Getting people to betboom dacha dubai their minds is never easy,particularly when it comes to politically charged issues like climate betboom dacha dubai.
At Michigan State University, researchers with the betboom dacha dubai are studying how attitudes andassociatedexperiencescan shapethe policies, programs and behaviors thatmaymitigate climate change, as well as practices that promote or stand in the way of solutions.
Collaborative research spans thecollege’s five departments, supported byComArtSci’sHealth and Risk Communication Center—anddraws on expertise from MSU’simmense rangeof disciplines. In line with the university’s broaderengagementmission,ComArtScischolars frequentlyinteractwith national and global institutions as thescientific communityseekstoshare their insightsaround the issue of betboom dacha dubai changewith an overall goal of helping promote the greatergood.
This article highlights research of five scholars withinComArtSciand the HRCCin the area ofclimate betboom dacha dubai communication.
Bruno Takahashi: Making it Real
ForBruno Takahashi, successful climate betboom dacha dubai communication is all about makingmessages relevant and actionable for the audience.
“If you want to have a serious conversation about the fate of the planet, we can’t cover it as breaking news,” said Takahashi, an associate professor of environmental journalism and betboom dacha dubai. “Rather than simply saying we have a problem, journalists should also look at how we got here, and at solutions.”
Takahashi is the betboom dacha dubai director of theKnight Center for Environmental Journalism—a center within thebetboom casino review ofthat teaches student and professional journalists how to better report on the environment. His research interests include media coverage of environmental journalism practices, risk betboom dacha dubaiand the links between media and policy.
One of Takahashi’s key studies examined the use of images in climate betboom dacha dubai coverage, and how visual representations engage audiences. He looked at whatimagesjournalists use in climate betboom dacha dubai reporting, and whether images were abstract or concrete.
“We found that coverage needed to have a local angle to be most effective,” he said. “Images of polar bears or far-away places are often too abstract, or position climate betboom dacha dubai as a distant issue. It makes sense for journalists to close that distance gap so people can understand the effects on their own lives.”
Takahashi also researches coverage of environmental issues in Latin America media and U.S. Latinomedia.The majority ofcoverage, he said, is Western-centric, leaving a dearth in attention paid to highlypopulated southern regions profoundly affected by climate betboom dacha dubai.
“Many news organizations simply lack resources,” he said. “A lot of their coverage relies on secondary sources or wire services, which doesn’t provide a thorough perspective.”
That gap, Takahashi contends, feeds disinformation,doubtand the ability to fully understand climate betboom dacha dubai. The good news is that climate betboom dacha dubai has become a more prominent topic in media coverage overall. Bigger media players, too, are recognizing that small organizations can’t go it alone, and are collaborating to provide more comprehensive, inclusive coverage.
“That’s the silver lining,” he said. “Journalism is developing a collaborative spirit. It’s nice to see there is an attempt to work together.”
Maria Knight Lapinskiand James Dearing: Messages that Make Inroads
The adoption of new climate betboom dacha dubai policies can hit an impasse when communities perceive the issue through apolitically polarizedlens. Communication researchersmaria betboom dacha dubaiandJames Dearingare making inroads by identifying
innovative multi-tiered programs that align with a community’s values, and tailoringthe betboom dacha dubai about those programsto ensure their acceptance.
Lapinskiis ajointly appointedprofessor in thebetboom teamand Michigan Ag-Bio betboom dacha dubai, and director of MSU’sHealthandRiskCommunication Center.Dearing istheBrandt Endowed Professor in thebetboom team. The two have worked together on various programs through the HRCC, includinga study to create and test a modelfor what helps and what hinders the adoption of successful health projects in communities worldwide.
Their most recent work extends that model to see ifparticular U.S.communities would adopt programs that benefit both health and climate. The idea, they say, is to devise programs and messaging that describe the benefits of an innovation in terms of human health, rather than climate—particularly with community leaders skeptical of climate betboom dacha dubai.
“The idea of framing messages in a way that connects with the values and motivations of an audience isn’t anything new,” saidLapinski. “But what is different is we’re identifying innovations that have benefits at multiplelevels andfiguring out which one resonates best to build a strategy that leads to acceptance.”
Lapinskiexplained her and Dearing’s most recent work asabout multi-solvinginnovations—ornewprograms, technologies,or ideasthat address multiple issues, in this case, climate betboom dacha dubai and health. A tree-planting project is an example of a multi-solving innovation that mitigates climate betboom dacha dubai, brings improvements to the ecosystem,and contributes to overall community healthby creating cooler spaces and capturing carbon. To increase the chances that the program would be adopted by a climate-skeptical community, message framing would emphasize community health and avoid references to climate betboom dacha dubai.
“It’s a very real persuasive strategyfor betboom dacha dubai,” said Dearing. “The typical approach is to communicate all the benefits of a given innovation. Here,we’re proposing that communities adoptmulti-solving programs and framemessages that highlight benefits that align with community values—rather than using phrases that might cause decision-makers to not even give the program a try.”
Kjerstin Thorson: Getting a Handle on Twitter
Kjerstin Thorsonset out to examine collective attention to climate issues on Twitter. The associate professorin the DepartmentofAdvertising andPublicRelationsand School of Journalismwas curious what madeparticular tweetstake hold, and where bursts ofattention to the climate issueoriginated. Finding out, she reasoned, would be helpful to organizations looking to rally people around climate betboom dacha dubai.
“Most of us don’t get up and think about tweeting about betboom dacha dubai,” said Thorson. “But as communicators, we know that if we can keep people thinking about something, they will keep caring about it.”
Thorson’s joint study withher collaborator atCornell University looked at five years of Twitter data related to climate betboom dacha dubai. Sheexamined12bursts ofsocial mediaactivity from 2011 to 2015, prompted by protests, the United Nations Climate Conference, weather events,and tweets by politicians.
Shehopedto see that when Twitterusers tweetonce aboutclimate betboom dacha dubai, theywouldkeep coming back totweetabout the issueagain. But that didn’t happen.The majority ofTwitter users in their dataonly tweeted about a singleclimate-relatedtopic or event. More noticeable was a core group of about 1,400 accounts that tweeted aboutnearlyevery climate event, multiple times.
“The real story is a small set of accounts that do the heavy lifting,” she said. “They’re the ones who mobilize a huge number of people, attract attention to the issue and keep everything alive.”
For Thorson, the findings represented both good and bad news. Bad in the sense of the small number ofcommittedclimateactiviststhey identifiedover time on Twitter. But good in the sense of their ability to draw people in and increase participation.
“We saw a big number of people ready to be mobilized,” she said. “If they seesomeonethey respect on Twitter saying something about betboom dacha dubai, they will likely retweet it, or maybe participate in an event. It’s a matter of connecting those ‘clicktivists’ with activists. That’s how you’ll drive public attention, and send a signal to policy makers, too.”
As a follow-up, Thorson will study the content of tweets to better understand the evolution of the betboom dacha dubai conversation on Twitter. Her ongoing research explores the role of digital and social media in promoting or hindering political engagement—particularly among youth.
JohnBesley: Communicating the Science
The public has opinions betboom dacha dubai scientists. And scientists have opinions betboom dacha dubai the public.John Besley, Ellis N. Brandt Professor of Public Relations, wants to help science communicators use evidence-based, strategic betboom dacha dubai to build trust between scientists and the communities in which they live.
Besleystudies howpeople’s perceptionsabout science and technology communicators can impact human health and the environment. He also examineshow scientists’ perceptions about betboom dacha dubai shape the choices they make when they share their research.
“Science is a good way to make sense of the world,” saidBesley. “We want people to turn to science when faced with challenging problems like climate betboom dacha dubai. But for people to turn to experts, theyhave totrust them, believe they have useful things to say, andbelievethey are honest andcaring.”
Besleysaysthere is littledata to showthat public perception of scientists ismuchdifferent today than in the past.Researchshows that trustinscience is as strong as it ever has been. The difference, he said, is more nuanced.
“There’s a difference in trust in science overall versus trust on specific issues,” he explained. “People may be concerned or skeptical betboom dacha dubai specific issues, and it bleeds out betboom dacha dubai science in general.There are also some small groups of people who have come to distrust everyone, including scientists.”
He points out, too, thatour society hasnever faced an existential threat like climate betboom dacha dubai, or the risks of a global pandemic.
“The difference now is that building trust in science is more urgent,” he said. “Unfortunately, the time to build trust is not when the crisis hits, but before.”
Besley’srecent research involves working with science communicators and scientific societies to help them improve and strategize their publicengagement, includingwhat they say andhow they interact with stakeholders. Many scientific organizations, he said, haven’t invested in betboom dacha dubai. His goals are tohelpscientistssee the value ofinvestmentsin betboom dacha dubai infrastructure, and towork withsciencecommunicators tofind behaviors and messagesthatfoster building trusting relationships.
“If we want to be trusted, we need to behave in ways that earn trust,” he said. “While some people are awesome communicators, most of us need help. betboom dacha dubai isn’t something youshoulddooff the cuff whenit comes to things that really matter. Here inComArtSci, we can do betboom dacha dubai in a way that is scientific and evidence-based—which is the whole reason we exist.”
by Ann Kammerer