Climate Memo 7 – Tangibility: Amplify Your Message Through Trusted Voices
TL:DR: To boost the impact of your message, find people in the field who your audience already trusts and use them to deliver the message. These could be local community leaders, for example, or trusted voices in the scientific community.
In your mission to communicate the urgency of environmental concerns, the importance of strategically including trusted messengers cannot be underestimated. As highlighted in Climate Outreach‘s Ten Key Principles: How to Communicate Climate Change for Effective Public Engagement, utilizing people or organizations who are trusted and respected by your intended audience can significantly elevate the impact of your message.
In other words, people are more likely to be receptive and influenced by messages delivered by sources they deem credible. Aligning your environmental narrative with voices that your audience values, such as respected scientists or community leaders, can make complex issues like climate change more accessible and compelling.
To implement this concept effectively, it’s crucial to first identify who your audience trusts and why. This involves conducting audience research to uncover which people, groups of people, or organizations they trust. For example, if your target audience is liberal environmentalists in Livermore, California, you may not want to feature an out of town scientist. Instead, highlight the voice of a local environmentalist, park ranger, or leader relevant to the audience. A local leader carries more sway than a credentialed scientist if that leader is recognized by the community.
Once potential messengers are identified, the next step is to approach them to ensure their message aligns with your communication objectives. This strategy necessitates both a nuanced understanding of the messenger’s influence and your ability to integrate their voice authentically into your narrative. If you can achieve these things, your environmental message won’t just be heard, but felt and acted upon.
As an example, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was struggling to connect its new initiative about climate change, “Peril and Promise,” to younger Americans. Instead of creating a short video featuring scientists unfamiliar to younger Americans, PBS chose to take advantage of a science communicator already trusted by young people, Hank Green.
Green is a celebrity YouTuber and creator of SciShow, Crash Course, and other science education content, with a combined reach of over 25 million viewers, most of whom are under age 25. By using Green to highlight its new climate reporting initiative, PBS exposed millions of younger Americans to reporting on the changing climate inside the United States. The campaign also allowed PBS to reach an audience traditionally not affiliated with public broadcasting: young people.
In sum, using voices who are trusted by your audience will help you tailor and deliver a message that will stick with the audience long after your video ends.
Written by Brennan Mock
Edited by Madeline Fisher
Photo by Anna Pou : https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-microphone-8132437/
