The role of "place" in environmental communications - a fictitious formal talk, Part III

Part III of a fictitious talk I composed recently. The intended imaginary audience for this academic hoop-jumping exercise was environmental communications professionals (journalists, public affairs officers, etc.).  A version of this "talk" with embedded references/citations is available if you're interested in that level of detail.

There are three underlying aspects of place-based research that can help to guide reporting in this framework. As much as all three of these assumptions can be present in the construction of a place-based narrative, it seems to me, the resonant power would be multiplied exponentially.

The first of these primary assumptions is place as “material form.” In other words, ground your story in the spatial-temporal context or setting within which people conduct the happenings of their daily lives. We must meet people “where they are” in terms of localized information and time-sensitive progress on environmental issues.  Second is a matter of scale. This can be addressed both socially and geographically. The story you tell is happening in the home, the town, the corn field, the watershed, the wind channel... wherever. It should be bounded in an abstraction of space somewhere between local and global. The place-based approach would, as one might guess, heavily emphasize the local connections people have to the places they care about most. Also, on a sociocultural scale, are you discussing individual perceptions, small group perceptions or macro-level assumptions about what a place is or could be or should or should not be? These levels of abstraction should be explicitly stated or otherwise made clear in the construction of any meaningful narrative. Lastly, there is the relational aspect of place. Who is connected to whom? This is the cognitive landscape of meaning-making that constitutes a fundamental way, as the influential geographer Sack once stated, “through which we make sense of the world and through which we act." As a story is grounded in personal lived experience at an appropriately cast geographic scale, it must also take into account the social, historical, and cultural context surrounding the people and their environmental issues.

Aside from these three elements, I would also like to suggest tying stories to one or more of five general themes that have been teased out of the social science literature. These themes are related to the attachments people develop for places and may potentially constitute “ideal types” of sense of place categories.  By suggesting that these are connected to place attachments and, as such, could be used as motivational devices for people to attend to place-based communications, I am saying that these themes have affective or emotional components that have been found common across many interview-based studies on place. To say they are motivational is to suggest that they are of human value and have been found to move people toward place-protective action on some level. What a person values is most often his or her self-interests, including those bound to where one lives and the more relevant a story can be to the self-interests of a target audience, the better.

Professor Patricia Stokowski of the University of Vermont has suggested these particular motivational categories. Stokowski’s approach to place–based research aligns with my own perspectives and interests and I encourage you to follow-up by seeking out her work at your convenience.

Places have been found to be meaningful, Stokowski suggests, because of past family heritage and history; current family connections to a piece of land; the connection to past memorable events; a sense of individual, personal, well-being in relation to proximity or time spent in a place; and the beauty of the place itself. Wrapping these subtexts either explicitly or implicitly into a narrative has the potential to create or elicit affective bonds to particular places, though not necessarily places in general. When developing a story rooted in particular places and the experiences of particular people, readers can more likely relate their own sensations of attachment and associations of meaning for a deeper connection and, one hopes, greater investment in the issue.

I would like to offer one other set of finding regarding strategic science communication. These were developed under the rubric of climate change communication strategies but I believe they are useful for stimulating thought on a broader range of topics as well. One other caveat; some of you may be independent journalists. Others of you work as representatives of news outlets or larger institutions. Whereas these next six suggests have been framed as useful for institutional representation I believe they are worth considering for any environmental communicator working today. Many citations support these assertions but they were compiled by staff working in the human dimensions of natural resources department at Colorado State University. Please take a moment to consider the ways one could wrap these strategies in a place-oriented context and I believe you will walk away with some powerful tactics for engagement.

First, we need to move away from the “balanced coverage” approach which has led to a disproportionally large sense of scientific uncertainty regarding topics such as climate change. We need to represent more accurately, state more clearly, the levels of scientific agreement on controversial issues. Second, beware of fear-inducing messages. The boogie-man, and I’m not talking about John Lee Hooker here, can be good at raising awareness but can also discourage people from taking action if they develop a sense of hopelessness. Next, suggestions for behavior change must be rooted in a target audience’s values, beliefs, and attitudes regarding the behavior. Fourth, and I’ve alluded to this above, messages should appeal to both intellectual and emotional dimensions of thought. Fifth, and this is my favorite, messages have greater potential to be effective if they are connected to specific regions, communities, and locations. Lastly, there is no one-size-fits-all message. The ‘general audience’ does not exist. Know your particular audience. Effective outreach will require multiple communication strategies if you intend to impact diverse audience segments.

In conclusion, aside from considering some of the narrative elements and strategies I have suggested here today, I would like to urge you to continue thinking about your work as environmental communicators as a means to push beyond the status quo assumptions of what environmental communication “is.”

As we face what has been called a crisis of representation in society today, it is part of our responsibility as thought leaders and potential agenda setters to question just how and why environmental communication can and should challenge some of the dominant societal paradigms surrounding environmental issues. I suspect that these conversations have been ongoing but I urge you to take a place-oriented framework in challenging some of the social and cultural norms that disenfranchise too many by avoiding talk about places that are not as immediately beautiful, and the biases and assumptions of the dominant culture that tends to ignore the experiences and needs of minority groups. Disenfranchised people are just as firmly embedded, sometimes all but trapped, by their circumstances of place. In order to weave a web of meaning that approaches the complexity of lived experience, we must approach place from the perspective of multiplicity, even questioning our own assumptions and biases, perhaps especially questioning our own assumptions. Through this, we can create communication which, in turn, facilitates understanding and motivates action across diverse communities and ever expanding social hierarchies.

In these times of great post-postmodern and post-structural flux, as sociologist Thomas Gieryn has suggested, “the jet, the ‘net, and the fast food outlet” have added to a sense of placelessness for many people. Connections back to the corporeal physical and social landscapes that root meaning in individual experience can help combat the malaise of late modernity and help you, fellow writers, connect with your audience in what I hope are intellectually meaningful and emotionally satisfying ways.

Thank you for listening. Good night and good luck.