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Communicating the Importance Clean Water
- 1. Communicating the importance of clean water
- 2. Create a vision Tell people about your vision: safe drinking water, water safe for fishing, children wading in their local stream without fear of disease, streams free of trash, etc.
- 3. Be brief Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein • VIDEO: TEDEd – The Power of Simple Words
- 4. A picture tells a 1,000 words Images are easier to understand and more memorable, so focus on impacts that are easy to visualize.
- 5. Be specific, concrete and local
- 7. Use numbers • The cost to build traditional infrastructure in Lancaster: $300 million • The cost to build green infrastructure in Lancaster: $140 million
- 8. Use visual words Words that may have issues Try these words instead BMP’s Conservation practices Regulations Protections or safeguards Stormwater Polluted runoff Low impact development (LID) Modern and efficient infrastructure Water quality Clean water/polluted water Watershed Land around rivers and streams Agricultural land Farms Impaired Polluted Urban sprawl Wasteful and inefficient development Environment Land, air, water and animals Nutrients Over fertilization
- 9. Trusted messengers are key
- 10. Key message elements • Values: Incorporating values into your communications • Pride: Local rivers and streams, local pride, national pride • Cooperation: We’ll make progress when government, business and individuals work together. • Legacy: Clean water for our children and animals • Fair share: Everyone is asked to do their fair share. • Health: Polluted water is a health hazard. • Economics: Reducing pollution creates good jobs.
- 11. The power of the story • Studies prove that emotional stories are far more likely to inspire action. • An engaging story builds a bridge. • The main “story” in your work should give your audience a way in, a REASON to connect to you and your message • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzi m5m7oU
- 12. The question of story • What is the story in what you have to say or tell about your work? • What do you want your audience to do or believe? • How are you going to express it in a way that engages them? • What do you want to convey?
- 13. Deb Kleiner Choose Clean Water Coalition kleinerd@nwf.org 443-759-3409
Editor's Notes
- So much environmental messaging gives the impression that we must all make great sacrifices to avoid a hellish future. This isn’t very appealing and it certainly isn’t working. Instead, we need to create a vision of a world with clean, vibrant water. Tell people about your vision: safe drinking water, water safe for fishing, children wading in their local stream without fear of disease, streams free of trash, etc. We need to model the vision of clean water.
- VIDEO: TEDEd – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8E8UOBFJQ Use the fewest and simplest words possible to make your point. Strip down your messaging to one core idea. Emphasize this. Like a journalist puts the key information at the beginning of an article, you need to put your core idea first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8E8UOBFJQ Do not “dumb down” – be clear, use everyday language and words – esp. active verbs and words that carry emotion
- Humans are visual first, verbal second Effectively pairing words with pictures and video enhances attention, memory, recall, and believability Visuals are the most effective communications vehicles for evoking emotion and getting people to take action
- Specificity is key. Talk about specific steps and local choices. We have to choose clean water. Tell them how...and tell them in concrete language. Jargon is unintelligible and ambiguous terms mean different things to different people. When possible, use concrete phrases – those that people can imagine using their senses. So don’t tell people to “stop polluting the water,” tell them to pick up their dog poop. Don’t talk about “green futures,” tell them about reduced flooding.
- Be specific: name rivers and streams. Talk about the sources of our drinking water. Talk about being able to eat the fish, safely swim. Tourism, fishing and recreational industries are vital to local economies. Each locality has an opportunity this year to decide how we will clean up and protect our waterways over the next twenty years. How we use the land, what we build on it, and how we build, are decisions about what we’re going to allow into our rivers and streams. Everyone is responsible for the pollution they allow into the water, and for the impact that has on everyone else.
- Use with caution: a little bit goes a long way. Put statistics in quantities per person, and make comparisons to common experiences. Highlight to each person their impact, so that they feel like they will make a difference and emphasize the benefits for them as an individual. Tap into their identity.
- Our job is to talk about clean water through the lens of the values of the people that we are talking to
- While much hay is made of questioning science and statistics, it’s harder to question the story of what you saw or experienced – find people who can bring flooding, jobs, and pollution to life. A strong story will have longevity. Inspirational stories take a life on of their own, especially when you have a social web multiplying their effectiveness.
- The “story” = the interesting fact, the compelling reason, the amazing example…. What is going to make someone go “wow” or read on? RULES: - Do not ever “add” for impact. You may have to cut (and I recommend that) but do so wisely and judiciously. Be accurate – to the best of your knowledge. You should be able to state that the way you represent something – in written or spoken word -- is, to the best of your knowledge, the way it happened or way it is