected]