“It is far better to adapt the technology to the user than to force the user to adapt to the technology.” – Larry Marine

1. Transformational Media:
A New Approach to Sustainability
Beth Karlin
Center for Unconventional Security Affairs
University of California, Irvine

2. Center for Unconventional Security Affairs
Mission:
The Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA) addresses the
human and environmental security challenges of the twenty-first century
through innovative research and education programs that integrate experts
from the public and private sector.
Unconventional
Security Research
Group
Transformational
Media Lab eARTh Studio
B. Karlin

3. Transformational Media Lab
Transformation - change in form, appearance, nature, or character
Individual Community
Media – means of communication that reach large numbers of people
System
Social
Industrial
Lab - Place, situation, or set of conditions conducive to investigation/experimentation

4. Underlying Assumptions
1. Technology and new media are changing how people
interact with our natural, built, and social worlds.
B. Karlin

5. Underlying Assumptions
1. Technology and new media are changing how people
interact with our natural, built, and social worlds.
2. There are potential opportunities to leverage these
changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit.
B. Karlin

6. Underlying Assumptions
1. Technology and new media are changing how people
interact with our natural, built, and social worlds.
2. There are potential opportunities to leverage these
changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit
3. A psychological approach provides a theoretical base
and empirical methodology to study this potential.
B. Karlin

7. Transformational Media Lab
Mission:
Our lab studies how technology and new media are (and can be)
used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.
Documentary
Film
Campaigns
Home Energy
Management
B. Karlin

8. Energy Feedback
“Information about the result of a process or
action that can be used in modification or
control of a process or system”
Oxford English Dictionary
B. Karlin

9. Energy Feedback
1888

10. Energy Feedback
— Average frequency: monthly
(approx. 12 data points/year)
— Average frequency: hourly
(approx 8,760 data points/year)
B. Karlin

11. Kempton and Layne, 1994

12. How much energy does your washer use?

13. How about your whole house?

14. Small Changes, Big Impacts
Energy usage tells its own story...
Power Consumption (Watts)
$9.24 $5.28 Savings: $3.96
43%
And the computer
is still plugged in…
B. Karlin
(uci@home project)

15. Savings Add Up
“Household actions can provide a behavioral wedge to rapidly
reduce carbon emissions …”
• 5-12% reduction in 5 years
• 9-22% reduction in 10 years
“…without waiting for new technologies or regulations or
changing household lifestyle.”
Dietz, Gardner, Gilligan, Stern, & Vandenbergh (2009)
B. Karlin

16. Public and private interest
B. Karlin

17. Over 200 devices on the market
(Karlin, Ford, & Squiers, in press) B. Karlin

18. Feedback is effective…
— 100+ studies conducted since 1976
— Reviews found average 10% savings
— Mean r-effect size = .1174 (p < .001)
• Significant variability in effects
(from negative effects to over 20% savings)
Darby, 2006; Ehrhardt-Martinez et al., 2010;
Fischer, 2008; Karlin & Zinger, under review B. Karlin

19. Feedback i✗s c an be effective…
— 100+ studies conducted since 1976
— Reviews found average 10% savings
— Mean r-effect size = .1174 (p < .001)
• Significant variability in effects
(from negative effects to over 20% savings)
Da rby, 2006; Ehrhardt-Martinez et al., 2010;
Fischer, 2008; Karlin & Zinger, in preparation
B. Karlin

20. ✗ can be effective…
Feedback is
It depends…
Moderators identified in meta-analysis
• Study population (WHO?)
• Study duration (HOW LONG?)
• Frequency of feedback (HOW OFTEN?)
• Feedback medium (WHAT TYPE?)
• Disaggregation (WHAT LEVEL?)
• Comparison (WHAT MESSAGE?)
Karlin & Zinger, in preparation B. Karlin

21. Feedback i✗s c an be effective…
It
depends.
.
.
Ehrhardt-­‐Martinez,
Laitner,
&
Donnely.,
2010
10%
5%
15%
2%
20%
average
savings

22. Data Granularity
• Monthly 12
• Daily 365
• Hourly 8,760
• Continuous 31,536,000
B. Karlin

23. Data Granularity
(up to 6.3 trillion data points/year)
blu-ray netflix
streaming
200 microsecond sampling
B. Karlin

24. Feedback i✗s c an be effective…
B. Karlin

25. Information Overload
B. Karlin, 2012

26. What is Framing?
Presentation of information in a way that encourages certain
interpretations & discourages others.
“There is no value neutral way of presenting people with information.”
- Elke Weber, APA 2012
B. Karlin

27. How much energy does your washer use?
1079 KwH/year
65.9 Billion
5.8% of average home
$$$
$.25/load
$85/year
B. Karlin

28. Feedback is
It depends...
✗ can be effective…
Impacts of leaving your router on when not in use
1
2
3
4
5
Leaving your router on wastes energy.
Turning your router off when not in use saves .07 kWh per day.
If you turn your router off when not in use, you can save $2.63/year.
A router left on all day uses the equivalent of 37 AA batteries.
If all Americans turn off routers, we would save over $800 million/year.
B. Karlin

29. There are benefits to simplicity…
B. Karlin

30. But it’s not always that easy…
B. Karlin

31. Transformational Media Lab
Mission:
Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform
individuals, communities, and systems.
Documentary
Film
Campaigns
B. Karlin
Home Energy
Management

32. History of Documentary
“We believe that the cinema’s capacity for getting around, for
observing and selecting from life itself, can be exploited in a
new and vital art form”
John Grierson
First Principles of Documentary, 1932
B. Karlin, 2012

33. History of Documentary
Romanticism
historical
cinéma vérité
Propagandist

34. Documentaries Today
“docu-ganda”
Director as subject
Philanthropic ventures
Theatrical release
B. Karlin

35. Documentaries Today
Britdoc, 2007 B. Karlin

36. Documentaries Today
"specific social action campaigns for each film and
documentary designed to give a voice to issues that resonate
in the films” (Participant Media, 2010)
B. Karlin

37. A Recipe for Success?
B. Karlin
Film
Campaign
Social
Change
If you build it, they will they come.

38. Many Films on Sustainability
B. Karlin
Food Films
- Food Inc
- Fresh
- Food Fight
- Ingredients
- Food Matters
- Supersize Me
- The Future of Food
- The Garden
- King Corn
- What's on your plate?
- Deconstructing supper
Water Films
- Flow
- Blue Gold
- Tapped
- Thirst
- Blue Legacy
- Story of Bottled Water
- Last Call at the Oasis
Climate Films
- Everything's Cool
- An Inconvenient Truth
- 11th hour
- No Impact Man
- Collapse
- Radically Simple
- Blind Spot
Transportation Films
- Who Killed the Electric Car?
- Revenge of the Electric Car
- Fuel
- Crude

39. “We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a
similar social change goal.
Within the range of storytelling, some methods truly speak to an
audience by sparking real emotions...and others do little more
than entertain or inform.”
Emily Verellen, 2010
The Fledgling Fund
Different Outcomes
B. Karlin

40. What are we missing?
What is a campaign?
What is going on here?
How do we measure change?
B. Karlin
Film
Campaign
Social
Change
If you build it, they will they come.

41. Film
Campaign
Social
Change
From Recipes to Models
B. Karlin

42. Film
Campaign
Social
Change
From Recipes to Models
Ingredients Key Activities & Processes Metrics
B. Karlin

43. From Recipes to Models
Ingredients Key Activities & Processes Metrics
B. Karlin
Film
Campaign
Social
Change

44. Builds on existing theory
From Dichotomies of Power
1. Opportunity
2. Compelling story
3. Charismatic leaders
4. Infrastructure
B. Karlin

45. Learns from observation
B. Karlin

46. And closer investigation

47. To Develop Models of Change
Storytelling
- Show and Tell
Engagement
-Target and Reach
Activism
- Involve and Activate
Change
- Measure and Assess

48. Three Key Insights
Storytelling
- Evoke Morals
Engagement
- Dimensions of Viewer Experience
Activism
- Leverage Existing Networks

49. Evoke Morals
Five Moral Foundations, Haidt et al. B. Karlin

50. Evoke Morals
B. Karlin

51. Evoke Morals
— Don’t be afraid to take a stand and engage moral arguments.
— Incorporate sanctity and purity into discussion of climate.
— Use a variety of opinion leaders and authority figures.
B. Karlin

52. Dimensions of Viewer Experience
1. Where is the viewer? (spatial)
2. Who are they with? (social)
3. Do they have to pay? (financial)
4. Is it part of an event or experience?
(organizational)
B. Karlin

53. Dimensions of Viewer Experience
1. Theatrical
2. Festivals
3. Event release
4. DVD
5. Product Sales
6. Screenings
7. Broadcast
8. Digital
9. Viewing parties
B. Karlin

54. Dimensions of Viewer Experience
B. Karlin
1. Theatrical
2. Festivals
3. Event release
4. DVD
5. Product Sales
6. Screenings
7. Broadcast
8. Digital
9. Viewing parties

55. Dimensions of Viewer Experience
B. Karlin
1. Theatrical
2. Festivals
3. Event release
4. DVD
5. Product Sales
6. Screenings
7. Broadcast
8. Digital
9. Viewing parties

56. Leverage Existing Networks
Social Media ≠ Social Networks
B. Karlin, 2012

57. Leverage Existing Networks
B. Karlin

58. Leverage Existing Networks

59. Leverage Existing Networks

60. Leverage Existing Networks
— Schools
— Places of worship
— Community groups
— Online forums
B. Karlin

61. Closing Thoughts
“It is far better to adapt the technology to the user than to
force the user to adapt to the technology.”
– Larry Marine
Beth Karlin
Transformational Media Lab
University of California, Irvine
Email: bkarlin@uci.edu
Web: www.cusa.uci.edu