Introducing the Climate Memos! Climate Memo 1 – Framing: Keep it Simple

Introducing Climate Memos!

SciCommBites is excited to highlight a valuable new resource developed by students led by Dr. Edward Maibach and Dr. Reyhaneh Maktoufi. Katie Russel, alongside Loujain Kiki and Brennan Mock, have produced a collection of 20 text memos tailored for science communication filmmakers. The memos draw on science communication research to provide a structured approach to applying communication theory in film making. 

In the coming weeks, we will be featuring these memos alongside our usual Bites of science communication research. Despite their target audience, we believe their insights are widely applicable for scientists, science communicators, and educators alike. 

We hope you enjoy this exciting series!

Background

Dear Science Communicators,
Greetings, Science Communication Filmmakers (SCF), what you are now reading is a cover letter, a welcoming entreaty to a wonderful collection of resources. Our collective of scholars, which we have eponymously dubbed, “Katie & The Masters Students” has endeavored over the course of a graduate semester to cull together the best tips and tricks from the current state of Science Communication literature, particularly as it relates to Climate Change communication. Under the guidance of a true leader in the field and fortunate enough to be in class with fellow future leaders, we have teased out nuances and worked through test cases of many of these theories and formulas.

The result of that work is the collection of 20 memos you will find attached to this letter. We have provided an annotated bibliography of the memos for ease of initial review and have slotted them into thematic buckets, to help those who might be looking for academic aid with different parts of the content creating process. Additionally, we have also enclosed four distinct videos, providing an audiovisual example of some of the ideas teased out in the memos. You will note in the annotated bibliography section which memos are further reflected in video format.        
Before getting to the annotated bibliography and memos, we wanted to take some time to provide a brief overview and thoughts on our bucketing. Following in the footsteps (you could even say ‘path’) of Heath & Heath in Switch, we have attempted a three-part breakout of our memos. The Heaths present the ideas of “direct the rider” (the rational mind), “motivate the elephant” (the emotional mind) and “shape the path” (the situation or environment) centered around helping to make a switch in an individual’s thinking. While this is highly applicable to content creators, we also wanted to provide a grouping that could perhaps be more easily overlaid to those trying to create messages, and more universal to those who haven’t read the Heaths’ work.

Our buckets of framing, tangibility, and designing the message are meant to provide a construct to consider the memos and suggestions through. They are not entirely mutually exclusive as some memos could have aspects that cover multiple buckets. In practice though, we wanted to present this grouping to help target different stages of the content creation process.

For framing, it could be most helpful to consider these memos at the outset of conceptualization of a project. These memos range from topics covering the finding of the “bright spots” to speaking in moral-based language. As you’ll read in Memo 2, finding the bright spots in part is about a solutions-based approach, a helpful framing tool to consider up front. Likewise, speaking moral language Memo 4 is all about the strategic use of framing to incorporate language that appeals to universal moral principles, which can help bridge the gap when dealing with potentially delicate topics.
Regarding tangibility, these topics attempt to help bring a more praxis-based approach to recommendations, with a heavier emphasis on specific tactics to implement in the course of promotion communication techniques. While all of the memos have implementation guides and examples, this grouping provides more concrete examples, a more tangible approach, if you will. They range from a reflection on the concept of Leading Your Audience to Change in Memo 11 (again borrowing from Heath & Heath’s Switch) in speaking directly to the physical benefit of showing others they are not alone, to the idea of using trusted voices in Memo 10, a notion that involves the benefit of having a concrete person involved in promoting content.

Designing your message is our last and largest section, with reflective tools that can help a project already in progress reach its truest potential. These are ideas that can help an idea be memorable, overcome initial roadblocks, and serve a multi-purpose role (such as both communicating a present idea and inoculating against misinformation). For example, our reflection on choosing the narrative found in Memo 19 can help design a message that is personal and relatable as opposed to one that might err towards apocalyptic. Intentional Word Choice in Memo 12 serves to remind of the importance of being purposeful in language when dealing with controversial topics and inoculation against misinformation in Memo 15 shows how content and messaging can serve multiple roles, not just to advance a message but also to actively counter harmful misinformation related to it. 

This bucketing of ideas serves only to advance the underlying purpose of our efforts, to create a useful and easily accessible version of the science of science communication that can be of use to filmmakers and content creators. As mentioned before, in addition to the annotated bibliography and collection of memos, you will also find enclosed a series of videos that attempts to bring some of these ideas to life. While none of us are expert filmmakers in our own right, we hope the actualization of these ideas in a different format can help provide future inspiration and guidance.
We appreciate your time and the ability to help on the critical mission of accurately and memorably conveying messages of scientific importance to the larger community. We hope in some small way our efforts will make your later endeavors more effective or at least more efficient and look forward to any follow-up conversations or questions you might have on these or any number of related topics.

Sincerely,
Katie and the Masters Students

Climate Memo 1 – Framing: Keep it Simple

Memo TL;DR: Keeping it simple is as simple as it sounds. Focus on one concept in each video, and keep each video short and to the point. Review your scripts and materials to ensure that your message is simple and effective – like the organization, Rewiring America, has done in its campaign, “Electrify Everything.”

When planning your video (or another form of communication), if you want your audience to remember your message, keep it short and keep it simple. When formulating your content, it’s best to focus on one concept you wish to communicate to your audience, whether it’s about changing to LED light bulbs or understanding a key concept of climate change. Your audience is far more likely to take action to advance your goals if you stay relentlessly focused on one idea. As Chip and Dan Heath describe in their work Made to Stick, “… if you say three things, you’ve said nothing.” 

The question then becomes, how can you as a filmmaker create meaningful impacts on climate change (an incredibly complex issue) while also keeping it as simple as possible? For this, we turn to Made to Stick, where the Heath brothers explain that you as a communicator must focus on the overall objective, rather than educating the audience on specifics. It’s your job to offer a catchy and unique idea which can guide your viewers to action, rather than laying out specific and individualized steps. 

When keeping it simple, the best way to communicate with the audience is by giving them a direction to point themselves in. For example, let’s say you want to encourage your audience to begin discussing climate change within their families. First, start with an easy-to-understand statement, such as “Climate change: Just talk about it.” Your entire video from start to finish should be focused on this concept, without straying from the overall goal of getting your audience to begin a conversation with a family member about climate change.

Your video should also offer easy ways to potentially start a conversation about climate change. You could offer advice on how to approach a loved one about their carbon usage, for example, or how to ask for their thoughts on climate change overall. In sum, the video should be short, focused on “Climate change: Just talk about it,” and only discuss strategies to begin conversations about climate change. 

Rewiring America represents an excellent understanding of keeping it simple, as described by Chip and Dan Heath. Rewiring America has a simple campaign, “Electrify Everything,” whose goal is to get homeowners to replace fossil-fueled appliances with modern electric ones. “Electrify Everything” provides several alternatives to fossil-fueled appliances, allowing audience members to choose their own methods for completing the goal. The campaign also keeps the recommendations simple and easy to understand. 

Finally, “Electrify Everything” allows consumers to create change at their own pace, while giving them a simple lens through which to view future actions. Once a consumer is brought to the simple idea to “electrify everything,” future decisions about their home become easier. Consumers can view their purchases through the lens of “Does this fulfill my goal to electrify my home?” 

Ultimately, when considering how to make a message stick with your audience long term, make sure to keep it simple. 

Written by Brennan Mock 

Date: 03/19/2024
Edited by Madeline Fisher

Feature Image Credit: by geralt via Pixabay