Communication with an Influence

The art of environmental activism demands a high level of strategic communication, one in which those who are attempting to persuade others to believe the way they do must use specific tactics to not only draw attention to an issue, but convince others to have the same passion. As discussed in lecture, strategic communication is using the skill of communication to inform, persuade, or influence a selected audience in order to achieve a specific outcome. Understanding strategic communication is an essential tool as an environmental activist and through extensive consideration; different activist groups can build effective campaigns to help their cause.

Greenpeace, a globally recognized environmental activist group commonly uses ‘‘shock value’’ to bring attention to issues they see as important. Although some may not agree with the way Greenpeace attempts to rally people around and issue, they use strategic communication to reach a broad audience through their outrageous campaigns.

The following is a less violent video created by Greenpeace which uses a mock police investigation as a way to draw attention to David Koch, the Vice President of Koch Industries and oil billionaire.

In this video, Greenpeace uses a much less violent approach to get their message across. They strategically target multiple groups with this commercial, explaining who David Koch is (an oil billionaire who funds environmental and historical exhibits and uses those to tell the public that drilling for oil is not harmful to the environment.)

Greenpeace creates it’s own opportunities to communicate their cause in the video and their use of repetition on the issue of David Koch’s attempts to cover his damage to the environment engraves a strong message in the viewer’s mind about Koch Industries. The goal of this video is to make the public aware of the issue at hand and because of this mild approach, it is much more likely to be shown to a wide variety of people.

Although the audience most likely cannot stop Koch Industries from continuing to drill for oil, Greenpeace exposes areas outside of the oil industry where David Koch is involved. It is effective because after watching the commercial, anyone can be left more informed than they were before. This video is refreshing to view because it is a peaceful demonstration of Greenpeace giving knowledge to the public about how misleading Koch Industries’ mission is and can motivate people to seek the truth.

By: Karissa Bodnar